Edward L. Rowny
SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers, Europe) under General Gruenther, and
later as secretary of the staff at SHAPE. These were highly demanding jobs. During his
assignment at SHAPE, the Germans were brought into the organization and others besides
Anglo-Americans began to fill key positions.
His next assignment was to the National War College in August 1958. After
graduation he was appointed the Army member of the chairman's staff group, U.S. Army
Element, Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington, D.C., then under General
Lyman L. Lemnitzer. He was shortly promoted to brigadier general.
At the end of his tour, he was assigned to the 82d Airborne Division in September
1961 as assistant division commander for support. He also worked for General Howze
who commanded the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg. The Howze Board tested
helicopters in nuclear situations, in "sky cavalry" roles for land warfare, and in
counterinsurgency operations. Rowny was director of tests.
Having finished his work on the Howze Board, Rowny was then sent to Vietnam
as chief of the Army Concept Team in Vietnam (ACTIV) where he worked on
nation-buildingconcepts. One of the projects he worked on was the use of armed
helicopters (swarm of bees) in fighting the Viet Cong.
After Vietnam, Rowny headed a special division within the Assistant Chief of Staff
for Force Development, Washington, D.C., to further air mobility in the Army. He had
some 15 officers who had worked on the Howze Board, and another who had worked with
him in Vietnam. Rowny's group oversaw the writing of the Army doctrine for air
mobility and designing of organizations to incorporate air mobility into the Army.
In 1965 Rowny went to Europe to become the commanding general of the 24th
Division. After a year in the 24th Division, Rowny brought the unit from the bottom
rating to first in maintenance and first in training in VII Corps. General O'Meara then
made Rowny the deputy chief of staff for logistics (DCSLOG) and put him in charge of
FRELOC (fast relocation from France) which had fallen behind and had just six months
to go for completion. Rowny made the deadline.
Rowny left his DCSLOG assignment and became deputy chief of staff to the United
States Command for Europe in Stuttgart for a year before returning to the United States
to become deputy chief of research and development, U.S. Army. After a short ten
months on the job, Rowny was sent to Korea in July 1970 to become commanding general,
I Corps. He was promoted to lieutenant general in September 1970. While commanding
general, I Corps, Rowny oversaw the phase-out of the U.S. 7th division and the phase-in
of a Korean division. He also presided over the integration of the corps headquarters with
Korean officers.
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