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Editor's Bully Pulpit.

Article Excerpt
Although I have been the Editor-in-Chief of Field Artillery for more than 11 years (eight more as Managing Editor), I have never used my prerogative to editorialize in the magazine--that is, until now. I am stepping up to the Bully Pulpit to give you an Editor's memoirs and musings as I publish the last edition of Field Artillery after 90 years of almost continuous editions and as I prepare to retire on 31 July.

The next magazine, May-June 2007, will be the Fires Bulletin as the Field Artillery and Air Defense Artillery Bulletins come together as the first of the Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC)-directed mergers of branch professional magazines.

During the past 20 years, I have had the pleasure of knowing many outstanding Soldiers, Marines and their leaders--mostly Field Artillerymen--and watched my former Communication Skills students from the 1986 and 1987 FA Captain's Career Courses grow up to become colonels and generals. I have had tremendous experiences putting out a magazine for the King of Battle.

Magazine Interviews to Remember. As your Editor, I have had incredible opportunities to interview more than 80 of the most senior Army, Marine and Air Force leaders and a few international leaders--plus several junior veterans who are heroes for our "A Soldier's Story" series. Among the many memorable interviews, I relate a story or two.

I interviewed General (Retired) Walter T. (Dutch) Kerwin, Jr., a Redleg and former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, for the August 1993 history edition during a working lunch at the 1993 Senior Field Artillery Conference sponsored by Chief of Field Artillery Major General Fred F. Marty. General Marty had asked General Kerwin to be back for the early afternoon discussion of massing fires, an area of expertise of General Kerwin's. During World War II at Anzio Beachhead, then Lieutenant Colonel Kerwin's corps commander asked him to coordinate the massed fires of 28 battalions from multiple divisions, fires that ultimately had a significant impact on securing the beachhead.

During the interview, General Kerwin began answering every question at length--I had sent him the questions in advance, and he had made notes on all the points he wanted to cover per question. About an hour into the interview, I suggested we pick the most important questions to answer from the many remaining in an effort to return General Kerwin to the conference for the early afternoon session. His response--"Hell, no! No one ever asks me to tell my war stories, and I am not leaving here until I have told them all!" Three and one-half hours later, the interview concluded.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Interviews usually take about three magazine pages. His interview, which was packed with fascinating World War II, Korean and Vietnam war stories, required (and got) five magazine pages.

The interview with then Major General Franklin L. (Buster) Hagenbeck, Commanding General of the 10th Mountain Division and Coalition Forces in Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, was in the September-October 2002 edition. To say the least, it was memorable.

In the interview, General Hagenbeck criticized the US Air Force's close air support (CAS) for Operation Anaconda and the lack of enough enlisted terminal attack controllers (ETACs) to control...

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