Biography

OCS WAS MY FOUNDATION, FOR THE PAST 56 YEARS

Whether this is a success story is for others to judge; however, it is a story about how OCS at Fort Benning, Georgia, became the foundation of my life and of two very rewarding careers, civilian and military.

I enlisted in a U.S. Army Reserve Infantry unit in 1958 as a high school senior. My real introduction to the Army came after graduation when I was ordered to Basic Combat Training and then Infantry Advanced Individual training. When I returned home, I found full-time employment with a daily newspaper and transferred to a Reserve Infantry company, D Company, 3rd Battle Group, 14th Infantry, 102nd Division. The company was never above 50 men in strength, although our morning report showed numerous officers and enlisted men from other cities who, if we were lucky, might join us for our annual training of two weeks in Wisconsin. Since I could type, I was soon company clerk and PIO, in addition to a rifleman in a fire team.

After four years of service, I was selected to attend Reserve Component Class 1-1962 at Fort Benning. This truly changed the course of my life. I wasn’t the outstanding candidate, but I managed to graduate somewhere near the middle of a great group of men from every section of the United States – Hawaii and Alaska to Florida and points between.

When I returned home, I enrolled in the local university and continued working for the local newspaper. Shortly after being commissioned, the 102nd Division was deactivated, and Company D ceased to exist. Fortunately for me, and several of my fellow Reservists, the local National Guard battalion headquarters had vacancies for us.

Next came a career move that never would have been possible without OCS – just 18 months after pinning on gold bars (and drastically wet behind the ears), I was selected to replace a newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel as the battalion Command Administrative Assistant (GS-8, Federal Civil Service). I became the battalion S1 and took day-to-day responsibility for five National Guard units scattered across the northern half of Missouri. I was the commander’s full-time assistant for administration, training and logistics and had 10 technicians (Warrant Officers and NCO’s) reporting to me every day. This battalion, 1st Bn, 129th FA, had been CPT Harry Truman’s battalion in World War I, and it was an honor to be associated with such a historic unit.

“An officer seeks and takes responsibility,” had been drummed into me at Benning, so I did.

After four years in that position, I decided to return to school and finish a bachelor’s degree. The Missouri National Guard allowed me to remain as a permanent part-time technician, while I was in school.

While I was an undergraduate and graduate student, my military career continued. I served in four different units as a field artillery battery executive officer, a headquarters company commander, an ordnance company commander and a target acquisition battery commander.

After I completed graduate school with all requirements, except a dissertation, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in political science, I accepted a civilian position as Assistant Director of the Missouri Division of Procurement. On the Guard side of my life I had assignments as artillery brigade intelligence and logistics officer and as a target acquisition battalion survey officer. Shortly after my promotion to major, I was selected in 1975 to attend the Reserve Component Command and General Staff Officer Course at Fort Leavenworth. My class was the first RC group to be integrated into the regular CGSC course. What a fascinating experience and career boost that became. When I returned home, I became a 155-towed battalion S3. I continued working in Missouri government.

A career change presented an opportunity to attend the Logistics Executive Development Course at Fort Lee, VA. Shortly after returning from that course, I was employed as the Chief Procurement Officer for the State of Iowa and transferred from the Missouri to the Iowa Army National Guard.

The Iowa National Guard became my home for the next 15 years. I was fortunate to be selected to command the 1st Bn, 194th FA, to command the Camp Dodge Training Site and to serve in several senior staff assignments before my retirement from the Guard in 1993. While I was serving in the Guard, I developed my civilian career in procurement and finished my dissertation for the degree of Ph.D.

Upon retirement, I was a Colonel, U.S. Army, and was placed on the retired rolls of the Iowa Guard as a Brigadier General. I was inducted into the OCS Hall of Fame in 1992 at the same time my son was completing One Station Unit Training at Benning as an Iowa Guard infantryman. What a wonderful day for me to have him attend my induction.

The latter stages of my civilian career after retirement from the Guard included being Director of Procurement for the City of Alexandria, VA, and serving on numerous national committees relating to state and local government procurement. I co-authored two textbooks, Leadership and Management in Public Procurement and lntroduction to Public Procurement. I am a past president and life member of the National Association of State Procurement Officials and a lifetime Certified Public Procurement Officer. I was fortunate to serve as an adjunct professor of public administration with several universities and as a consultant to various government agencies during my civilian career and during retirement.

It is humbling to summarize 56 years in these few short paragraphs, but I take pride in stating unequivocally that none of it would have been possible without my life-changing time at Fort Benning in the 51st Company, 5th Student Bn, Infantry Officer Candidate School Reserve Component Class 1-1962. Back

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