FORT SILL, Okla. (Nov. 21, 2013) -- Retired Lt. Col. Jerry Orr remembers all the people who helped him develop as a person and influenced his military career.
From his parents who taught him to respect everyone to ROTC instructors in college to junior enlisted Soldiers who kept him straight on regulations to superiors who he said were great leaders.
Orr, a Lawtonian, was one of 10 Oklahomans inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame Nov. 9 during a ceremony at the Jim Thorpe Events Center in Oklahoma City. He was also presented the Major General Douglas Dollar Distinguished Service Award for his continued service to veterans, and for community service.
"It is an incredible honor to be selected, and then to get the General Dollar award on top of that," Orr said. "I heard the citations of the others inducted including Medal of Honor recipients, and it's such an honor."
Retired Lt. Col. Edward Sloniker, a field artillery officer, who was born at Fort Sill, and lives in Edmond, Okla., and the late Navy Capt. Robert Joe Kelsey, a Lawton native, were also inducted.
Orr, a member of the Lawton Chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America, was nominated by the group for his illustrious military career and the decorations he received.
ARMY BEGINNINGS
Orr, who is one month shy of turning 79, first arrived at Fort Sill in 1957. He was a newly commissioned second lieutenant who had completed the ROTC program at Centenary College in Shreveport, La.
A physical education major, Orr was told he was going into the medical branch. However, a couple months before entering the Army, his assignment was changed to field artillery. Orr said he was a little perturbed. "I had made all these plans to become a physical therapist."
In the field artillery officer basic course, the young lieutenant struggled with the survey curriculum. He said he was never strong in math and trigonometry.
"We didn't have computers in those days. We had slide rules and stubby pencils," he said.
One day at the golf course here Orr was feeling down. An older black gentlemen who was working there cleaning clubs said, "What's the trouble lieutenant?"
Orr was surprised that he recognized he was a lieutenant since he was in civilian clothes. Orr proceeded to tell him about his academic difficulties.
The man told him that thousands like him have come through Fort Sill, and felt the same way. "What you have to do is knuckle-down, pay attention and work hard," the man said.
"I went back to my studies and I did terrific," Orr said.
The man turned out to be retired Master Sgt. James Johnson Sr., whose son Albert Sr. would become superintendent of schools in Lawton, and whose grandson, retired Lt. Col. Albert Johnson Jr., is Cameron University's vice president for university advancement.
KOREA
In 1958, Orr's first assignment was at Observation Post (OP) Lola, Korea, near the demilitarized zone.
One night Orr and his men got into a small arms firefight with the North Koreans and he relayed this back to headquarters. They nonchalantly replied, "yeah, they'll do that." Orr would be in three or four more skirmishes during his one-year tour.
Orr also remembered the Korean winter.
"It was so cold climbing and getting to the tops of the mountains to the OPs because you couldn't drive up there," he said. "I've never been so cold in my life."
He then returned to Fort Sill as a battery commander in the 1st Missile Brigade, which fired Redstone and Corporal missiles. Working under Bert Spivy, the brigade commander, he followed Spivy to the Joint Strategic Targeting Agency at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., when Spivy selected him to be his aide-de-camp in 1961.
Orr then returned to Fort Sill to command a Little John artillery rocket unit.
On a blind date in Lawton, Okla., then-Captain Orr, 28, met his future wife, Jean. He remembers introducing his date to his father, Isaac Newton Orr, who was visiting. His father was so impressed with Jean, that he told his son he'd be a damned fool if he didn't marry her.
They married in September 1963, at Fort Sill. A year later they had their first child, a girl, Stacey who was born at Taylor Hall here.
GERMANY
The Orrs then went to Germany for three years. Jerry served at McCully Barracks, first as a motor transport officer, then as a personnel officer and next as a Pershing missile battery commander. In his last position he was a major and an operations officer.
On that tour, Jean and Jerry had a son they named Patrick.
"In Germany, you come back with either a cuckoo clock or a kid, I came back with both," Orr said.
VIETNAM '69
During Vietnam, Orr served as an operations officer of a 105mm battalion in the A Shau Valley. He fought the same units of the North Vietnamese Regular Army, who had fought the Americans four years earlier at Ia Drang Valley. He remembered the brutality of the Viet Cong, who butchered a local hill-people chief and his family, because they were friendly to American Soldiers, who provided the village with medical aid.
In his yearlong tour, Orr received two Purple Hearts, and the Soldier's Medal.
"One of our bunkers got hit by mortars ... a couple of our guys got hurt and I was pulling them out," Orr said, of his Soldier's Medal actions.
CLAIM TO FAME
After graduating from the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., Orr was assigned to the Pentagon at a research and development office.
He remembered a researcher, who was developing something to replace C-rations, giving him samples to try over the weekend.
"I tried them and I told him that it beat the heck out of the old World War II C's, but it needed a little something so I added a little Tabasco [sauce]," Orr said. "He says, 'Great idea.'"
That little bottle of Tabasco sauce that comes packaged in MREs is there because of Jerry Orr, he said.
From 1977-1979, Orr served as the executive officer at Fort Riley, Kan. He retired from that position, and he made it a point to attend the retirement ceremony at Fort Sill.
After retirement, Orr did a variety of jobs including stock broker, Chi-Chi's restaurant co-owner, and marketing in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Currently, he is an executive with the Boy Scouts of America, and active with veterans service organizations and Fort Sill units.
What does Orr think of today's Soldiers?
"They're outstanding," he said. "If I had some of these Soldiers, I'd be a four-star general. It's incredible -- their commitment, their knowledge. They got your back."
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