Early Life and West Point

West Point, Flight Training and Back to the Artillery

Becoming a Gun Battery Commander

First Combat

VT Fuses and the Battle of the Bulge

Disciplining Troops

Crossing the Rhine

Hanover and Salzwedel

Meeting the Russians

Attending the French War College

Postwar Duty as Provost Marshal of Bavaria

Indochina

Joint Advanced Study Group

Decision to Retire

Iran, Turkey, and Final Thoughts

Annotation

Herbert Stern was born in December 1918 in Baltimore, Maryland. He left at age six for Rockville, Maryland, where he grew up. He attended public school and graduated from high school in 1935. His father was a businessman. Rockville was small, 7,500 population. He was an only child. His father was in the hardware and building materials business. Stern asked him later in life, why the Depression had not hit them hard. His father told him it was due to having county contracts and his supplies of tools and materials that were hard to find during the Depression helped them out. Stern's school class was very small. He graduated from high school at 16 years old. He had begun his education in a better school, so he jumped ahead one grade. He decided he wanted to go to West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy, West Point, New York] when he was 12. His father and some friends worked to get him an appointment. His father sent him to a one-year prep school since he was too young for West Point. Stern had an appointment to the US Naval Academy [Annotator's Note: United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland] which was only 40 miles from home, but he wanted to be farther away. A friend told him the Maryland National Guard had an open slot and he thought that could help him with getting into West Point. He attended the prep school and was promised an appointment to West Point by Senator Radcliffe [Annotator's Note: George Lovic Pierce Radcliffe, Senator from Maryland from 1935 to 1947] but Radcliffe gave it to someone else. Stern's congressman had one of his previous appointments to West Point fail out, so it was turned over the Civil Service Commission to conduct a competitive exam. Stern got his appointment that way. His father was not thrilled about Stern going into the Army, but he supported him 100 percent. Stern's father was drafted for World War 1, but having had Stern he was exempted from serving.

Annotation

Herbert Stern had received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and was required to take the entrance exam. He was accepted and reported to the Academy on 1 July 1937. His class was one of the last ones to attend for four years until after the war. He took engineering courses and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. They had no elective courses back then. He also took French for two years and then Spanish for the third year. Those were the only two offered then. Stern had two roommates in his plebe year [Annotator's Note: freshman year]; both the sons of US Army officers. One of them had been in journalism school at Rutgers University and had been forced into West Point by his father. This roommate hated the Academy and was poor in math. He was a very unhappy young man. Stern told himself he would never do the same thing to his son if he ever had one but he did do so. [Annotator's Note: Stern grins and interviewer laughs.] In Stern's second year, his roommate was Henry Bodson [Annotator's Note: US Army Colonel Henry R. Bodson]. They had different backgrounds, so they did not remain roommates. He shared his room with a cadet from West Virginia named Gordon Harper for his final two years. The cadets were all required to take four years of equitation [Annotator's Note: art or practice of horse riding], and Stern despised horses. Before graduation, Stern had selected Field Artillery. The chief of Field Artillery came to West Point and told them he was going to do all that he could to ensure they were assigned to horse units. In response, Stern went to the hospital and took his physical for flight training. He passed and entered into that training after graduation. He went through primary in Tulsa, Oklahoma and went to Randolph Field [Annotator's Note: now Randolph Air Force Base, Universal City, Texas] for basic. He had soloed already when he and some friends got caught pitching pennies by their instructor. The instructor told him he should be inside studying aerodynamics and Stern replied that he had studied all that he intended to. The instructor then stopped giving them flight instruction. Stern had a 20-hour flight check with an Army Air Force officer, Gabriel Disosway [Annotator's Note: later US Air Force General Gabriel Pollion Disosway]. After the flight, Disosway asked him how long he had been doing acrobatics and Stern replied that he had not done any. Disosway wanted to set Stern back one class for being behind in his training. Stern did not want to do that, so he asked to be returned to field artillery. In January 1942, he reported to Fort Jackson, South Carolina and the 8th Infantry Division Artillery. After three days there he was sent to Fort Sill [Annotator's Note: Fort Sill, Lawton, Oklahoma] to take the basic field artillery course. He spent three months there and met his future wife who was a student at the University of Oklahoma. He then reported back to Fort Jackson and was assigned to Headquarters Battery, 8th Division Artillery [Annotator's Note: Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Division Artillery, 8th Infantry Division]. He reported in to Captain Wohlfeil [Annotator's Note: later US Army Lieutenant Colonel Carl Herbert Wohlfeil], West Point class of 1939, who informed Stern that he was now the commander of the battery.

