Michael Joseph Hatcher was being shaped as a West Pointer and career military man even before he was born. His paternal grandfather, Charles Jordan Hatcher, was a career military man who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The first documented sign of Mike’s future success came when he took a job as a paper boy at age 10, the minimum age, gaining many accolades as a reliable, loyal person who was a man of his word.
Mike began to consider attending West Point while a student at St. Alphonsus High School, but two years at the University of Detroit majoring in engineering preceded his arrival. At the Academy, Mike was a whiz in math and science but woefully lacking in language skills, especially spelling. So, his classmates assisted him with language skills, and Mike tutored them in their study of engineering projects, such as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
After graduation, Mike and I were inseparable for the first seven months. He was my roommate at the basic course at the Armor School, my Ranger buddy, and my classmate at Airborne School, where we jumped out of the same airplane five times. Mike then headed for Germany, where he commanded a tank company and held other battalion assignments. Mike became famous as a storyteller, regaling all who would listen with tales of Grafenwohr, Field Training Exercises, and other facets of life in the Armor branch in Germany.
During his tour in Germany, Mike met his future wife Nancy on a trip to Copenhagen. It was love at first sight, and Mike returned several times to Copenhagen. When Mike was posted to the Armor School, Nancy took a job nearby. In February 1965, on a very cold day, they were married in St. Hubert, Quebec, Nancy’s hometown. They then returned to Ft. Knox, KY, where Mike served with the Tactics Department. Their son Tom was born there in 1965.
In 1967, three weeks after son Mark was born in Detroit, Mike headed for his first Viet Nam tour as an advisor in Kontum Province. Afterwards, he served a tour at First Army Headquarters at Ft. Meade, MD, where son David was born, followed by graduate school at the University of Alabama. Nancy and the boys stayed in Alabama while Mike returned to Viet Nam, this time advising a Vietnamese tank battalion on the DMZ. When the North Vietnamese Army invaded the South in 1972, Mike’s unit was engaged in one of the few tank-versus-tank battles of the entire war. He distinguished himself in action and was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor. In the turmoil that accompanied this action, Mike was officially missing in action for four days.
After the ceasefire of 1973, Mike spent two years designing field experiments for the combat developments community. After graduating from Command & General Staff College, the final military stop for the Hatchers was Washington, DC, where Mike spent five years in various Army staff assignments.
Mike retired in 1981 and moved to San Jose, CA, to work for the new Operations Research Systems Analysis department at FMC’s Defense Equipment Group. He threw himself into this new career and was openly enthusiastic about how much he enjoyed this work. His family also thrived there. Tom and Mark graduated from San Jose State and David from California Polytechnic in San Luis Obispo. Nancy began a very successful career as a buyer for Nordstrom.
We always had trouble getting Mike to attend reunions, although he contributed to the Class of 1960 30-Year Book. Our company, A-2, had scheduled a mini-reunion in Vail, CO, in September 1993, and in one of my phone calls to convince him to attend, he told me he was suffering from SND, a debilitating Parkinson’s-like brain disease for which there was no cure or treatment. Mike also wanted to know why he had not received his invitation to the reunion! Mike attended the reunion and was as pleased to see everyone as they were to see him. Although Mike began to fail physically, his sense of humor did not. Classmates sent him audio tapes, e-mails, and cards. It was a great renewal of our friendship with him.
Mike finally succumbed to this illness on 12 May 1996 at home. On 16 May, there was a Catholic mass in celebration of his life, and he was buried at Golden Gate National Cemetery, just outside of San Francisco.
At the next A-2 mini-reunion in Monterey in June 1997, Mike’s widow Nancy and their sons, Tom, Mark and David, were in attendance. It was the first time the boys had met anyone from the West Point phase of Mike’s life. We exchanged many stories, and we all felt Mike’s presence. Seeing Nancy and their sons meant a lot to us.
Mike was a humble, devout Catholic. Most of what you have just read about Mike was only learned by his friends after his death. He was a man of few words and the master of a sophisticated smile or smirk that was often his only response. His sister Mary and brother Charlie reported that, from their earliest memory, Mike was a determined man with unwavering goals. He was not ashamed to say he was old-fashioned and traditional. He often succeeded by relying on his sense of humor.
Mike left this earth after accomplishing much. He did his military ancestors proud with distinguished service to his fellow soldiers and his country. He was a faithful, loving, and fun husband and a good father to three wonderful sons. He was my loyal buddy. “Well done,” Michael. “Be thou at peace.”
By classmate and dear friend Ed Laurance