Col Charles A. White United States Army (Retired)
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ORAL HISTORY OF COL CHARLES A. WHITE UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED) Interviewers: MAJ Daniel Derner MAJ Kevin Shriner 58th Graduate Course The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ii INTERVIEW: COL (RETIRED) CHARLES A. WHITE 1 INTRODUCTION 1 CHILDHOOD 1 COLLEGE & LAW SCHOOL 8 ENTERING THE ARMY 14 USARYIS, OKINAWA 24 173rd ABN, REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM 53 CAREER MANAGEMENT, PENTAGON 85 FLETCHER SCHOOL OF LAW & DIPLOMACY 108 INTERNATIONAL LAW DIVISION, PENTAGON 112 USAREUR, GERMANY 120 21st ADVANCED CLASS, TJAGLCS 129 INTERNATIONAL LAW DIVISION INSTRUCTOR, TJAGLCS 135 ARMED FORCES STAFF COLLEGE 140 SJA—1st CAVALRY DIVISION, FORT HOOD 143 ARMY WAR COLLEGE 167 SJA—21st SUPPORT COMMAND, GERMANY 174 SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, PENTAGON 190 RETIREMENT 198 --- MATERIALS BELOW ARE EXCLUDED FROM THE SCANNED DOCUMENT--- Appendix A. OFFICER EFFICIENCY REPORT A-1 Appendix B. PERSONAL PHOTOS B-1 Appendix C. PERSONAL DOCUMENTS C-1 Appendix D. INDEX D-1 i JUDGE ADVOCATE ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM COLONEL (RETIRED) CHARLES A. WHITE, JR. U.S. ARMY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Colonel Charles White served in the United States Army for almost 21 years. Initially, Colonel White was commissioned as an armor officer but later transferred into the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. He spent several years of his military career in locations outside the continental United States, to include Okinawa, Vietnam, and Germany. As a career judge advocate, he had multiple assignments but the most notable were as a judge advocate in the newly formed 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam, Staff Judge Advocate of the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, and Staff Judge Advocate of the 21st Theater Support Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Additionally, Colonel White spent a significant part of his career in the Virginia area either assigned to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. or as part of the faculty at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School. After his retirement, he went into private business and currently lives and works in Alexandria, Virginia. Colonel White was born in Newport News, Virginia on January 27, 1939 as the only child. He grew up in Mathews County, Virginia in a small town with a population of approximately 250 people. During his early school years Colonel White’s extracurricular activities included the debate team, where he and his partner won the state debate championship, being a page for the Virginia Senate, and working various small jobs. He graduated Matthews High School in 1958 as class salutatorian. Colonel White accepted and went on to attend the College of William and Mary. While there, he was involved in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, student government, Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, and worked as a waiter in a colonial restaurant. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from William & Mary as well as being commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant Armor Officer in the U.S. Army in 1961. As part of William & Mary’s six year law program, Colonel White began law school in his final year of college. As a law student, he continued to work as waiter in addition to being a seasonal park ranger until he graduated. During his third year of law school he married is now wife Tricia White and later their daughter, Laurie, was born. Finally, he received his Bachelor of Civil Law from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1963. Colonel White began practicing law in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1963 until he was called to active duty in December of 1963 to the Armor Officer Basic Course at Fort Knox, Kentucky. While there, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant and transferred into the JAG Corps. He attended and completed the JAG Corps Basic Course and went on to Fort Benning, Georgia earning his airborne wings in the spring 1964. As a judge advocate, Colonel White’s first assignment began in Okinawa at HQ, USARYIS Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in July of 1964. Soon after being assigned to USARYIS he was transferred to the newly formed 173rd Airborne Brigade on Okinawa. After being unaccompanied for three months and transferred to the 173rd, his wife came to live with him where eventually their second child, a son, Jeffrey was born. Colonel White then deployed to Vietnam in July of 1965 for one year. He was the fifth judge advocate to deploy to Vietnam, ii converted from a Reserve Officer to Regular Army Officer, and was promoted to Captain while there. After a twelve-month deployment to Vietnam he returned to the United States and was assigned to Office of the