Annotation

Herbert Stern arrived at his first duty assignment, Fort Jackson, South Carolina to discover he was the commander of Headquarters Battery, 8th Infantry Division Artillery [Annotator's Note: Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Division Artillery, 8th Infantry Division]. He says he felt lost and he had to learn everything from his regular US Army, non-commissioned officers. They taught him how to command. He was married while there. He was asked to transfer to a new division after a new commander had visited with Colonel Barrett, who had been an instructor of Stern's at West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy, West Point, New York]. Barrett told Stern that General Hildring [Annotator's Note: US Army Major General John Henry Hildring] would like him to join his new division, the 84th Infantry Division. Hildring had inspected the entire 8th Division and the only unit that was doing any serious training was Stern's Headquarters Battery. Stern's division commander, General Pickering [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General James Arthur Pickering], accused Stern of arranging the transfer and refused his transfer request. Hildring was the personnel chief in the Pentagon [Annotator's Note: US Department of Defense headquarters] so he issued orders for the transfer regardless. Stern then reported to the 84th Infantry Division Artillery in Camp Howze, Texas [Annotator's Note: Camp Howze, Gainesville, Texas; now Gainesville municipal airport]. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer backs up in the story line.] Stern was shooting pool in the officer's club at Randolph Field [Annotator's Note: now Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas] when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He had no orders then and had been relieved from flight training. He thought the unit he joined shortly afterwards would be the first to go. One day they loaded onto trains and they thought they were headed to the Pacific, but they just went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma for a short time. He ultimately ended up with the 84th Infantry Division under Brigadier Ivan Foster [Annotator's Note: US Army Brigadier General Ivan Leon Foster]. Stern joined the unit as the Headquarters Battery commander. Foster felt he needed to be in a firing battery and transferred him to the 327th Field Artillery as the Battery B commander [Annotator's Note: Battery B, 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division]. They had 155mm howitzers. Stern failed his first Army Ground Forces firing test. On his second test, Stern scored the highest mark in Fourth Army. He was then used to replace battery commanders who failed the tests.

Annotation

Herbert Stern was in the 325th Field Artillery Battalion as a battery commander under General Foster [Annotator's Note: US rmy Brigadier General Ivan Leon Foster]. He attended the advanced artillery course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and returned to be the operations officer. He went to Camp Claiborne, Louisiana on the way overseas. Stern found out there was a moving target artillery range at Camp Polk [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk, Vernon Parish, Louisiana] and asked to take his battery there for training in direct targeting. His battalion commander said no but Stern insisted, and the commander relented. That training later saved their lives. They went to England and crossed the English Channel in September 1944 and went through France to Holland. They entered combat by taking the town of Geilenkirchen, Germany, and then the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: defensive wall built by Germany in the 1930s]. They were moving to the Line when the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes, Belgium] occurred on 16 December. They were the northernmost American division, so they were moved to the Bulge. They arrived in Marche, Belgium on 19 December. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer backs the story up to Geilenkirchen.] They established their command post in a school. The Germans were firing 88 artillery [Annotator's Note: German 88mm multi-purpose artillery] right down the road. Stern and his unit [Annotator's Note: 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division] were in the basement of the school. The Germans had knocked the top two floors off. The battery set up a mess hall in part of the basement, but it had to be accessed by going outside. Stern's men blew holes in the wall to be able to use it, as the artillery landing around them was intense. Stern says everybody was scared but well trained. They received their first casualties from the artillery fire. Stern was the operations officer and ran the fire directions center, controlling all artillery fire. They left the Bulge and went back to assist the infantry in breaking through the Siegfried Line. Stern would have artillery fire within 50 yards of the infantry, particularly at night as protective fire. Stern would not allow anyone else to fire the guns except for him. Stern would go on reconnaissance patrols with the battalion commander who was often lost. Stern would relieve his anxiety by counting dead bodies. [Annotator's Note: Stern laughs.]

