biography

I arrived in country as a captain, fresh from a tour in Germany. I had commanded an 8 inch howitzer battery for two years then branch transferred to military police. I was in charge of the Munich Military Police Station until the Department of the Army (DA) found me.

The 720th MP Battalion Commander, LTC Robert M. O’Malley, selected me to command Company B based on my combat arms experience and, I suspect, because I had been in his company in Korea 10 years previously with, Company C of the 728th MP Battalion, as a PFC.

The Corps has always been a small world. The day I took command (29 March 1969), the company lost half an ambush squad. The squad leader, SSG Richard E. Slaven died. One of my first official acts as the Commanding Officer was to write the letter of condolence to the widow of a soldier I never met.

The Tactical Area Of Responsibility was high profile and every visiting big wig and not-so-big wig got an overflight tour of ‘the finger’ and a ride on a PBR. With that kind of publicity every thing the company did made the daily briefings at 18th MP Brigade.

1SG Bill Warnick told me the first day: ‘You’re my third CO so far. Maybe I’m doing something wrong’. He wasn’t, of course. He was a terrific first sergeant. What was different from all his experiences was the extraordinary mission being performed under a microscope by soldiers learning infantry tactics on the fly, led by otherwise competent NCO's and officers whose expertise lay in what we’d been taught at Fort Gordon, not Fort Benning. It’s a wonder that we didn’t get all of you killed.

After four months I was replaced by CPT Ben Jones, an Infantry officer who knew what he was doing, one who could give the company the caliber of leadership it deserved. I was the Battalion S-4 for the rest of the tour with additional duty as the Commanding Officer, Long Binh Post Reaction Force.

Afterwards I commanded the 16th Criminal Investigation Division in Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Belgium, did a tour as an assistant professor of military science at Texas Christian University, the Provost Marshal at Yuma Proving Ground.

Transferring to the United States Army Reserve, I did tours with HQ, United States Army Criminal Investigation Command, 3rd Region, USACIDC, and finally as a senior instructor at a U.S. Army Reserve school, teaching the Command and General Staff Officer Course.

I retired from that side of the Army but am still working as a DA civilian, chief of the Security Division of the Army’s Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. I am fortunate to have several former MP's working for me.