Rex Van Noy Perkins

West Point, 1955

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Karey Lea Perkins on September 14, 2016:

Col. Rex Van Noy Perkins April 11, 1930, to June 30, 2016 Rex Van Noy Perkins was born April 11, 1930, in the Missouri Ozark Mountains, the only child of Daisy Van Noy and Clyde Perkins. Daisy was a distinguished schoolteacher and principal, teaching Rex throughout elementary school. In 1942, the family moved to Springfield, Missouri, where Rex attended junior and senior High School, graduating in 1948. An excellent student, he received citywide recognition for academic achievements; was captain of the basketball team, a baseball centerfielder, and trumpet player in the band and orchestra. As an active Boy Scout and troop leader, he was selected for the Order of the Arrow for scouting achievements. Rex loved the outdoors; weekend camping trips with friends were favorite pastimes. His ambition to go to West Point and be a career soldier resulted from his active outdoor lifestyle and his keen interest in America's WWII effort. While attending Drury College in Springfield, he obtained an appointment at West Point Academy and entered with the class of 1955. Rex excelled in academics and tutored other cadets. His greatest enjoyment was New York City weekends, full of excitement seeing the city with his future wife, Ann Crooks, an American Airlines stewardess from his hometown. Their respective fathers, business associates, suggested they meet when Ann was flying into NYC. After three years of dating, they married in 1957. Graduating from West Point, Rex started a thirty-year career serving in Infantry units in CONUS and overseas. He attended the Infantry School Advanced Course and Airborne and Ranger school at Fort Benning, Georgia, before deploying to Korea. While his class standin! g was hi gh enough to select any branch, post or unit available, he chose Korea because of the demanding training, and he wanted to serve overseas. After 16 months there as Platoon Leader and Bn Asst S-3, he was then assigned to the 101st Airborne Division in Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, where he was a staff officer, company XO, and company commander, one of his career highlights. He married Ann and had two daughters, Karey Lea and Vanessa Ann. He then attended the Advanced Course at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where he was promoted to Captain. Asked to return to West Point to serve on the faculty, he chose Geography - Earth Space and Graphic Science -- because he thought it would have the most career utility. He attended Syracuse University, earning a Master's degree for this purpose, and their third daughter, Stephanie Jurhee, was born. At West Point, he taught Physical and World Geography until a Soviet Geography course was established for advanced students, the first course where different classes of cadets attended instruction together. He helped write the course, taught it for two years, and traveled to the Soviet Union, visiting places of geographical interest to add first-hand knowledge to his lectures. He also compiled an Atlas of Soviet Geography, using topographic maps illustrating important aspects of Soviet geography. Next, after Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, he was promoted to Major and assigned to the 1st Air Cavalry Division in An Khe Province, Vietnam, where he was Bn S-3, 2/8 Cav. After an NVA attack on Firebase Bird, the 2/8 Cav pursued the attacking NVA Regiment for more than a week, inflicting severe casualties on the regiment, rendering them combat ineffective, and capturing a Vietnamese Major, who was the regimental S-3, and the senior NVA officer captured in the Vietnam War. An assignment to the Pentagon followed, where he worked in the Soviet-East European Division of ACSI until the Chief of Staff of the Arm! y reques ted his return to Vietnam to serve as a Province Senior Advisor in Quang Ngai. In preparation, he studied at the Foreign Service Institute of the State Department for one year, when he was promoted to LTC. While Rex was serving in Vietnam, the family lived at Clark AFB, Philippines, and they vacationed together in SE Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, and Taipei. A three-year tour with the 25th Inf Div in Hawaii followed, where he was a Bde XO and subsequently Commander of the 1st Bn, 27th Inf, the Wolfhounds, which was his favorite command. Next, he served as Aide to General Melvin Zais, Commander of Land Forces, Southeastern Europe, a NATO command, in Izmir, Turkey, and later, after promotion to Colonel, he was the Executive Officer to General Zais's successor, General Knowlton. The Army War College followed, where he was recognized for his writing skills by winning the War College essay contest with his article concerning the Berlin airlift. After the War College, he was posted to Atlanta, Georgia, as a coordinator for reserve component Infantry, Ranger, and Airborne units in the Southeastern United States. His final tour was Naples, Italy, as the Secretary of the Joint Staff for the Southern Command of NATO. Rex and Ann retired in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1985. Ann worked as a CPA, and Rex as a law firm administrator. In 1994 they moved to a golf course home they designed and built in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Travel to Europe and Asia was their favorite pastime, especially experiencing the millennium at the Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel and sailing along the turquoise coast of Turkey. Rex's graduation from West Point, subsequent infantry duty, overseas tours, and supportive wife and daughters helped fulfill his lifelong dream of an Army career. He was awarded two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars, a Bronze Star for Valor, four Meritorious Service Medals, the Defense Superior Service Medal, ten Air Medals, Combat Infantryman's Badge, Ranger Tab, and Senior Parachute Wings. He was cremated and interred at West Point Academy.

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