Posted by Christopher L. Sargent on October 12, 2022:

Eulogy for Howard Leroy Sargent, Class of '47 Howard Leroy Sargent, Jr., or Howie to his friends, was born in 1923 on a peach ranch in northern California. It was so remote that until he started school his closest companions were an Airedale dog named Old Bob, and his pig Inky. Inky provided him transportation back to the ranch after a hard day in the orchards. Howie always did well in school and high school was no exception. In Latin class, he tells the story of when his teacher was upset at his inability to pronounce the name of a military officer named "Vercingetorix" (pronounced ver-cin-get-or-icks). He kept Howie after class and gave him a homework assignment to thoroughly investigate this tribal chieftain. Years later, Howie was at North Camp Hood, Texas going through blisteringly hot Army basic training for WW II (5 recruits died in his training battalion that summer due to heat stroke). While in basic, as Private First-Class Sargent, he heard about an opportunity to go before a board of officers selecting candidates to go to the US Military Academy Preparatory School in Amherst, Massachusetts. The next day, in front of the panel, he was asked only one question, "who is Vercingetorix?" He was stunned, but the panel was probably just as amazed when he replied, "Vercingetorix was a chieftain of the Averni tribe of Gaul in 46 BC. He led a failed attempt to defeat Julius Caesar's army, was taken to Rome, and executed." Howie claimed the question was designed so no one could answer it, and the panel was looking to see how the candidates responded under stress. Howie was one of the three selected to go to Amherst College. He spent one year at Amherst, was selected for West Point, and entered in June of 1944. He missed WW II but was grateful to go to the military academy. Because of the war, and the depletion of the Army's officer corps, his 4-years at West Point were reduced to three, leaving in June of 1947. Of note, he mentioned Army never lost a football game in his three years there, years that included the Blanchard and Davis Heisman Trophy winners. From West Point, with his bride-to-be in the front seat, and both future mothers-in-law in the back, they drove across the US to California. His bride, Margaret Holland Sargent, is one of America's top female portrait artists. She painted portraits of Superintendents Palmer and Christman (in the Cadet Mess), the first woman graduate, the first female First Captain, and two Army Chief's of Staff (hanging in the Pentagon). She also painted Bill Gates' mom and dad. In 1948, journeying to Germany by troopship (so slow the Queen Mary passed them back-and-forth three times), 2nd Lt. Sargent and wife Meg joined the 1st Engineer Combat Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division (only division in Europe after WW II). The Berlin Airlift started the very day they arrived, and after reporting in, he was sent directly to Grafenwohr and was given an unbelievable order. He reported to his new commander and could see more than 150 soldiers lying prone in a firing range with rifles, machine guns and piles of ammunition. Howie walked from the jeep and saluted the company commander who amazingly resembled General George Patton. The commander ordered, "Take command of the company. Start the assault in five minutes." He was a Second Lieutenant reporting for duty for the first time and did not know a soul. A stunned him and he said, "Sir, I don't know the platoon leaders' names," and got the reply: "Sergeant Gonzales, your radio operator, knows their names." To which, Gonzales chimed in, "Si, si, senor." (this was all staged, with Howie as the target, but still, things did not go as planned.) Howie was bewildered as 1st platoon started shooting, firing madly (one cardboard target had 82 bullet holes), while 2nd platoon disappeared into the underbrush. Gonzales and Sargent ran toward 2nd Platoon, finding themselves in front of the platoon (which never saw them) as it opened "a base of fire" over their heads. They were pinned down by their own machine guns firing live ammunition for several exciting minutes. The next 3 AA1/2 years in Germany involved constant training and field exercises. On one, he had had no sleep for two days when the battalion commander made him the commander of a counterattack force. Howie walked out of the combat operations van, sat down in his jeep, and instantly fell asleep, much to the amusement of the battalion commander. Eighteen years later Howie took command of the same 1st Engineer Battalion of the 1st Infantry Division. In 1964 he trained the 700-man battalion at Ft, Riley, Kansas, and deployed it to Vietnam in 1965 where they cleared jungle and built facilities for the Big Red One's 17,000 soldiers. His claim to fame was building many 3000' runways in the jungle in 7 days eacgh. Howie later became the district engineer for the Seattle district, worked in the Pentagon to improve management, which was his passion, and retired from the Army in 1973 to become a VP for Metropolitan Life Insurance, and later for Con Edison the Northeast's largest power company. Moving from New York to California in 1977, Howie became a movie producer for Omstar Productions, shooting IMAX movies for Disney. The footage was used for several years at Epcot Center's Tomorrowland. Omstar Productions became Omstar Environmental Products and Howie transitioned to designing and manufacturing a smoke meter, used to measure pollution from cars and trucks. It was tested in Los Angeles as the world's most advanced. He became a leader in the emissions industry, serving on the National Society of Automotive (SAE) Engineers Committee that set national standards for smoke limits and for how smoke emissions are measured. Since 1977 Howie and Meg enjoyed their home, which is to the right of the "HOLLYWOOD" sign overseeing Los Angeles. Howie passed away of natural causes, peacefully and in his sleep at 96 years of age, surrounded by family at home. He is survived by his wife of 73 years, Margaret Holland Sargent, sons Chris (Karen) and Ken (Sonya) Sargent and two great-grandchildren, Erin (Taylor) Lusk, and Taylor (Kay) Sargent, and two great-grandchildren, Holland and Dashiell, and his dear friend, home keeper, and caregiver for 40 years, Martha Linky.

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