Biography
Colonel Martin Kleiner was drafted into the United States Army in September 1966 from Houston, Texas. In 1967, he was commissioned after graduating from the Infantry Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1968, upon graduation from the U.S. Army Rotary Wing Flight School, he served as an Assault/Attack Helicopter Pilot with the 116th Assault Helicopter Company in the Republic of Vietnam. In May 1969, while serving with an Infantry Company of the 25th Infantry Division, he was wounded in action and medically evacuated. Upon his return to duty in September 1969, he was assigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as a Rotary Wing Aviator and Plans Officer with the 6th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and the John F. Kennedy Center for Special Warfare.In 1971, he transitioned to the AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter and returned to Vietnam for a 12 month tour where he served as the Operations Officer and Air Mission Commander for C Troop, 7/17th Air Cavalry and H Troop, 10th Cavalry. In August 1972, he was assigned to Fort Benning where he completed the Infantry Officer Advanced Course and the Nuclear and Chemical Target Analyst Course. He subsequently attended the University of Houston where he graduated summa cum laude and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Organizational Behavior and Management.
In January 1976, he reported to the 1st Brigade of the 7th Infantry Division, Fort Ord, California. He served successively as an Assistant Operations Officer, an Aviation Unit Commander, and a Headquarters Company Commander. In August 1978, he was assigned to the Military District of Washington and served as Commander of the Rotary Wing Priority Air Transport Division at Davison Army Airfield. In September 1980, he assumed duties as a Field Test Officer with the U.S. Army Operational Test and Evaluation Agency where he served on the Operational Tests of the Hellfire Missile System, the AH-64 attack helicopter and the HMMWV combat vehicle.
From June 1983 to February 1987, Colonel Kleiner commanded the Airborne Electronics Research Activity at the Naval Air Engineering Center, Lakehurst, New Jersey. In November 1987, upon completion of the German Language course at the Defense Language Institute, he commanded the U.S. Army Research, Development, and Standardization Group at the American Embassy in Bonn, Germany. In July 1989, he graduated from the Army War College and was selected as the TRADOC Systems Manager for the Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. In December 1990, at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief, CENTCOM, he formed an operational unit and, in conjunction with U.S. Air Force counterparts, deployed the prototype Joint STARS system to Saudi Arabia. Upon conclusion of Operation Desert Storm, he resumed his duties at Fort Huachuca and subsequently retired in October 1992 with twenty-six years of service.
After retiring Colonel Kleiner and his wife Carolyn moved to Hampton Virginia, where he began consulting work for the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) working in the area of artificial intelligence in support of military operations. He eventually went took a position with Logicon/Northrop Grumman and continued to support additional DoD agencies with related projects.
In 1998 his wife Carolyn, a graduate of the New Jersey National Guard OCS Academy, returned to active duty with the Active Guard and Reserve (AGR) program and he accompanied her for the 14 years, continuing his work with multiple DoD agencies. In 2006 Colonel Kleiner accepted an appointment as a Research Associate Professor with George Mason University’s C4I Center of Excellence, focusing on the development of automated terrain analysis in support of military decision-making. In 2012 he fully retired following his wife, Colonel Carolyn F. Kleiner’s retirement from her last assignment as a faculty member of the US Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute. They reside in Carlisle, PA and devote much of their time to building houses for Habitat for Humanity and helping raise grand nieces and nephews.
Colonel Kleiner’s decorations include 2 awards of the Legion of Merit, 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 2 Bronze Star Medals, 2 Purple Hearts, 4 Meritorious Service Medals, 27 Air Medals including the "V" device, an Army Commendation Medal, an Army Good Conduct Medal, the Parachute Badge, and numerous commendation, service, and campaign medals. He is a Master Army Aviator with 3600 flying hours of which over 1200 were performed in combat. In April 2000 COL Kleiner was inducted into the US Army Officer Candidate School (OCS) Hall of Fame.