Annotation

The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes, Belgium] was a rough period for Herbert Stern. The weather was disgraceful. In the Bulge, the battalion commander spent most of his time with the regimental infantry commander. Their main job was direct support of the 333rd Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: 333rd Infantry Regiment, 84th Infantry Division]. Stern was left with the battalion [Annotator's Note: 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division] since he was the senior major. The first night in Belgium, Stern walked down a road and a Belgian lady was walking up the road waving her hands and screaming "Les Boches! Les Boches!" meaning "Germans!" Things were so confused there that Stern had no idea if anyone was in front of them or not. Normally the artillery would be behind the infantry. Stern moved the battalion behind an infantry unit he had been able to locate. That night the Germans took over the area they had just left. The men were ill prepared for the weather there as they had no winter wear at all. For artillery to fire accurately, the unit has to register the guns [Annotator's Note: procedure of adjusting the fire of the guns onto targets, and recording the final data of elevation and deflection needed to hit particular targets]. The forward observers could not see anything at all due to the fog and snow. Stern defied orders not to leave the command post and went out to do the observations himself. He discovered a crossroads he could identify. That night a German armored force came through on that crossroads. Twelve American battalions were able to fire upon that force. Stern feels that this incident stopped the German penetration there. In Belgium, before arriving in the Ardennes, Stern and his men were shown the VT fuse [Annotator's Note: Variable Time fuse, also known as a proximity fuse], a fuse that would burst about 20 yards above the ground. This was brand new. They trained on it near Aachen, Germany. During the Battle of the Bulge they used them with devastating results for the enemy. The resulting shrapnel field would be deadly for Germans in foxholes or under cover. They used those fuses for the rest of the war.

Annotation

Herbert Stern and his unit [Annotator's Note: 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division] left the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes, Belgium] and returned to northern Germany. The British troops were on their left there. Stern had a good relationship with his men. They crossed the Roer River and went through the Siegfried Line [Annotator's Note: defensive wall built by Germany in the 1930s] moving to the Rhine River. They were in combat this entire time. At the Rhine, his battalion commander decided to go on leave to the Riviera [Annotator's Note: French Riviera, or Côte d'Azur, southeast France on the Mediterranean coast] leaving Stern in command. They had established a command post in a flak tower. They received a lot of fire orders and were shooting into Duisburg, Germany. Stern felt that there could not be that many targets over there, so he decided to inspect the observation post. Not wanting his men to see him coming, he asked the Military Police to check it out to see if anything was going wrong. The MPs discovered Stern's three-man forward observation team was living with three German girls there. He relieved the team of their duties and reduced the non-commissioned officers in rank. He could not do anything about the officer regarding his rank. He proffered court-martial charges against him because he had violated General Eisenhower's [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower] non-fraternization law. He then received a call from General Barrett who told him he should not proffer the charges. Stern told him he could remove the charges but that would be his choice and not Stern's. The General removed the charges against the officer. Two weeks later, Stern received a letter from General Eisenhower stating that Stern was derelict in duty for failing to take disciplinary action against the officer. Stern feels that General Barrett was an honorable man though, as he took responsibility. After the war, Stern looked into his records and found that the letter from Eisenhower was still in his file. [Annotator's Note: Stern laughs.]

