Retired Army Col. Stuart Herrington is not
just any retired Army officer. He wrote one of the best memoirs
of the Vietnam War, and also went to Iraq to review Army intelligence
operations there early in that war, producing a
good critique of intelligence failings and warning against the abuse of
prisoners. That study has never been declassified because he never classified
it -- but he only made two copies.
There is a verve in his memories, as well as
a dig at West Point. Here is his note:
In 1975, I founded
a new Army ROTC Detachment at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa
(immediately upon my return to the States after the fall of Saigon). I was a captain, 34 years old, and made major
a year later. Three months before I set
foot on the campus (which was permitted only after the anti-war faculty senate
voted to allow me to open an ROTC presence, by one vote, as long as I did not
bring weapons on the campus), some anti-war types threw rotten vegetables at a
pair of Marine recruiters. My boss, the
PMS at nearby University of Tampa, advised that I might consider not wearing my
uniform while on campus, but I declined his suggestion, saying that if I couldn't wear the uniform on the campus, we
simply did not belong there. Within
three months, I had 200 cadets, many of them VN War enlisted vets. These were the years of the so-called Vietnam
Malaise, and anti-war winds were still blowing strongly. But the reception I got was surprising.
As soon as I hit
the campus, all sorts of faculty members came out of the closet to admit that
seeing the uniform was a sight for sore eyes, and offering their support. I would up teaching as a guest lecturer in
classes ranging from Poly Sci to history, to sociology, even speech. And the more exposure I got, the more rapidly
the new ROTC program exploded. By the
end of the year, I sent 52 cadets to the Ft. Bragg Advanced Camp, one of the
three largest contingents from any school. The Bragg encampment is the six-week training all ROTC cadets get
between their junior and senior years, barracks living, obstacle courses,
marksmanship, field training, all of it evaluated, every day. My cadets finished in the top 5 of 103
schools at the camp, beating VMI, the Citadel, and a host of other military
schools and major ROTC campuses. They
told me that the cadets from full time military schools were cynical and,
overall, seemed to expect that because they were from such schools, the whole
thing would be a walkover. I stayed in
the USF job four years. In year two, we
came out second in the camp. In the
third year, one of my cadets came out #1 in the camp and copped the
Commandant's Sword-the first female to ever accomplish this feat. Our school again finished second of 103. In the fourth year, we won the trophy as the
top school at the camp, including VMI, Citadel, Georgia Military College,
etc. Then, in a nose-to-nose competition
with the #1 schools from the Ft. Riley and Ft. Lewis ROTC advanced camps, we
came out on top and the school was awarded the "Warriors of the Pacific Trophy"
as the best ROTC institution in the United States. The secret was, I picked smart kids, made it
clear that they could not major in ROTC, that their grades were crucial, and
that leadership came from those who could excel. Magic.....
(Read on)
When my cadets were
commissioned and went on active duty, they kept in close touch with me for
years. Their reports about life in the
active army seldom varied. They were
superlatively prepared, and astonished that lieutenants from the USMA tended to
be jaded, narrowly focused, expected the Army to prostrate itself at their West
Point feet, and in general, were a major disappointment to my officers, who had
put the academy grads on a pedestal in their own minds, only to find out that
their ROTC training had prepared them far better than the boys from the
Hudson. During my thirty years of active
duty, I met some fine officers from West Point, but also a number of them who
were unimpressive. I once spent a week
living with F Company at the USMA, during what they called ROTC Week. Its purpose was to show us ROTC types what
our academy brethren did to earn their gold bars. I found the week to be an eye-opener, and
left the campus thanking God that I was a Duquesne University student in ROTC
and not a prisoner in that place. (Political Science class that week featured
the professor showing 8x10 photos of the cabinet and chain of command to see if
the cadets could identify them) I have
always believed that the Academy's specialty was to take a first class bunch of
students out of our high schools, and give them a second class education.
By the way, my
first commissionee in 1976 was 2LT Paul Celotto, who was an All-American
swimmer at USF. Next week, at the
invitation of the USF PMS, I am speaking at the commencement ceremony in
Tampa. In the audience will be Colonel
(ret) Paul Celotto, Special Ops. Paul
will then join me on the stage to administer the oath to Cadet Diane Celotto,
his daughter. Full
circle...................Stu"
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