Biography

I graduated OCS as the Distinguished and Academic Honor Graduate of my class. I was prior service, having entered OCS an Infantry Staff Sergeant with over six years service and a tour in Vietnam already under my belt. To many, I was probably looked at as the most likely to succeed, but my personality and somewhat rebellious spirit led to an unsuccessful career, as measured by promotion! However, unlike many, I managed to leave my fingerprints and legacy on the Army in a way that few people are honored to do.

After OCS I had numerous assignments, including The Old Guard in Washington D.C. I was involved in Audie Murphy’s funeral, J. Edgar Hoover’s state funeral, and I was there during Watergate!

From there, I had a tour in the 2d Division in Korea, followed by my favorite assignment, the 7 Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg. I was a Team XO, then Commander of SFODA-725 (The best job I ever loved), and ended up as 1st 1Bn S-3 Air.

From there I went to Infantry Officer Advanced Course at Benning, an alternate specialty tour in Intelligence at Fort Hood, (that led to my Legacy job, which I will elaborate on in a moment, and finally, a desk job at Ft Benning, Georgia writing manuals for the future Army.| The last job I had at Fort Hood was with a FORSCOM special training detachment called Red Thrust, and at that job I was given the opportunity to impact the Army for decades to come. Shortly after being passed over for promotion to Major, the first time I found out that my career had been impacted by several “retroactive" changes made at DA that eliminated both TO&E credit and command credit, and I was seriously disillusioned with the Army. I was clearly advised that I must get a TO&E company command in the next year or so or I would be passed over again and that would terminate my officer career, possibly leading to reversion to NCO status before retirement. At almost the same time, I was moved to operations officer at Red Thrust and given the task of preparing the Program of Instruction, POI, and lesson plans as well as the training team, to train the Opposing Force, OPFOR, at the newly forming National Training Center, NTC, at Fort Irwin, California.

A lot of people did not fully realize what the NTC would be or what the OPFOR was supposed to be. Many, including members of my own unit saw the OFOR as just a big aggressor force. I saw the vision the Army Chief of Staff and the NTC planners had and I knew the OPFOR was something unique and special. They would not only visually replicate a Soviet Motorized Rifle Regiment; they were to be trained to replicate their tactics as much as possible and to be a real fighting force with a goal to win in each battle! Unlike aggressors that basically shoot then rollover dead, the OPFOR had a vested interest in winning! This was the kind of realistic training I had been dreaming of since I was a private. I was faced with a serious career choice, do this and get passed over or go get a command and probably make major!

Like I said earlier, my personality always got in my way, and it wasn’t really a choice. I opted to stay at Red Thrust to insure the OPFOR was trained the right way.

We were very limited in some areas; we could not allow the American soldier initiative to impact the OPFOR battle plans. We diagrammed the Soviet basic tactical formations and tactics and then tried to construct a basic guide for the OPFOR to stay in those guidelines. As an NCO I had worked on the Drill and Ceremony committee at Ft Benning and I knew that George Washington had employed Baron Von Steuben to teach drill to the continental army to give them discipline and organization and the ability to immediately react under fire. I incorporated a sort of drill and command approach into the OPFOR training so that each squad and each platoon and so on knew where to go and how to react to each hand/flag signal. They didn’t have to think, they reacted. It became like a parade field maneuver to move a battalion from a column to a line step by step under any condition, with no radio contact! We created pocket sized handbooks for each soldier and everybody was trained to do their jobs or the job above them. We conducted our on-site training in what I called the building block style, spending the bulk of time laying a foundation at individual and squad level, and then just combining them to build the next level until we finished with training as a regiment in a three day field exercise that left the Regimental Commander drooling! By the time we finished training them, in seven weeks, they were as precise on the battlefield as the Old Guard is on the parade field. And, that precision would strike terror in the hearts of the rotating units!

It was a point of personal pride to me that for months, probably years, no first time rotating Brigade was successful against the OPFOR! Some were so devastated there was fear of commanders being relieved, but DA was wise enough to let them learn from failure and go home and train better!

Years later, after Desert Storm, I saw General Schwarzkopf being interviewed on television. When they asked him to what he owed the quick win and low casualties, his response was their training at the NTC! You will never know how those words made me feel deep down inside.

I was passed over the second time as a result of my decision, but I was over eighteen years when they presented me with the paperwork and I was able to retire a Captain. I've struggled with that for many decades. I truly love the Army and would have stayed forever given the chance. If I could go back in time and face that decision again, knowing that if I took a company instead I would have been promoted, I'd still be writing this as a retired Captain. My leagacy at NTC means more to me than any rank. It saved lives and prepared Soldiers! Back