Fully retired. Keeping busy with writing, hiking, backpacking, rock and mountain climbing, mountain biking, snowshoeing, and alpine and backcountry skiing.
Questions That People Have Asked:
Why is my Master Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Badge placed below my jump wings in my retirement photo taken in November 1998? From the period when the EOD Badges were first authorized for wear in 1956 until 2005, the EOD Badges were placed in Special Skill Group 5. AR 670-1, dated 3 February 2005, now lists the EOD Badges in Special Skill Group 3, above the Parachutist Badge and the HALO Badge in Special Skills Group 4. This is where it should have been all along.
How was I awarded the Combat Infantry Badge (CIB) for Operation URGENT FURY when I was EOD (at that time MOS 55D). Although my primary MOS was 55D, I was in an Infantry duty MOS 11B billet. Today, the enlisted Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) code for EOD is 89D. That change took place on 1 January 2005.
When and why did I transfer from EOD to Infantry MOS? As soon as I was promoted to Master Sergeant in the EOD MOS, I changed my MOS to Infantry on 11 July 1988 (19 years in EOD). I felt because of my duty assignments and ten years in 1st SFOD-D, I would be more competitive for Sergeant Major in the Infantry field. My duties in 1st SFOD-D and later JSOC were not affected by the change. This decision proved correct.
For my combat patch, Shoulder Sleeve Insignia (SSI) that I wore on my right shoulder, I chose the United States Army, Vietnam (USARV) patch.
As for head gear, I wore a maroon beret with a U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) flash. The USASOC Distinguished Unit Insignia (DUI) is centered on the flash. Although I went through the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta (Airborne) Assessment and Selection Course and the complete Operator Training course, I was not Special Forces qualified, but I was airborne qualified.
The badge that I am wearing above my right breast pocket of my jacket is the Austrian (Österreich) Police Gendarmerie High Alpinists “Polizei Gendarmerie Hochalpinist” Badge (Abzeichen). I and five others from Delta trained with the Austrian GEK (Gendarmerieeinsatzkommando) Cobra on their ski mountaineering training course from 12 to 28 May 1984. We climbed and skied in the Glockner Group in the Austrian high (Hohe) Tauern. In 2002, GEK's name was changed to EKO (Einsatzkommando). The badge was presented by the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior on 28 May 1984. Under the provisions of Chapter 7, AR 672-5-1, and Public Law 95-105, Foreign Relations Authorization Act, I was authorized to accept and wear the badge. AR 670-1 permits the permanent wearing of one foreign badge. The order authorizing me to wear the badge is a DAPC-PDA order dated 12 March 1987.
My Army dress uniform is now on display at the U.S. Army Ordnance Training Support Facility (OTSF) at Fort Gregg-Adams (formerly Fort Lee), Virginia.
The photos on the internet that identify me as being on General H. Norman Schwarzhopf, Jr., security detail during Operation DESERT STORM is not me. It is William F. "Bill" Cronin III, a friend and co-worker in Delta. I did not do any personal security during my time in Delta. I did conduct security/survivability assessments within the United States and world-wide during my time in Delta. My assignment during Operation DESERT STORM was the assault on Taji #2, the two-story cut-and-cover Iraqi Command and Control (C2) facility located approximately 15 nautical miles northwest of Baghdad. The Air Force had dropped 60 2,000-pound BLU-109/B on it without damaging it. We were to breach it and destroy it in a ground attack. On the last day of the war, it was partially taken out by the newly developed 4,700-pound GBU-28/B. During Operation DESERT STORM I was located in Ar'ar, Saudi Arabia.
My interests are spelunking, rock climbing, and mountaineering. During my time on active-duty I was a professional member of the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA), American Alpine Club (AAC), and the National Speleological Society (NSS). I was also nationally registered as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT). I first learned to rock climb in 1967, when I attended Exum Mountaineering School at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Other Comments:
Recipient of The Order of 1st SFOD-D - Delta Colors, Serial Number 123, on 19 October 1995, for singularly exemplary contributions to 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment - Delta (Airborne). Graduate of Operator Training Course -1 (OTC-1). In Delta, I served as an Operator, Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technician, Master Breacher, Climbing Instructor, and Mountain Guide. Assistant Historian for the National Explosive Ordnance Disposal Association (NATEODA). Assist the EOD Warrior Foundation with historical EOD research. Received the 2013 Art Macksey Citizenship Award presented by the Vietnam EOD Veterans Association. Inducted into the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame, Class of 2018.