Annotation

Herbert Stern and the 84th Infantry Division crossed the Rhine River [Annotator's Note: on 1 April 1945] and the Weser River bridge in the British area of operations [Annotator's Note: on 10 April 1945]. The division artillery operations officer, Lieutenant Colonel David Jones, went on a reconnaissance and was killed. Stern officially assumed command of his battalion [Annotator's Note: 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division] due to his commander taking the place of Jones. General Barrett visited and told Stern he was not the senior major in division artillery. Stern told the General that until they sent someone senior to them, he felt he was the commander. Barrett acquiesced. [Annotator's Note: Stern laughs.] About three days later, one of the infantry regiments was placed in Corps Reserves freeing up an artillery battalion. A group was formed of two battalions to support the 333rd Infantry Regiment. This meant Stern was now the commander of two battalions. He started leapfrogging them as they moved because they were going so quickly, around ten miles per day. He needed to maintain artillery support for the 333rd Infantry which was the combat team. The other battalion Stern was commanding was the 909th Field Artillery Battalion. He had moved the 909th forward into position while he was with the infantry squad leading the advance forward. He ordered his 325th Field Artillery Battalion to leapfrog the 909th when they were attacked by a German tank unit. Stern had provided training for his unit in direct targeting of moving units back in Camp Polk, Louisiana [Annotator's Note: now Fort Polk]. The 325th engaged the tanks directly and informed Stern who headed back to them. He then called for infantry support and General Bolling [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Alexander Russell Bolling] sent a force to them. The Germans moved into a wooded area and were fighting hard, but they were out of high-explosive ammunition and that saved lives. The Germans managed to destroy all of the American service equipment and set gasoline and trucks on fire. All of the unit's mail was lost and three men were captured but there was no loss of life. They were recommended for a Presidential Unit Citation during the war and then after the war by General Bolling, but were turned down both times. One reason was that they did not have enough casualties. Stern feels that is the reason they should have gotten the award.

Annotation

Herbert Stern and his units [Annotator's Note: atthis time Stern was commanding the 909th Field Artillery Battalion and 325th Field Artillery Battalion, 84th Infantry Division] were moving fast and operating as combat teams. The 333rd Regimental Combat Team, consisting of the 333rd Infantry Regiment and the 325th Field Artillery Battalion, both commanded by the youngest commanders in Ninth Army, one of which was Stern, were nearing Hanover, Germany. They were given most of the dirty jobs. General Bolling [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Alexander Russell Bolling] ordered them to move into Hanover before the Germans could establish a strong defense. Stern drove up where traffic was backed up for a mile waiting to cross a canal. [Annotator's Note: Stern says that maybe he should not tell this story.] Colonel Lou Truman [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Louis Watson Truman], nephew of Harry S. Truman [Annotator's Note: President Harry S. Truman] and chief of staff of the 84th Infantry Division, was at the bridgehead. Stern told him he had been ordered to cross, but Truman told him there was no way for him to do so. Stern pulled his column up, jumped in line, and crossed the bridge anyway. He exchanged words with Truman and then jumped in his jeep and took off across the bridge. [Annotator's Note: Stern laughs and says that Truman later became his boss.] Stern got into Hanover and prevented the Germans from establishing a firm defense. Stern drove through Salzwedel, Germany and stopped outside of a high fence. He discovered it was a concentration camp [Annotator's Note: female subcamp of Neuengamme concentration camp, liberated by the US Army on 29 April 1945] with 3,000 Jewish women in it. It was terrible. The women appeared to have been ill for years. They were emaciated, poorly fed. [Annotator's Note: There were non-Jews as well. The Army discovered over 90 corpses as well.] Stern and his men opened the gates, released the women, and burned the camp down. Some of the women went into a feed store and ate raw grains which swelled in their stomachs. It was really bad. The division was able to get them into a German hospital. While his unit was stalled waiting for the Russian Army, Stern went back to see what had happened to the women. He said he did not recognize the women. They had received care and food and were different people. It was a great act on the part of the military. They had not known about the camps until they arrived there.

