“To Provide The Nation With Leaders Of Character”: The 53rd USMA Superintendent Reflects On A Lifetime Of Service

Dave Palmer was born in Oklahoma in 1934. His father worked in the East Texas oil fields and when Dave was young his parents divorced. He moved to Lake Seneca, New York, with his mother. She took a job in an Army ammunition plant during World War II, where part of her job involved supervising Italian POWs. Near the end of the war, he and his mother returned to Hooks, Texas, when she was transferred to the Red River Ammunition Depot. When Dave was in the 6th grade, he met his future wife, LuDelia (a combination of her grandmothers’ names – Lucretia and Cordelia) “Lu” Clemmer. As a boy, he enjoyed baseball, football, basketball, and track. He competed in the hurdles. He was also the first to earn the rank of Eagle Scout in Hooks. In high school, he became the class president. Dave considered attending Texas A&M, but his mother encouraged him to attend West Point instead. His memories of R-Day are “one big blob,” but the Firsties who were in charge “wanted you to do well” even if they did shout at you. His recollections of his academic year Cadet Company, B-1, are that it was a “friendly group” and a “good company.” In class, he realized that he “hadn’t learned how to study” and was in some lower sections, but in the Army he used the French he learned at the Academy in both Germany and Vietnam. He remembers that “West Point came easy to me.” He competed in hurdles on the track team, winning every race as a Plebe, and he fondly describes Coach Carlton Crowell. Upon graduation, he commissioned as an Armor Officer and credits the personalities of the Armor Officers he encountered at West Point, including General George Patton’s son, as influencing him in that decision. Following graduation, he attended the armor school and completed airborne and Ranger schools before assuming duties as a Platoon Leader in D Company and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battle Group, 6th Infantry in Berlin in December 1956. There, he led a machine gun platoon consisting of jeeps with water-cooled machine guns. Later he led a platoon of M-48 tanks (and he shares a story of the wives driving the tanks). He remembers seeing ruins from World War II, and notes the differences between East and West Germany. He discusses “the time we almost went to war” with the Soviets over a dispute about the one highway connecting West Germany and West Berlin (104 miles) when the East Germans stopped one of his trucks and Dave’s platoon had to free the truck from East Germany, with orders to shoot if the East Germans resisted. On April 13, 1957, he married LuDelia in Hooks, Texas, and their honeymoon was driving to New York, enroute to Germany. Later the couple adopted two children, Allison and Kersten. While in Germany, he served a rotation guarding Rudolf Hess at Spandau Prison. He remembers observing the old Nazi exercising and gardening, and he tells the story of Lu getting tomatoes from Hess’s garden. In July 1960, the family moved to Ft. Hood, Texas, where he served as the Executive Officer for A Troop, 12th Cavalry, Company Commander for C Company, 1st Medium Tank Battalion, 1st Cavalry, and S3 for 1st Battalion, 81st Armor, all in the 1st Armored Division. As a company commander, his company operated M-60 tanks. He recounts his experience briefing the President about the Russian Tank Brigade in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis. In response, the 1st Armored Division sent an armored force by train from Ft. Hood to Savannah, where they were to board LSTs for a possible beach landing. He describes passing through small towns along the railroad to Savannah and being greeted, cheered, and fed by the people along the way. President Kennedy made a visit to the troops in Savannah. Following the Artillery Officer Advanced Course, he deployed to Vietnam in December 1963, where he served as the Aide to the Commander, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam until August 1964. He arrived in Vietnam for the transition between General Paul D. Harkins and General William Westmoreland (he had been selected to be Westmoreland’s aide). Before deploying, he attended a Vietnamese language course at Ft. Bragg. He arrived in Vietnam immediately before the assassination of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem (November 2, 1963). He attended meetings with U.S. Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge (who did not like Harkins, but liked Westmoreland), and observed American leadership at the highest level. As Aide, he flew all around South Vietnam and was frequently under fire, including once at a Special Forces camp, where their plane was fired upon on the runway. During this period, the U.S. role was all advisory and he wanted to be assigned to a troop-level advisory mission. In August 1964, he served as a Troop Advisor for 1st Armored Cavalry Squadron, III Corps, MAC-V, working with M-113 mounted infantry. He describes the differences between fighting North Vietnamese and Viet Cong, and describes his ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) Soldiers as “good in the field” and “courageous.” His unit operated north of Saigon from Ben Cat to the Cambodian border, and back to the sea. He describes operating in a rubber plantation and the tunnels they found there. He enjoyed training his troops, and notes “we were pretty active.” Returning from Vietnam in December 1964, he attended Command and General Staff College before earning a Master’s Degree from Duke University (he was the first to earn a degree in military history from that institution) before returning to West Point to teach in the Department of Military Art and