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<p><em>John Winn McEnery</em> was born into the Army at the Presidio of San Francisco in 1925. His maternal grandfather was First Captain of the Class of 1888. Thirty years later his uncle graduated in 1918, and 30 years later John graduated in 1948. His father was an Army surgeon noted for his horsemanship.</p>
<p>John’s career at West Point was highlighted on the lacrosse field. Never having played lacrosse before, he was captain of the team and a two-time All-American, winning the Schmeizer Trophy for being the best defense man in the country in 1948.</p>
<p>Commissioned into the Cavalry, his first unit was the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Germany, where his battalion had a 75-mile front to defend against the Russians.</p>
<p>Following the Armor Officer Advanced Course at Fort Knox, KY, he went to Madrid, Spain with mission of learning Spanish in order to instruct at the Academy. There he also helped coach the Lacrosse Team, a team that won the national collegiate and open championships in 1958.</p>
<p>Graduating from CSGC at Fort Leavenworth, KS in 1959, he went to Korea, where he commanded C Company, 3-40th Armor of the 7th Infantry Division. There he achieved unwanted international notoriety. He had a serious problem with Korean prostitutes slipping into his unit barracks at night. He instructed the first sergeant to clip the hair of any prostitutes apprehended. The first sergeant caught two and did as ordered. After a series of investigations during which he took full responsibility for his actions, he was relieved but given a major’s job as S-3 of the 2nd Squadron, 10th Cavalry. He later credited this incident as being a boost to his career in that everyone understood the problem and many would have done the same thing and “the Army takes care of its own.”</p>
<p>Following an assignment with the G-l, Second U.S. Army at Fort Meade, MD, he went to DCSOPS in the Pentagon and then to the Office of the Chief of Staff. In the later assignment he wrote the testimonies before Congress of General Omar Bradley and the Chief of Staff that played a part in the services receiving a long overdue pay raise in 1965.</p>
<p>It was back to Spain in 1965 as a foreign student in the Spanish Army Staff College and then to the Air War College in 1967.</p>
<p>In June 1968 he assumed command of the 3rd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry in Vietnam. His squadron met with rapid success. On their first operation working with an outstanding ARVN battalion, they captured 147 Vietcong in a village where previous units had meager results. The rigid command tour for battalion and brigade commanders was six months but he commanded for a year. In so doing he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, 26 Air Medals and the Purple Heart.</p>
<p>Returning to CONUS he was selected for a program to give aviation training to a few colonels to make up for a shortage in this grade. While still in flight school he was named to form and train the Army’s first air cavalry combat brigade as part of the First Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, TX. As brigade commander and division ADC he spent three years helping to develop and train the Army’s air cavalry and attack helicopter units.</p>
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<p>After a stint as deputy director of the Defense Nuclear Agency in Washington, DC, he assumed command of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, KY. At that time the 101st, a helicopter bomb division, was still focusing on Vietnam-type conflicts. He redirected the division to training for a European type of conflict and developed the tactics the division would so successfully employ later during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. </p>
<p>Next John returned to “The Home of Cavalry and Armor” at Fort Knox for the third time, this time as the commanding general. There he played a part in the selection of the M-l tank and the Apache helicopter gunship that were to play dominating roles in Operation Desert Storm.</p>
<p>Next, he was responsible for assisting the training and readiness of the National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve in 10 western states while stationed in Denver, CO.</p>
<p>In 1979 he was reassigned to Headquarters, FORSCOM at Fort McPherson GA, first as the DCSOP and then as the chief of staff.</p>
<p>His last assignment was as the president of the Inter American Defense Board in Washington, DC. This is an international organization of virtually all the countries of the Americas.</p>
<p>He had married Constance Markley in 1949. They retired in 1983 to the good life in Monterey, CA. There they designed and built their retirement home with John doing about a third of the construction work. John is survived by son Douglas; grandsons Miles, Winn and Matthew; granddaughter Kate McEnery O’Rielly, great-grandson John W. McEnery III; and great-granddaughter Harper. </p>
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