Donn Starry, 86, who helped rewrite Army plans for waging war a generation ago, died August 26 of cancer in Canton, Ohio. Many in the military cite him as a key architect responsible for rebuilding the U.S. Army following the Vietnam War. Starry helped draft and implement the Army’s so-called AirLand Battle conventional war-fighting doctrine as the service’s top trainer from 1977 to 1981. Its key test was the 1991 Gulf War, which the U.S. military passed handily. “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!” President George H.W. Bush declared.
“All we were trying to do,” Starry later said, “was build an Army that could go to war and our soldiers would win.” Here’s a newspaper piece published in Canton only three days before the World War II private turned West Point graduate turned four-star general (with a Silver Star, to boot) passed away. But his real legacy will remain his writing.
Bravo Zulu, General.
