Service
An officer, a Bronze Star, and the fight that came after.
Told plainly, because other people are carrying the same weight.
Service record
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1966West Point
Commissioned
Graduated from the United States Military Academy with the Class of 1966 and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, and was commissioned as an officer.
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After graduationTraining
Airborne and Ranger Schools
Completed two of the Army’s most demanding schools.
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1968Vietnam
Platoon leader and company commander
Served a tour in Vietnam with the 4th Infantry Division and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.
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Four yearsAs an officer
Resigned as a captain
Left the Army as a captain after four years as an officer, two of them in grade.
The Class of 1966
One in twenty killed. One in six wounded.
By Bob’s account, one of every twenty members of his West Point class was killed in Vietnam and one of every six was wounded — losses he describes as the worst of any West Point class in any American war.
The class is the subject of the best-selling book The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966.
Coming home
The longer battle.
What he carried home was heavier than what he carried there. Bob has lived with PTSD for some fifty years and has talked about it openly — with students, veterans, families and organizations — not as drama, but because it is true and because other people are living with the same thing.
Family, faith, work and the discipline the mat had built in him held the line. In January 2018 he returned to Vietnam with four of his sons.
Without exception, the most important human quality that a person can possess … is to develop an in-depth “Attitude of Gratitude.”
Contact
For veterans and their families.
If his story speaks to yours, write to him. He reads every note himself.