Annotation

Herbert Stern and the 333rd Regimental Combat Team, consisting of the 333rd Infantry Regiment and the 325th Field Artillery Battalion, reached the Elbe River and were 51 miles from Berlin, Germany. General Bolling [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Alexander Russell Bolling] had ordered them to head for Berlin. They were assembled to cross the Elbe and move into Berlin and were just starting to build the temporary bridge when they received orders to stand down. They had to just sit and wait for the Russians to arrive first. Despite having been told not to cross and encounter the Russians, Stern and two others did so anyway. They left their guns and valuables behind, rowed a boat across, and then spent three days with the Russian troops. The Russians used both horses and armor. The Russians handed them a mug of something to drink but Stern thought it was gasoline and purposefully spilled it on his jacket. Some days later it ate a hole in the material. [Annotator's Note: Stern laughs.] Stern said the Russians were tough and he is glad he did not have to fight them. Stern felt the German army was making every effort to get away from the Russians. They were trying to swim across the Elbe, and many were drowning in the attempt. A lot of them surrendered to the Americans and others were taken prisoners. Stern and the 84th Infantry Division had to move south because they were now located in the Russian zone of Germany. They moved into a town for a week or so. Stern was given a CID unit [Annotator's Note: Criminal Investigation Division] to screen German villagers to determine if they were Nazis. He was also responsible as the local government anywhere they were. The moved into the British zone and Stern was the military governor of 18 villages. At the Weser River, Stern saw a beautiful home on a hill while looking for a place to make his headquarters. A woman answered the door, spoke English, and told Stern that she had lived in Chicago, Illinois. She had returned to Germany in 1939 when Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] ordered all Germans back. [Annotator's Note: Heim ins Reich, back home to the Reich, was Hitler's policy to have ethnic Germans relocate to areas under German control between 1938 and 1944.] She told him her home was American property and he could not enter. Stern informed her that when she returned, she became German and it was now his headquarters. He told her to be out the next morning. His men took her and her mother out of the house in a horse and wagon. [Annotator's Note: Stern laughs.] They found a Buick limousine in the woods up on blocks and they got it back in shape. The town had been the center for German Olympic boat crews. He would put his men into the German boats for physical training as he and his driver smoked cigars in the Buick.

Annotation

Herbert Stern and his men were training every day during occupation duty, as they were convinced they were going to be sent to fight in Japan. Stern went to Heidelberg, Germany to visit a classmate of his, who told him that the Army was going to open some positions for promotions and to get his paperwork in by 1 September 1945. Stern was a major at the time. Stern called General Bolling [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General Alexander Russell Bolling]. Bolling already had Stern's papers on his desk and he personally took them to Seventh Army. Stern was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. A few weeks later, Bolling called Stern and told him that he could not go back to the United States with his unit. The Army wanted to assign Stern to a quartermasters group but Stern wanted to remain in the artillery. Bolling called Stern again and told him he had two sets of orders for him - one to the quartermasters group, and one to attend the French War College in Paris, France - and laughing, asked him which one he wanted. Bolling then told him to get a command car and two drivers and get to Paris as fast as he could. Stern joined two other American officers at the College and spent a year there. His time there was very interesting. Stern participated with all of the French officers. At the end of the course, Stern and Colonel Woody Stromberg delivered a lecture to the student body in French. Stern had gone on a 45-day leave to the United States. Stern was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany where he was joined by his wife and daughter.

Annotation

Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Stern was assigned to the 9th Infantry Division in Augsburg, Germany after attending the French War College in Paris, France. He joined the 60th Field Artillery and he assumed he was taking over command of the battalion. There was another lieutenant colonel already there and they got along really well and split the duties between them. They were handling displaced persons camps and repatriating people back to their home countries. The division was going back to the United States, but Stern had to remain. The Constabulary [Annotator's Note: United States Constabulary] was being formed to take over civil law enforcement in Germany. Stern was interviewed by the commanding general of the Constabulary in Heidelberg, Germany. Stern says he was an unreasonably stern commander who would relieve an officer for not having a haircut. The commander told Stern he thought he must want to command a squadron. Stern told him that he did not and that it was his understanding that he commanded all of the squadrons. The commander burst out laughing. He then asked Stern what he wanted to do. Stern said he did not know, so the commander told him to go back and take an appropriate job. Stern became the provost marshal for all of southern Bavaria [Annotator's Note: the largest German state by area]. As the law enforcement force after the war, they investigated crimes, controlled traffic, and more. The cities had their own police forces. Stern was responsible for the areas outside the cities of Munich and Augsburg, Germany. He returned to the United States in 1947.

