Military Experience, 1964-69 After graduation from East in 1960, I entered West Point in July of that year, graduating in 1964 as a new second lieutenant, Regular U.S. Army Officer in the Artillery branch of service. My first duty station after a month’s leave began in August 1964 at Ft. Carson, CO, just outside of Colorado Springs. I was assigned to the 6th Battalion, 21st Artillery, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized), first as a Battery Section/Platoon Commander in Battery A and then as its Battery Commander through early Fall of 1966. I was then reassigned in November 1966 to the 25th Infantry
Division headquartered in Cu Chi, Republic of South Vietnam, where I served with the 1st Battalion, 8th Artillery, 25th Infantry Division first as an Artillery Air Observer and Infantry Battalion Liaison Officer, then as a Special Forces Liaison officer and finally as a 1st of the 8th Artillery Battalion staff officer. Following my tour in South Vietnam through late December 1967, I was reassigned to the 6th U.S. Army Headquarters Training Center at Ft. Lewis, WA as the 6th Army, Chief Basic Training Scheduling and Testing Officer until the Fall of 1969.
Getting on with Life After serving six years in the U.S. Army, I left Ft. Lewis that fall of 1969 and entered the University of Kansas Business School in its Master of Business Administration program, graduating with an MBA and returning to Wichita to work for Arthur Young & Co, CPAs, and earning the Kansas CPA certification. I then left public accounting and assumed chief financial officer or other executive positions with companies in Wichita’s private business sector. As CEO of my own consulting company, now based in Florida, I continue to assist corporate business clients regarding company or product line acquisitions, divesting activities, or other needed corporate financial or financing requirements.
Reflections on Military Service At West Point, I had two other Wichita classmates, Larry A. Bryan and Richard Puckett. Larry was a member of our class at East. Regarding the request for comments on military service, I would just say this. Each of us lived through very tumultuous times in the 1960’s. For me, being exposed to the values and commitment to duty, honor and country and what those words really mean was instilled in each of us who graduated from West Point. Each step of the way during those four years in the early 1960’s, living under the most stringent conditions both from a military educational process and through its method of academic learning, we first memorized the West Point honor code but then lived it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with no exception. What I learned from that experience was a true and deep sense and desire to serve this country to the best of my ability.
Living through the shadow of what was occurring in the Republic of South Vietnam, each cadet knew what was to be faced and was readily accepted – military service and duty in a war zone. But then that is what we trained for both mentally and physically and therefore accepted and welcomed, even as early 20 year-olds, with our entire lives ahead of us. We all set out with a positive focus, regardless of what that might eventually mean to us personally. That was accepted as we were taught the skills to do our best and to always put first the health and safety of those we commanded or were responsible for, first and foremost. That was our greatest responsibility.
Service in South Vietnam was an education in itself and can only be understood by those who had that experience. For me as an individual, management in that highly political environment diverged from what I had learned at West Point. However, provided that one does live through the experience, it taught each of us just who we really were and what we were made of and could endure. And so, a life-long experience that one could not forget nor would necessarily wish away was made more significant because of those we knew who were injured or died. We all learned what service to country really means and just how important it is to a former soldier-citizen of this country. My class of 1964 graduated 564 members. Out of my West Point class, 137 of my classmates were killed during our co-service in the Republic of South Vietnam and one prior to that in the Dominican Republic conflict in 1965. November 8 is the anniversary of the death of two classmates and friends from West Point. They both were platoon leaders in units of the 173rd Airborne Brigade who encountered an exceptionally large unit of the Viet Cong in War Zone D in 1965.
I hope some of what I’ve shared sheds light on my perspective of what it means to be a veteran of military service to this country, and why we as individuals place such high value on our own experiences, which can only be fully understood and appreciated by those who have undergone the same.
Editor’s Note: Jim Lew’s memoir was originally published on this website in November 2020. He also shared another story, “Driving a Nascar Racer.“