Engineering (the future Department of History). At USMA, he taught with COLs Schilling and Greiss, and became good friends with Roy Flint, who he later helped become Dean (1985-1990). Following his teaching assignment, he returned to Germany to command 2nd Battalion, 33rd Armor in the 3rd Armored Division from July 1969 to March 1971. He was stationed north of Frankfurt with a wartime mission of defending the Fulda Gap, and he describes this assignment as good family time. The war in Vietnam was causing shortages in Germany and his unit was half-manned, with Lieutenants serving as company commanders and not enough supplies or repair parts coming in. Even so, he focused on preparing his troops for war. In March 1971, he returned to Vietnam and was assigned as a staff advisor to the Vietnamese National Military Academy at Da Lat. The academy was in a peaceful location, and Lu was able to visit, flying from the United States to Thailand and on to South Vietnam. While Dave worked, he arranged for his Vietnamese translator to show Lu around. He later discovered that that translator was VC (which might have ensured her safety). While the Senior Advisor was a Colonel, Dave, a Lieutenant Colonel, was the advisor to the Executive Officer. During his time at Da Lat, Cambodian military leaders were brought in for training. Da Lat was modeled on West Point, and the feeling was that Vietnamization was going well. The West Point Dean and some professors made a visit to Da Lat and their visit coincided with the Easter Offensive. Dave had to ensure they got to the airport safely to fly out. While he was at Da Lat, he wrote “The River And The Rock,” a book about West Point during the American Revolution. He wrote it at night and on the weekends, and the greatest challenge was finding original source material. He returned to the United States in May 1972. He completed the War College before being assigned to Washington D.C., where he served in a variety of assignments, including in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of the General Staff (JUN73-OCT73), Assistant to the Director of the Army Staff (OCT73-JUN75), and Chief of the Congressional Activities Team (JUN75-JUN76). He enjoyed working for Creighton Abrams, whom he describes as very open and a “good, good leader.” He also worked for Frederick Weyand, who had to coordinate leaving Vietnam. He recalls April 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, as a sad time because “we all believed in it.” In June 1976, he took command of 1st Brigade, 2nd Armored Division at Ft. Hood. At the time, General Patton, who had commanded 11th ACR in Vietnam, was the Commander of 2nd Armored Division. 1st Brigade’s wartime mission was to reinforce Europe as part of NATO forces. He recalls always being out in the field with the troops or on the range doing gunnery. In February 1978, he served as the Assistant Chief of Staff, G3 and later as the Director of Plans and Training for III Corps and Ft. Hood, where he was promoted to Brigadier General. In June 1979, he returned to the Pentagon, where he served as the Assistant Deputy Director and Deputy Director for Politico-Military Affairs in the Plans and Policy Directorate (J5) of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responsible for coordinating activities with allied militaries all around the world. This was an interesting assignment, but he describes it as a “hellacious tour.” In July 1981, he retuned to Germany, where he was promoted to Major General and served as the Assistant Division Commander for the 8th Infantry Division and the community commander for Baumholder. This was his “best European assignment.” The wartime mission for the 8th Infantry Division was defense of the western-most part of Germany and specifically the Fulda Gap. By the early 80s, the All-Volunteer Army had been in existence for about a decade (since 1973), and he describes the differences between the volunteer Soldier and the draftee. In September 1983, he moved to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where he served as the Deputy Commandant of the Command and General Staff College before returning to Germany in June 1985 to command the 1st Armored Division. He was also the American commander for the region around Ansbach (the mayor of Ansbach had been a POW during WWII). During this period, Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union. In July 1986, Dave became the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, serving there until his retirement form the Army in 1991. He came to the Academy following Andrew Goodpaster, who led the recovery of the Academy following the cheating incident in 1976, and Willard Scott, who led the effort to return spirit to the Academy, and he had to figure out how to make big changes at a tradition-rich institution. At West Point, he implemented two major initiatives, developing CLDS (Cadet Leader Development System), which changed from a 4th Class to a Four Class system, and crafting a purpose statement when the mission changed to “provide the nation leaders of character to serve the common defense,” which was his primary focus. Roy Flint, his old comrade from the Department of Military Art and Engineering, was the Dean, and Dave had played a role in the selection process. While he was Superintendent, he worked with Commandants Peter Boylan, Fred Gordon, and David Bramlett, and he notes that he “picked Gordon.” After retiring from the Army, he returned to Texas, where he wanted to write and lecture on his own, but he took a job serving as President of Walden University from 1995 to 1999 to help develop master’s and PhD students. He concludes the interview by reflecting on his service to the nation and on what West Point means to him.