As a young captain in 1990, I was excited to be asked to give a presentation at the annual Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, D.C. I had written a number of articles on maneuver warfare and looked forward to the event, which promised to include a large audience. Facing a crowded room, I noticed an elderly gentleman in the front row who seemed to grow more agitated as I spoke.
Wrapping up the presentation, I invited questions from the floor. Rising to his feet, the old fellow intoned, “I don’t have a question. I’d just like to say I’m damned tired of listening to you youngsters, who seem to think that all warfare consists of dancing around the enemy and shouting ‘Boo!’ ”
Considerably rattled, I later asked my hosts, “Who was that man, anyway?” They laughed and said, “That’s Gen. Kroesen. You were probably the only person in the room who didn’t know that!”
Living Legend
Retired Gen. Frederick Kroesen was a bona fide living legend, born in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, in 1923, the son of a World War I veteran. Descended from Dutch settlers who immigrated to New Amsterdam (later New York) in the 1630s, he graduated from Rutgers University, New Jersey, in 1944, where he was a standout oarsman. Upon graduation, he enlisted as a private and later was commissioned from Officer Candidate School (OCS). By early 1945, he was commanding a rifle company in the 63rd Division in vicious fighting in the Colmar Pocket in France.
Like so many young officers, Lt. Kroesen had a tough war. By May 1945, 15 officers had rotated through his company. All except Kroesen were lost due to wounds, death, illness or reassignment. More than 600 soldiers would rotate through Kroesen’ s 200-man company in six months of combat— a severe test for any young officer.
Wounded in combat, Kroesen finished the war as a captain and was accepted for a Regular Army commission in 1946. Later qualifying as a paratrooper, he served with the 82nd Airborne Division and commanded a battalion in the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team in the Korean War, where he was again wounded.
Approach in Combat
The onset of U.S. combat involvement in Vietnam saw the future general working on the Army Staff in the Pentagon. In 1968, he assumed command of the 196th Infantry Brigade, part of the Americal Division, where he received his third award of the Combat Infantryman Badge, a rare distinction, as well as suffering a third wound.
In a 2007 anthology of his writing called General Thoughts: Seventy-five Years with the Army, published by AUSA, Kroesen described how he approached brigade command in combat:
• “This is a commander’s organization and all decisions are made by commanders. Staff officers cannot say ‘no’ to a commander. If a commander’s request cannot be fulfilled, the staff must convince me and I will say ‘no.’
• “Operations are conducted under mission-type orders wherein subordinates are told what to do, not how to do it. Subordinates make decisions, take action and employ resources to accomplish their missions without interference or micromanagement from on high.
• “The brigade staff will work for subordinate battalion commanders, striving to fulfill their needs for successful operations. (Philosophically, my intent here is to focus a staff outward and downward, on supporting operations rather than on pleasing the brigade commander or higher headquarters.)
• “The brigade will function properly when all leaders from squad leader to battalion commanders are making decisions and taking action appropriate to their positions in the command chain. Each decisionmaker then reports: ‘Here’s what I found, here’s what I am doing about it, here’s why I am doing it, and here’s what I need to do it better.’ ”
Kroesen’ s service in Vietnam was rewarded with promotion to general officer, and he returned to Vietnam in 1971 to command the Americal Division before assuming command of the 82nd Airborne Division in 1972.
From there, his rise through the general officer ranks was meteoric, with assignments as VII Corps commander, commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command, vice chief of staff of the Army and commander of U.S. Army Europe and Seventh U.S. Army. Remarkably, Kroesen was the first OCS graduate to attain four-star rank.
Quiet Courage
On Sept. 15, 1981, Kroesen was attacked in his armored staff car by members of the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a terrorist organization later linked to the East German secret intelligence service. Struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, his sedan was badly damaged, and the general suffered cuts to the back of his head—his fourth wound in military service. (His wife, Rowene, was also slightly injured.) After a quick trip to the hospital to have his cuts sewn up, he completed his schedule of troop visits and meetings.
The incident said much about the man. His quiet courage, steadfastness and calm in crisis had been hallmarks of his leadership from lieutenant to general.
In retirement, Kroesen spoke to officers and cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, about his leadership philosophy, which he distilled in writing into the following principles: “A commander [leader] must have absolute confidence in his or her own decision making abilities and a willingness to make decisions under pressure. … Confidence in decision making has to be complemented by an equally strong conviction that subordinates will see to the implementation of decisions. … The commander [must] realize that he [or she] needs help.”
Later testimonials, from junior enlisted soldiers to senior officers, related Kroesen’s down-to-earth manner, humility, authenticity and genuine love and concern for soldiers. Those who knew him, even slightly, remembered and were marked by the interaction even decades later. Here was a special leader and commander.
In retirement, Kroesen stayed close to the Army he loved, almost to the day he died in April 2020 at age 97. As a contributing editor to ARMY magazine and a senior fellow with AUSA, he continued to share his wisdom, insights and experience with soldiers for decades, mentoring later generations of senior Army leaders along the way.
Even today, his reflections resonate with a common sense and relevance grounded in deep practical experience, high intelligence and sound judgment. He was, as then-AUSA President and CEO retired Gen. Carter Ham put it, “the conscience of our Army”—an almost irreplaceable, and certainly unforgettable, Army leader.
Col. R.D. Hooker Jr., U.S. Army retired, is a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C. A career infantry officer, he commanded a parachute infantry battalion in Kosovo and the Sinai, and a parachute brigade in Baghdad. His latest book is The High Ground: Leading in Peace and War.