After graduation and obligatory visits to several posts (Bliss, Benning, Bragg), I landed in a Psychological Operations Battalion in Nha Trang. Worked with several Vietnamese whom I came to like and respect. Saw a lot of the country and did my job, but unlike so many of our classmates, particularly those who made the ultimate sacrifice, I never saw combat or did anything heroic.
From there it was law school at the University of Michigan. Married Ellen during my second year. Summer of 1974, we had our first daughter after graduation and the week before the Michigan Bar exam. A week after the exam it was on to Charlottesville and the JAG School. Then one year at the Pentagon in patent law, a direction I thought I might go, but too boring. Then two years in the Law Department at West Point. There, along with the pleasure of teaching law to cadets and the thrill of our second daughter being born at the West Point hospital, I had fun advising the Academic Board on legal issues related to the admission of women to the Academy. Then I got appointed to defend cadets accused of cheating in electrical engineering. (A long story.)
I left active duty in the summer of 1977 and went back to Ann Arbor. Went to graduate school in sociology and social work and ended up working for the University President. Third child, our son, was born in 1979. Later moved to the General Counsel’s Office and taught as an adjunct in the Sociology Department. Spent years doing the usual parent things with kids sports and activities in a great place to raise a family. Along the way, I transferred to the Army Reserves and would spend eight years in a JAG contract law team, with summer tours around the country, until retirement after 20 years.
In 2007, second daughter had moved to Austin, Texas, with her husband, saw a job posting for the deputy general counsel of the University of Texas System that she thought I might get, sent the posting to my wife, and said “Make Dad apply.” To keep my wife and daughter off my back, I applied with absolutely no expectation of getting the job or taking it if offered. It’s been 15 ½ years in Austin, the last 10 as the general counsel.
The move to Austin brought much better weather and year-around fishing. Ellen still frequently complains about the fact that we had a bass boat in Austin before we had a place to live. My son and I soon got into competitive bass fishing. I say “competitive” because they were tournaments with real money prizes, not because we were particularly competitive. The good old boys welcomed us with open arms and were always glad when we showed up. Yes, we won a few dollars here and there, but mostly they always knew we would add more to the pot than we would take out. I’ve had the remarkable pleasure of working for some amazing people in the Army, at West Point, in Ann Arbor and now in Austin. Still with a wonderful wife of 50+ years, terrific kids, son-in-law, and three granddaughters.
- Meeting My Roommate on the Way to R-Day
Took a train from Grand Rapids, Michigan, switched trains in Detroit, then on to NYC. Bus to the Thayer Hotel. Sat on the brick wall at the hotel and met a confident and smart as hell Italian kid from upstate New York who later became my roommate and good friend – Jim Giacomini.