As is typical for many families of career military staff, the Addington family moved often and there were periods during which Jerry was posted overseas while his family remained stateside. After David's birth in 1957 in Washington, DC, his father was posted to Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania; Camp St. Barbara, South Korea; Colorado Springs, CO; Oakdale, PA; and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Young David lived in Saudi Arabia during his father's 1967–1969 assignment as chief of the US Military Training Mission, headquartered in Dhahran. In this role, the elder Addington (promoted to brigadier general in 1965), was responsible for US training and security assistance programs for the Royal Saudi Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard. During the family's two-year stay in Saudi Arabia, David Addington (then 10 and 11 years old) was a student at the Dhahran Academy on the grounds of the US Consulate.