Eugene Austin Fox was born at Fort Benning, GA, the son of Alonzo Patrick Fox and Elizabeth Jordan Fox. An older sister, Patricia, completed the family. Their father joined the Army in 1917, went to OCS, served 42 years, and retired as a lieutenant general.
Gene grew up a typical Army brat. His father was on General MacArthur’s staff in Japan, where Gene’s sister married Alexander Haig (USMA 1947). In 1950 Gene graduated from Tokyo American High School, then entered Saint Benedict’s College for Men in Atchison, KS. After a semester there, hoping to go to West Point, he attended the Sullivan School in Washington, DC. Then, lacking an appointment, he enrolled at George Washington University.
His local congressman, Missouri’s Claude Bakewell, finally came up with a principal appointment, but to the Naval Academy! Gene accepted it, but, before he had to actually report to Annapolis, the congressman’s office called. There was a problem. Another constituent wanted his son to be appointed to Annapolis. Would Gene accept an appointment to West Point instead? He would, and did!
As a cadet in Company H-2, Gene sang in the Catholic Chapel Choir; played soccer, earning a monogram; and was in the Weightlifting Club. As a First Classman he was a cadet sergeant.
Wrote his classmates in the Howitzer, the West Point yearbook, “Academics give him little trouble. Thus, his only worries are blind dates and lack of cold beer.” There was occasionally a little confusion in that we had another classmate also named Eugene Fox, partially resolved when this one began billing himself as “The Real Gene Fox.”
Upon graduation Gene was commissioned in Infantry. After the basic course and airborne training at Fort Benning, then Ranger School, he went for his first troop assignment to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, NC. Next was a brief tour with the 24th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany, then in Orleans, France a year as aide to the commanding general of Communications Zone, Europe, and two years with the Orleans Area Command.
During that assignment Gene married Chantal Marie. They had met at the American Officers’ Club. Gene invited her to a football game (the only one, he reports, she has ever seen), and they soon became an item, marrying in April 1960. Together they had sons Nicolas and Laurent.
In 1962 Gene returned to Fort Benning for the Infantry Officer Career Course. Then, remaining at Benning, he joined the 2nd Infantry Division, serving as a company commander and staff officer in 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry, then as brigade assistant S-3 while his unit was integrated into the experimental 11th Air Assault Division.
When that division was redesignated the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) and deployed to Vietnam, Gene became a company commander again. At age 34, he speculated he had to be the oldest company commander in country. In January 1966 he was wounded, but subsequently returned to duty as S-3 of 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry. Wounded again in May, he was medevacked and spent several months in hospital. For his outstanding service in Vietnam Gene was awarded three Bronze Star Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, two Air Medals, an Army Commendation Medal, and the Combat Infantryman Badge.
In an excellent follow-on assignment, he drew a two-year tour of ROTC duty at The Citadel, then returned to Vietnam, this time assigned as senior Army advisor to a Regional and Popular Forces training center in Phan Rang, where he earned another Bronze Star Medal and, from the Vietnamese, the Armed Forces Honor Medal (First Class).
Back Stateside, Gene was posted to a Recruiting Command billet in Hampton, VA, challenging duty in the Vietnam War days, where he was awarded a Meritorious Service Medal. The following year he attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA, then was assigned to Fort Ord, CA, where he commanded a training battalion, earning a second Meritorious Service Medal.
Five years in the Pentagon came next. In an unusual pattern of assignments, Gene served successively in Force Development, then Operations and Plans, then Personnel. A third award of the Meritorious Service Medal resulted. During this period Gene also earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the George Washington University.
Gene then became a military liaison officer in Tunisia, where he spent the next three years. Travel to such places as Kenya, Spain, Libya, Algeria, Italy, Malta and Greece enriched the experience. At the conclusion of that assignment Gene received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.
Returning to the United States, Gene became chief of Readiness Group VIII in Denver, CO, working with the Reserves and National Guard. “It turned out to be a great assignment which significantly enhanced the skiing abilities of the entire family,” he recalled. His final assignment was the Army Special Review Board in Washington. In 1986 he was awarded the Legion of Merit and retired as a colonel.
Gene went back to school to earn a teaching certificate, then became a high school math teacher. He described a class trip to a Deadhead concert at JFK Stadium as the highlight of this experience.
Meanwhile Gene calculated that, since taking up serious running in 1972, he had covered 20,000 miles by the time of our 50th reunion, often with his beloved Hash House Harriers. And he ran marathons, including twice in Boston and the classic one from Marathon to the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
Gene Fox was a friendly, outgoing and able man and a brave soldier, much admired by those with whom he served. May he rest in peace.
— Lewis “Bob” Sorley ’56, classmates, and family