Posted by Major Dan D. Hesser on February 19, 2017:

My acquaintance with Brig. Gen. Kennedy was at HQ U.S. Army Japan as I was beginning my career as a commissioned officer--and he was coincidentally closing his (1977-79). He was the Chief of Staff and I was a newly minted second lieutenant fresh out of senior ROTC and grad school at Georgia State University--having come up through the ranks to sergeant first class and served with U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (1966-67). I discovered later that Brig. Gen. Kennedy also had enlisted service. My first impression of him, and the one that remains with me today, was one of kindness and empathy. There were two particular occasions when he gave me the boost that every young officer needs. The first was a simple "good morning" and stop to say hello just outside my office, and the second concerned the launch of my future in the Corps of Engineers--coincidentally the branch that Brig. Gen. Kennedy's father served in. There is always a tendency to compare a senior officer whom one respects and admires with one's father, mine graduating from the "Benning School for Boys" on September 18, 1943, and subsequently deploying to England, France, Belgium and Berlin (1944-45). Both my father and Brig. Gen. Kennedy had their parts to play in decisions I made during my quarter of a century in the uniform of our great nation.

admin