Earl Oliver Henry, Major (retired), United States Army, 1956-1977

I was born in a little town in Upstate New York by the name of Mexico, July 26^th, 1934.  Mexico is a small town of about 2500 on the East end of Lake Ontario in what is referred to as the “snow belt”.  It is called that because it often receives 300 inches of snow or more because of the northwesterly winds from Canada coming across the lake and dumping the moisture laden snow in an area approximately 20 to 30 miles wide, just a bit north of Syracuse, NY.  In fact, the major memories from my youth include the snow storms that used to isolate us for days at a time, one being over 90 inches in a continuous 3 day period.  Needless to say, we had several “snow days” during the winter months.

My parents, Oliver and Selma Henry, lived on a small farm and I had three older sisters and one younger sister.  We grew up during the last of the depression years but had a good childhood.  My father died in 1946 and we were forced to sell the farm to pay his hospital bills and we moved into the town itself.  I completed High School there and when I was about 21 took the test for NY State Trooper and received an appointment but  also received my draft notice before I could be sworn in.  Rather than do service as a draftee I enlisted in the Army Security Agency (ASA) (it sure sounded better than being an MP in Korea).  I went to Fort Dix for initial basic training then to Fort Devens, MA for specialty training as a traffic and crypt analyst.  I married my hometown sweetheart, Marcia DeLong, in 1957.  Our first tour was overseas to Germany.  We were in Heilbronn then at Kassel/Rothwesten where our first two children were born, until the wall went up and I returned for duty at the NSA, Fort Meade, Md.  We went from there to the Army Language School (ALS) in Monterrey, CA where I studied the Russian Language.  From there we were deployed to Homestead, FL for the Russian Missile Crisis (I’d go into more detail but I’d have to kill you).  From there we deployed to Chitose, Japan.  We had our third child while there and I was called to active duty in September 1966 as a First Lieutenant and assigned to Korea.  Marcia and the children stayed in our hometown (Mexico, NY) while I was in Korea.  That assignment was probably one of my best ones as I was given a Company on the DMZ and had some real excitement during the period that the ship Pueblo was captured by the North Koreans.  At the end of that assignment I was transferred to Berlin, Germany and my family accompanied me.   That was also a very good assignment but I was in a covert MI status while there.  From there I was transferred to Vietnam (RVN) while my family stayed in Bangor, ME, and again, my assignment in RVN was in a covert MI status.  At the end of that assignment I was sent to Fort Holabird, MD for the MI Officer’s Career course and from there to the University of Nebraska to complete my college degree.  After receiving my diploma I was transferred to Arlington Hall Station, VA, the Hqs of the Army Security Agency, where I finished my 20 years in the military service.  During those 20 years I had nearly 10 years enlisted service and the remainder of my 20 years and three months was as an officer, retiring as a Major in March 1977. During my military service I was fortunate to receive the Bronze Star Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army commendation Medal, the Good Conduct Medal (3 awards), the Army of Occupation Medal (Germany), the Vietnam Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Military Citation, the Military Unit Citation, the National Defense Service Medal, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with 4 stars, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal.

Subsequent to retiring from the Military in March 1977 I went to work as a Reservist for what was then the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration (FDAA), which was to become the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).  Again, I was very fortunate to become part of an expanding organization.  I became a full time employee in early 1981 under the Reagan Administration.  During my tenure there we formed and I became the Director of the Mobile Operations Division which had as its prime mission the support of all the Government agencies involved in Disaster response and recovery.  I ultimately had a force of about 330 personnel divided up into five Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS) units around the United States which included the lower 48 plus Hawaii and Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.  Needless to say we kept pretty busy and did quite a bit of travelling.   However, I believe we did a good job and were able to help the American people very much.  FEMA, as most of the government agencies, also had Continuity of Government functions.  Subsequent to my retirement from FEMA in Jan 1997 many of the FEMA functions came under the Department of Homeland Security.  As I did in my 20 plus years in the Military, I thoroughly enjoyed my 20 years with FEMA.

Since my full retirement in 1997, I have done various things to further my hobby of Gun Collecting, and I also have attended training with the Stafford County Sheriff’s Department and am a Volunteer with the Traffic Safety Unit of the Sheriff’s Office.   My wife and I enjoy travelling and when we had our 50^th wedding anniversary two years ago we took our children and their families on an ocean cruise during which we were able to renew our vows.  All in all I think I have been very fortunate in my life, both professional and family, and look forward to continuing the friendships we have been fortunate to cultivate here at Falls Run.