Edward L. Rowny
Q ..
I note from Army records that you were assigned as administrative officer,
Headquarters, 2d Port, Pusan, Korea.
A
That was simply a way of assigning me somewhere until I arrived at Fort Benning.
Infantry School
Q ..
I note from Army records that the first thing you did at Fort Benning was to go to
jump school.
A ..
Yes. This was one of General Young's requirements. All instructors at Fort
Benning had to be jumpers. I had always wanted to jump anyway so this was no
big problem. However, I was in my mid-thirties and most of the students were in
their early twenties. It was a rigorous schedule. It made me wish I had taken the
course as a young lieutenant.
In jump school a humorous incident occurred. While we were still in the combat
phase in Korea, the 2d Division had conducted a bloody operation which turned out
well. It succeeded largely because a
took over when his platoon leader was
killed. He rallied the men and stormed the hill. I commended the sergeant and
told him he deserved an award for valor. I told him I had seldom seen anyone do
a better job of turning certain defeat into victory. The sergeant said, "Of course
we took the hill, don't you know who I am?" He said, "I'm Lou Jenkins, the
ex-welterweight champion of the world. What else would you expect from me?"
Later, Sergeant Jenkins came to Benning to work for me. I told him he had to take
jump training, the way I had. "I c a n ' t , " he said. "It's my back. He pulled up
his shirt and undershirt and asked me to take a look.
"Idon't see anything wrong with your back," I said.
" D o n ' t you see the big yellow streak?" he asked.
At this point I have a comment to make. General Bruce Clarke, a former engineer
officer who rose to four-star rank, once said: "We've never won a war since the
Airborne took over the Pentagon."
I got to know Bruce Clarke quite well. He considered himself the best trainer in
the Army and was interested in my ideas about training. But he had several
idiosyncrasies. One of them was that he didn't like elite units, and this included
jumpers. He felt all soldiers should consider themselves to be elite troops.
Previous Page