Judge Advocate General (OTJAG), Career Management at the Pentagon in July of 1966. In addition to being an assignments officer, Colonel White was designated as the Army Young Lawyer Liaison to the American Bar Association. From there, he attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, Massachusetts receiving his Masters of Arts in International Relations in 1968. Colonel White then returned to the Pentagon and was assigned to the International Law Division eventually being promoted to Major. Continuing his international law focus, Colonel White was assigned to the USAREUR Office of the Staff Judge Advocate in Germany as the Chief of the International Affairs Division. He served there from 1969-1972 as a Major in Colonel designated slot. At the completion of his second overseas assignment, Colonel White returned to the United States and attended the 21st Advanced Class completing the course in 1973. He followed on as an instructor in the International Law Division and then as the Assistant Director to the Academic Department where he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Finally, his intermediate level schooling was rounded out with a six month stint at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. In 1976, Colonel White became the Staff Judge Advocate (SJA) for the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas. As the SJA, Colonel White dealt with a variety of notable issues such as relocating his entire legal shop due to arson, overseeing a court-martial of a brigade commander accused of rape, and was arguably the pioneer in deciding to put judge advocate Captains down at the brigade level. Colonel White also led the way in bringing office automation to the SJA and Division S-3 shop and he and his office served as the Division G-5 during multiple field exercises. Colonel White served as the SJA from 1976-1979 until he was selected to attend the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania graduating in 1980. After completing the Army War College, Colonel White was selected by Lieutenant General Nathaniel R. Thompson to be his SJA for the 21st Support Command in Germany from 1980-1983. While there he was promoted to Colonel, after 17 and a half years of service, and oversaw the largest general court-martial jurisdiction in the Army. The OSJA had over 60 lawyers, and 100 legal personnel serving in 7 offices in 3 countries. Colonel White finished his military career by again returning the United States and being assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Inspector General for Intelligence at the Pentagon from 1983-1984. During his Army career and after, he remained active in the American Bar Association serving as an officer in the Young Lawyers Section, Council of the International Law Division, 14 years as Finance Officer and Revenue Director of the General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division, Chair of the Section Officers Conference Budget Officers for 7 years, and LNO to Board of Governors Finance Committee for 6 years and the ABA Investment sub-committee. Colonel White retired from the Army in October of 1984 with 20 years, 11 months, and 28 days of service to his country. Upon retirement, he remained in his home state of Virginia iii and with a fellow Army JAGC, Colonel (Ret.) Charles A. Murray, began a business, Business Leasing Associates, Inc., where he is currently the Vice President of Administration. He is 71 years old and lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia. He and Tricia have 5 grandchildren and enjoy sailing out of Annapolis on their 45.5 Bristol sloop, No Questions iv 1 ORAL HISTORY - COLONEL (RETIRED) CHARLES WHITE 2 Q. All right, we are here to conduct the oral history of Colonel White. It is 3 November 14th, 2009, and we are in his home and we will start off with some basic questions 4 about hometown family and go from there. 5 Q. Okay, sir, when and where were you born? 6 A. Well, first of all, thank you guys for coming up from Charlottesville. I started life 7 in Newport News, Virginia, January 27th, 1939, which makes me 70, almost 71, and I come 8 from the third smallest county in Virginia, Mathews. It's down near Yorktown. It broke away 9 from Gloucester County. It's the only county east of the Blue Ridge that isn't named after 10 somewhere in England. All the counties west of the Blue Ridge are named after Revolutionary 11 heroes; all the ones east of the Blue Ridge are named after places in England: Gloucester, York, 12 Nansemond, and the whole drill; and Mathews County broke off after the Revolution, and there 13 was a Colonel Thomas Mathews, who was the Speaker of the Junior House of Delegates, so to 14 get the county broken off from Gloucester County, they named it after him and it sort of sailed 15 through the legislature at that point. So it's the third smallest county in Virginia. It probably had 16 a population 250 years ago of 7,000; today, it has 9,000, so it's -- since it's a peninsula, nobody 17 stumbles on it.