Annotation

When Herbert Stern and his unit were on the way down from the north of Germany, the rubble in Frankfurt, Germany was stacked two stories high along the road. Old women were chipping cement of bricks and blocks. Stern thought there was no way Frankfurt could be rebuilt in the same location. Stern returned five years later, and you would never know there had been a war in the American zone. The Russian zone was a different matter. In 1947, Stern returned to the United States and was assigned to Headquarters, Army Ground Forces at Fort Monroe, Virginia for three years and one day. He was ordered to Saigon, Vietnam in 1950. He had been working on the Department of Defense Standardization Committee for General Jacob Devers [Annotator's Note: US Army General Jacob L. Devers], who retired and was replaced by General Mark Clark [Annotator's Note: US Army General Mark Wayne Clark; youngest four-star general in US Army during World War 2]. Clark said he would rescind the orders to Vietnam and Stern said not to. He was sent there because he had attended the French War College. The French were in command in Vietnam at that time and Stern got to work with some of his former colleagues. Stern's yearlong assignment there was to support the French and work with the nations of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, primarily a logistical operation. They had one incident where a shipload of rifles came in and they went to inspect that unit. The equipment had not arrived and a French staffer told him that they had been diverted to Algeria by the French. They were made to return them. Stern thought it was a losing proposition for the French there and it was just a meat grinder. The French were not being aggressive, and it was a sure loss. Stern thought that the United States should not get involved but was powerless to do anything. The French sent General de Lattre de Tassigny [Annotator's Note: French Army General Jean Joseph Marie Gabriel de Lattre de Tassigny; youngest French general in World War 2]. He stated that he and MacArthur [Annotator's Note: US Army General Douglas MacArthur] could win Indochina and requested M48 tanks [Annotator's Note: M48 Patton main battle tank]. Stern was the logistics officer and knew it was impossible to use tanks where Tassigny wanted them. He requested a bridge survey that showed that the maximum capacity of the bridges would not handle one tank's weight. Stern returned to Washington and passed along the request to much laughter. They gave them tank destroyers instead of tanks but even they were too heavy. Stern was then assigned to the Department of the Army general staff in logistics on a three-year assignment. He then went to the Army War College [Annotator's Note: United States Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania].

Annotation

Herbert Stern spent one year at the Army War College [Annotator's Note: United States Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania] and then was assigned to NATO [Annotator's Note: North Atlantic Treaty Organization] headquarters in Naples, Italy. He was involved in the defense planning for the eastern NATO area of Turkey. His next assignment was to the Joint Advanced Study Group in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Annotator's Note: body of senior uniformed leaders in US Department of Defense, advises President, Secretary of Defense, Homeland Security Council and National Security Council on military matters]. When General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower] was Chief of Staff of the US Army, he had created a group of young officers to look 20 years into the future. The Joint Chiefs took that concept to the Joint Staff. Stern represented the US Army in a group of four who spent two years doing this work. Stern was extended for one more year and worked directly for the President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower. The President had a highly classified problem he wanted the answer to. Stern and his group spent a year working on it. The final presentation by the group to the President was in the White House with no one else present except for the President's son and General Goodpaster [Annotator's Note: US Army General Andrew Jackson Goodpaster, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, 1969 to 1974]. After the presentation, the President told General Twining [Annotator's Note: US Air Force General Nathan Farragut Twining; Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, 1953 to 1957; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1957 to 1960] that the Study Group could make the presentation to the chairmen of the Joint Services, but that they were not allowed to comment. Stern and one other study group partner made the presentation. General Curtis LeMay, Chief of the Air Force, stood up and walked out on the presentation. He did not come back. The Air Force member of the Advanced Study Group was relieved from his job the next day because of it. The research is still classified. The Group's clearances had to be signed by President Eisenhower due to the sensitivity of the subject matter. Stern then left the Joint Chiefs of Staff assignment and because of the research, he was prohibited from leaving the United States for two years. He was assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado where he was to be the chief of staff of the Second Missile Command.

