Family and education
Benjamin Cooling was born in New Brunswick, N.J.on 8 December 1938, the son of Benjamin F. Cooling II (1895–1959) and his wife, Helena E. née Weisshaar (1899–1981). His father was a research chemist by profession, and worked in both the private and public sector. [1] While attending Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C., he was cadet colonel in a junior ROTC program [2] and a star athlete in football and track 1955–1957t. [3] He received his Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University, [4] where he sang in the Glee Club, participated in the Scarlet Rifles (Army drill team), helped organize a Civil War Round Table with Earl Schenk Myers, was a dorm proctor, member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity and the History Club. [5] He received his Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and wrote his doctoral dissertation, Benjamin Franklin Tracy: Lawyer, Soldier, Secretary of the Navy in 1969. [6]
Career
Cooling's professional career spanned 60 years as a U.S. civil servant with the National Park Service, Department of Energy and Departments of the Army, Air Force and Defense. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve, from 1956 to 1963. [3] He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania, PMC Colleges, George Washington University, U.S. Army War College and retired as Professor of National Security and Resourcing Strategy at the National Defense University. [4] He is also a former officer and trustee of the Society for Military History, and received the Society's Victor Gondos Memorial Service Award. He is a past Fellow of the Company of Military Historians; he held an advanced research fellowship from the Naval War College in 1974. He has received the Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense, the Distinguished Research Award from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the Douglas Southall Freeman award from the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, the Fletcher Pratt award from the New York Civil War Round Table, and the Moncado award from the American Military Institute for his scholarship. [7]
Cooling is a renowned national security and Civil War historian, educator and lecturer who has published twenty-two books and over one hundred articles on aspects of military, naval and air history. He specializes in the development of the Military-Industrial Complex and national security state.
Fort Myer is the previous name used for a U.S. Army post next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Founded during the American Civil War as Fort Cass and Fort Whipple, the post merged in 2005 with the neighboring Marine Corps installation, Henderson Hall, and is today named Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall.
Frederic René Coudert Jr. was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York from 1947 to 1959, and a member of the New York State Senate from 1939 to 1946. Prior to serving in Congress, he was best known for his role with New York's Rapp-Coudert Committee, which attempted to identify the extent of communist influence in the state of New York's public education system. The committee's inquiries lead to the dismissal of more than 40 instructors and staff members at the City College of New York, actions the committee's critics regarded as a political "witch-hunt."
Samuel Baldwin Marks Young was a United States Army general. He also served as the first president of Army War College between 1902 and 1903. He then served from 1903 until 1904 as the first Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
Benjamin Franklin Tracy was a United States political figure who served as Secretary of the Navy from 1889 through 1893, during the administration of U.S. President Benjamin Harrison.
The Battle of Fort Stevens was an American Civil War battle fought July 11–12, 1864, in Washington County, D.C. in present-day Northwest Washington, D.C., during the Valley campaigns of 1864 between forces under Confederate Lieutenant General Jubal Early and Union Major General Alexander McDowell McCook.
The Valley campaigns of 1864 began as operations initiated by Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and resulting battles that took place in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the American Civil War from May to October 1864. Some military historians divide this period into three separate campaigns. This article considers them together, as the campaigns interacted and built upon one another.
Zophar Mack Mansur was an American Civil War veteran, lawyer, banker, and politician who served as the 40th lieutenant governor of Vermont.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States, was the center of the Union war effort, which rapidly turned it from a small city into a major capital with full civic infrastructure and strong defenses.
Peter Folger or Foulger was a poet and an interpreter of the American Indian language for the first settlers of Nantucket. He was instrumental in the colonization of Nantucket Island in the Massachusetts colony. He was the maternal grandfather of Benjamin Franklin.
Jubal Anderson Early was an American lawyer, politician and military officer who served in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War. Trained at the United States Military Academy, Early resigned his United States Army commission after the Second Seminole War and his Virginia military commission after the Mexican–American War, in both cases to practice law and participate in politics. Accepting a Virginia and later Confederate military commission as the American Civil War began, Early fought in the Eastern Theater throughout the conflict. He commanded a division under Generals Stonewall Jackson and Richard S. Ewell, and later commanded a corps.
Beverly Francis Carradine was an American Methodist minister and a leading evangelist for the holiness movement. He was a productive author, writing primarily on the subject of sanctification. The patriarch of the Carradine family, he was the grandfather of actor John Carradine and great-grandfather of actors David, Keith, and Robert Carradine.
Brigadier General Henning Linden was a United States Army officer who served in World War II. He was notable for his role in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp while serving as assistant division commander (ADC) of the 42nd Infantry Division.
Clayton P. Kerr was a major general in the United States Army. A longtime member of the Texas Army National Guard, he was prominent for his service as deputy commander of the Allied Military Mission to the Italian Army during World War II, and his post-war assignments as commander of the 49th Armored Division and Director of the Army National Guard.
Charles Schroeter was a United States Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the American Indian Wars, while serving with Company G, 8th Regiment of the United States Cavalry. A German immigrant, his military career spanned thirty-one years, from 1863 to 1894, during which he also saw action in the American Civil War. He also served a tour of duty in the United States Marine Corps. After retirement from the military, he became a merchant.
Vincent Patrick O'Rourke was a World War II United States naval aviator in the Pacific theater and two time recipient of the Navy Cross, the Navy's second highest award for valor after the Medal of Honor. After the war, he was commanding officer of a number of aviation units as well as USS Rainier (AE-5) and USS Tripoli (LPH-10).
Frank W. Coe was a major general in the United States Army. He is notable for having served as the Chief of Coast Artillery.
Hardy Rogers Franklin was an American librarian and served as president of the American Library Association from 1993 to 1994.
Jay Luvaas was an American military historian who was an expert on the American Civil War and the history of military theory. He was the first civilian to hold a visiting professorship of military history at West Point, and was a professor of military history at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was the founder of the modern military staff ride, and was a two-time recipient of the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal of the Department of the Army.
Alan Louis Gropman is an American retired military officer, college professor, and author. Gropman served 27 years on active duty in the United States Air Force, finishing his career as a colonel. After retiring from the Air Force, he became a professor of history and grand strategy at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, an institution that is part of the National Defense University. He later became an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and George Mason University. Over the years, Gropman has written four books and over 600 articles. He has also made six appearances on C-SPAN.
Francis Henry "Fran" Horn was an American educator with expertise in English literature and higher education who served as a university administrator at several institutions in the Eastern United States, and served as president of several colleges and universities, including the Pratt Institute from 1953-1957, the University of Rhode Island (URI) from 1958 to 1967, Albertus Magnus College from 1968-1970, and the American College of Switzerland from 1972-1975. While serving as president of the University of Rhode Island, he oversaw the founding of two graduate schools, the Graduate Library School and the Graduate School of Oceanography, as well as the establishment of the URI Faculty Senate, and he managed rapidly increasing student enrollments and ambitious building projects on the URI campus. Despite his success in guiding the numerous building projects and building the national and international reputation of the university, he fell into political disfavor with the university's board of trustees primarily for his political aspirations, leading to his forced resignation from URI in 1967. Horn was elected as a member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1967, and he spend his retirement years after 1983 at his home in Kingston near the URI campus.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain .
