“Are You Ready To Go To War Today?”: Service As An Engineer And As A Professor USMA

John Hartke was born in September 1966 in Waukegan, Illinois, the eldest of three boys. His father was the produce manager at a local grocery store, and his mother worked as a lunch lady in the school. When he was in 7th grade, he met his future wife, and they dated all through high school. She was at the top of her class, and hanging out with her meant that John also prioritized his studies. In high school, he played baseball, participated in JROTC, and was on the Rifle and Pistol team. He served as team captain, won a state championship, and was recruited for the West Point rifle team. On R-Day, he arrived early and completed all of his assigned tasks before reporting back to the Cadet in the Red Sash to see what else he could do. During the R-Day parade, he remembers seeing his girlfriend in the stands. Throughout his Cadet experience, whenever he contemplated leaving the Academy, his parents sent his future wife to visit West Point. John found Beast Barracks challenging, but his JROTC experience helped, and his roommate had attended the Prep School. He really enjoyed the next summer at Buckner and had a great bunkmate and platoon. During his third summer, he completed CTLT (Cadet Troop Leader Training) in Mainz, Germany, spending the entire time in the field with a mech infantry unit. He remembers COL Tex Turner visiting his unit in Germany and recalls he was “larger than life.” He then completed Jungle School in Panama before returning to the Academy. Generally, he did not enjoy his time as a Cadet and felt that “being a Cadet was hard.” He did well academically and majored in Engineering Management. Being on the rifle team was an escape, and he found solace in the team environment. He commissioned as an Engineer, feeling that it would help his future. John and Lisa were married following graduation, and after the basic course, they reported to Ft. Hood, where he served as an Engineer Platoon Leader and Company executive Officer in the 17th Engineer Battalion in the 2nd Armored Division from 1988 to 1991. That assignment was “tremendous,” and his first Platoon Sergeant, a Vietnam Veteran, was a fabulous leader who shared many of his experiences with John. He remembers deploying to Belgium as part of a Cold War exercise, as well as training at the National Training Center. During Operation Desert Storm in 1991, he deployed to Saudi Arabia as an Assistant Battalion S4 for the 937th Engineer Group. One of his roles was scrounging for needed supplies for the forward units, and he was able to trade “blade time” with his construction equipment for items his unit needed. Concerns over possible Iraqi use of chemical weapons really hit home, and that is when John “stopped ‘playing’ Army and started ‘being in’ the Army.” Following the Gulf War, he returned to Ft. Hood and was assigned as a Company Executive Officer in the 8th Engineer Battalion in 1st Cavalry Division. He describes the “Desert Storm Hangover” many units experienced back at home station. When his brigade deployed to the National Training Center, the OPFOR (Opposing Forces) “were waiting” for them. He then attended the Armor Advanced Course at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, and remained at the Armor School as an instructor and engineer subject matter expert before taking command of B Company in the 19th Engineer Battalion, assigned to the 194th Separate Armored Brigade at Ft. Knox. He had been a “by name request” by the Battalion Commander, a leader he had previously shared an office with when they were both writing doctrine. John remembers that they “built a level of trust,” and his Battalion Commander taught him “how to develop leaders.” In this unit, he focused on combatting the “Desert Storm Hangover” and executing training that would prepare his Soldiers to go to war. In 1996, he attended the Naval Post Graduate School, earning a Master’s Degree in physics before returning to West Point to teach in the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering. Joining the department, he was struck by the professional attitude everyone exhibited and how welcoming they were. Shortly after his return, he was walking on the Plain, and distinctly remembers feeling “the Ghost of West Point” in a heavy fog wrapping his arms around John. At this point in his career, the Cold War had ended, and he remembers wrestling with what the post-Cold War Army would look like. He and his family lived in Stony Lonesome II, and by this time he and Lisa had a son and a daughter. His next assignment following Command and General Staff College was as the Engineer Brigade S4 in the 2nd Infantry Division in the Republic of Korea from 2001 to 2002. He had been selected as an Academy Professor, and this unaccompanied assignment was prior to earning a PhD in Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona. He describes how he experienced September 11th, 2001, in Korea, and how “everything was more real” on Freedom’s Frontier, where they did not know how the North Koreans would react to the terrorist attacks. He was at a crossroads in his career, and he wondered if he should return to West Point or pursue another assignment in the operational Army. At Camp Howze, he ran into a former student who got him thinking about the number of Cadets and faculty he had influenced, and that discussion helped him decide to return to the Academy. Returning to the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, he served as the Director for the Photonics Research Center in 2006, the Core Physics Program Director from 2008 to 2012, and the Advanced Physics Program Director in 2013 before becoming the Deputy head of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering in 2014, a PUSMA (Professor USMA) in 2015, and the Head of the Department of Physics and Nuclear Engineering in 2019. He then describes several of the leaders in the Department he worked with as well as some of the cutting-edge projects they worked on. He discusses PANE’s culture, such as wearing yellow hard hats at the Army football games as part of their distinctive identity. During his time at West Point, he deployed three times on Operational Experiences, twice to the National Military Academy of Afghanistan in Kabul in 2007 and 2012, and in 2014 he deployed to Liberia as the Deputy Commanding Officer of the 36th Engineer Brigade to combat the spread of Ebola. In Afghanistan, he helped establish their Academy’s science curriculum, and in Liberia his Brigade built treatment units. He recalls seeing the Liberians and thinking that he had never before witnessed that “level of hopelessness;” they were all ready to die. The power of seeing the American flag on the uniforms of the Soldiers changed everything. He remembers the attitude shifting from despair to, “The Americans are here. We will be Ok.” (When COVID occurred, he was not concerned because he had already survived a more intense pandemic.) John and Lisa’s son Matthew graduated from West Point in 2014 and commissioned as an Engineer. When he deployed in 2020, John remembers understanding “what our families deal with,” noting the stress he felt with his son overseas. After retiring in 2024, he plans to continue working with high energy laser weapons for the Army’s Space and Missile Command. Reflecting on his service, he is extremely proud and considers all the lives he’s touched as the most meaningful aspect of his time in the Army. The Military Academy holds a special place in his heart. As a 2nd Lieutenant, he vowed to never return, but now West Point is embedded in his soul, and that started with his experience with the “Ghost of West Point” on the Plain.