Family:
Married to Donna L. Ikenberry, a freelance photojournalist. We have two daughters, six grandchildren, and one great grandchild. The oldest two grandchildren had served in the U.S. Navy. We currently have one grandson in the U.S. Army. On 1 June 2018, Donna was awarded the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps "Keeper of the Flame" award.
Interviews:
1. BBC radio interview link that I did on the Iran Hostage Rescue Mission - Operation EAGLE CLAW, 24 - 25 April 1980, 12 May 2015, 15 minutes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05vf74p
6. The After Action Review, Interview #1, Episode 16 - Stories from Vietnam, Iran, Grenada, to Desert Storm, 20 March 2020, 1 hour and 38 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyj-D2aaiA8
7. The After Action Review video podcast interview #2, Episode 26 - On Khobar Towers bombing and TWA flight 800 accident, 5 July 2020, 58 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcELcxK-o5g
8. The Team House video podcast interview #40 - Operation EAGLE CLAW, Iran Hostage Rescue Mission, 1 May 2020, 2 hours and 19 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeN-GpBDnKM
Description In 1990, fellow Arab Gulf states refused to endorse Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's plan to cut production and raise the price of oil, leaving him frustrated and paranoid. Iraq had incurred a mountain of debt during its war with Iran that had lasted for most of the previous decade, and the Iraqi President felt that his Arab brothers were conspiring against him by refusing to raise oil prices. Therefore, after weeks of massing troops along the Iraq-Kuwait border and accusing Kuwait of various crimes, Hussein sent seven divisions of the Iraqi Army into Kuwait in the early morning hours of 2 August 1990. The invasion force of 120,000 troops and 2,000 tanks quickly overwhelmed Iraq's neighbor to the south, allowing Hussein to declare, in less than a week, that Kuwait was his nation's nineteenth province. The United Nations responded quickly, passing a series of resolutions that condemned the invasion, called for an immediate withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait, imposed a financial and trade embargo on Iraq, and declared the annexation void.
Regarding Iraq's actions as a threat to a vital interest of the US, namely the oil production capability of the Persian Gulf region, President George Bush ordered warplanes and ground forces to Saudi Arabia after obtaining King Fahd's approval. Iraqi troops had begun to mass along the Saudi border, breaching it at some points, and indicating the possibility that Hussein's forces would continue south into Saudi Arabia's oil fields. Operation DESERT SHIELD, the US military deployment to first defend Saudi Arabia grew rapidly to become the largest American deployment since the Southeast Asia Conflict. The Gulf region was within US Central Command's (CENTCOM) area of responsibility. Eventually, 30 nations joined the military coalition arrayed against Iraq, with a further 18 countries supplying economic, humanitarian, or other type of assistance.
Carriers in the Gulf of Oman and the Red Sea responded, US Air Force interceptors deployed from bases in the United States, and airlift transports carried US Army airborne troopers to Saudi Arabia. Navy prepositioning ships rushed equipment and supplies for an entire marine brigade from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean to the gulf. During the next six months the United States and its allies built up a powerful force in the Arabian peninsula. The navy also began maritime intercept operations in support of a US-led blockade and United Nations sanctions against Iraq.
Coalition forces, specifically XVIII Airborne Corps and VII Corps, used deception cells to create the impression that they were going to attack near the Kuwaiti boot heel, as opposed to the "left hook" strategy actually implemented. XVIII Airborne Corps set up "Forward Operating Base Weasel" near the boot heel, consisting of a phony network of camps manned by several dozen soldiers. Using portable radio equipment, cued by computers, phony radio messages were passed between fictitious headquarters. In addition, smoke generators and loudspeakers playing tape-recorded tank and truck noises were used, as were inflatable Humvees and helicopters.
On 17 January 1991, when it became clear that Saddam would not withdraw, Desert Shield became Desert Storm.
