Beaufort’s Bob Pearson, 76, enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1964 in Washington, D.C. After basic training and several levels of infantry training at Fort Jackson, he attended Officer Candidate School and Airborne school at Fort Benning before assignment at Fort Lewis, Wash. He next served his first Vietnam tour in the central highlands near Pleiku before becoming a Company Commander at Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Gordon. His next Vietnam tour took him with the 82nd Airborne near Saigon.
After Vietnam he was stationed in Germany, first with an armored division and then as a Company Commander in Ansbach. Returning to the States and Fort Gordon, he was an instructor and completed both a BS and an MBA degree. Next he was assigned to Fort Devens, N.Y., working with the Reserves and National Guard throughout the northeast.
Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, he was next assigned to Hawaii, first with CINCPAC, and then with the Army headquarters for the Pacific. He retired in 1990 as a Lieutenant Colonel with more than 29 years of active service. He later worked at the Savannah River site, as a teacher at a Georgia community college and he ran a commercial building maintenance company.
– Compiled by John Chubb, American Legion Post 9. For nominations, contact jechubb1@gmail.com.