Annotation

Herbert Stern was sent to Fort Carson, Colorado to be the chief of staff of the Second Missile Command. He was told to report to the commander upon arrival regardless of the hour. He did so and was informed that the command was being inactivated. Stern was offered two jobs and he elected to take over the Advanced Training Regiment, a 6,000-man regiment. He was there for four or five months and then went to be the deputy director of a free maneuver unit involving two divisions at the Army Desert Training Center. He returned from that to become the chief of staff for two years in an infantry command. He then was assigned to the Combined Military Planning Staff of the Central Treaty Organization headquartered in Ankara, Turkey, which took him to Iran as well as Turkey. He spent two years doing that. He was in Tehran, Iran and General Wheeler [Annotator's Note: US Army General Earle Gilmore Wheeler; Chief of Staff of the United States Army, 1962 to 1964; Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1964 to 1970] was having a reception. Stern went to the reception and Wheeler told Stern he wanted him back on the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Annotator's Note: body of senior uniformed leaders in the US Department of Defense that advises the President, Secretary of Defense, Homeland Security Council and National Security Council on military matters]. Stern told Wheeler he only wanted to return if he received a promotion, which Wheeler could not do. In Washington D.C., a friend told Stern there were orders for him to return but Stern said he would refuse to do so. Stern was placed on an emergency reserve list for the Joint Staff and then sent to the Institute of Advanced Studies at the US Army War College in Carlisle Barracks [Annotator's Note: United States Army War College, Carlisle Barracks, Carlisle, Pennsylvania]. He was then the chief of the strategy branch there. After two years there, he got to thinking he would be sent to Vietnam. He had never agreed with our policy there, so he decided to retire.

Annotation

Herbert Stern spent a lot of time in Turkey and Iran. The Turks are a tough people he feels. They are hardy and proud, and he formed close friendships there. Stern worked for an Iranian officer in the Combined Military Planning staff and he did not think much of him or the Iranians. He felt that they were deceptive, and it was hard to know they would tell the truth. Stern enjoyed the country but had no faith in their military and felt they would not last long if the Russians ever invaded. Stern did not see the Iranian problems of 1970s coming and feels that the Shah of Iran [Annotator's Note: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi or Mohammad Reza Shah; the last Shah (Emperor) of Iran, 1941 to 1979] did a lot of good there. Stern spent a lot of time in Iranian villages. He took officers from Iran and Turkey along the Central Treaty railway that was being built. Every small village had a health center which was a great accomplishment. Stern would say the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945, Ardennes, Belgium] is his most memorable experience of World War 2 because of the horrible conditions they were fighting under. When Stern graduated from West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy, West Point, New York], he looked forward to a 30 year career with retirement as a lieutenant colonel. Because of World War 2, he achieved that rank just 50 months later. He commanded a battalion in combat. He never imagined that would take place. To Stern, The National WWII Museum is very important and the war should never be forgotten because of what the world went through. When the United States ended that war, we had a professional fighting force that could have gone a lot further if we wanted to and if it had been necessary.

All oral histories featured on this site are available to license. The videos will be delivered via mail as Hi Definition video on DVD/DVDs or via file transfer. You may receive the oral history in its entirety but will be free to use only the specific clips that you requested. Please contact the Museum at digitalcollections@nationalww2museum.org if you are interested in licensing this content. Please allow up to four weeks for file delivery or delivery of the DVD to your postal address.