Lt. Gen. Freakley bids Knox farewell

By BRIAN LEPLEY
Public Affairs Office
At a discontinuation ceremony Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley bids farewell to Fort Knox as commanding general of U.S. Army Accessions Command and Fort Knox.
The first part of this interview begins with Lt. Gen Freakley discussing his military experiences during his career, and his work with Accessions Command. The second half of the interview will cover his time at Fort Knox.
Q. What inspired you to join the military in the first place?
A. My dad, both from his example and I think I’ve told some other people this…when I was 12 years old my brother was graduating from University of North Carolina from the school of journalism. We were driving and my dad was getting ready to retire from the Army, and my dad said that he always wished that he had a son who went to West Point.
I also distinctly remember in the sixth grade, that my teacher Mrs. Willobey, on post at Fort Monroe, (Va.) her son was a first lieutenant in the Special Forces and he had come back from serving in Vietnam, before it was a conflict, where he was in an advisor role. He wore his uniform to the class. He had an old carousel slide projector and he showed slides of the rice patties and water buffalos, villages, the people. He took the class to a place we had never been. He was a very inspiring first lieutenant and I thought, that guy was a pretty neat guy. So it was by my father’s example, and my brother who served as seeing others who were serving.
When I was one month old, my father moved us to Fort Benning, Ga., and he went to the Korean War. It was his second time to go to combat as he was a World War II veteran and when he came home, for the next five years, we lived at Fort Benning.
So, my first bugle call and my first uniform, my first jeep ride was as a 3-4-year-old at Fort Benning, which I remember greatly. My younger sister was born there. We lived in what was called a white elephant, it was four Families to a nice old 1930s four-plex built by the Work Programs Act, the WPA, during the depression, hardwood floors—nice place. Today, one block away, lives Capt. William Freakley, the grandson, now serving at Fort Benning. The Freakleys are into their third generation of infantry.
My father was of the World War II generation and he and his brother joined the Army right after Pearl Harbor. My mother’s sisters married service men and my uncle ended up being a first sergeant in the second world war and retired as a command sergeant major. Another uncle went to Naval ROTC and he was on a ship in the Atlantic in the second world war. My mother’s brother, who I never knew, was a fighter pilot in the second world war.
I was surrounded by this legacy of service growing up as a kid every time our Family got together.
Q. How did you react when you were told that you were going to take over Army Accessions Command?
A. I was a bit surprised initially. I was in Afghanistan serving as the commanding general with the 10th Mountain Division and I got a call in January 2007 telling me I was going to Accessions Command.
I was just surprised because I had not been in Recruiting Command, had not been in Cadet Command, and saw myself more as an operator. I didn’t know what they would do with me, and I didn’t have a clue. I then thought how exciting it was going to be to get to do the work that builds our Army.
Q. You’ve had a lot of initiatives in the four years you’ve been the commanding general of Accessions Command, taken it to a whole new level. Tell me what you think are the top accomplishments of yours that has positioned those commands for more success?
A. I think Accessions Command helped play a part in taking the pressure off of the recruiters. It bothered me greatly in 2007 to see these men and women, both the career recruiters and the detailed recruiters, who would come to Recruiting Command from combat and work more than six days a week and all hours. Being under intense pressure to build an Army, it was bothersome to me. I am very thankful and pleased that the commands are working together. Now they go together and there is synergy. They go into high schools and colleges and talk about recruiting and being a Soldier, we talk about Army ROTC, and we talk about West Point. We make the whole Army open to everyone who’s looking for a future.
Both with Recruiting Command and Cadet Command, we’ve seen a great increase in talent, both who is coming on the campuses and enrolling and enlisting in the Army. The Army is going to have all this great young talent for the next 20 or 30 years. The last two Medal of Honor recipients, in particular, are endemic to the type of person joining—selfless service, wanting to serve, wanting to take care of each other.
Q. The outreach programs to educators and other civilians that influence these young people have taken a leap under your stewardship.
A. We have really connected with educators in the United States, and we have shown them that the Army is a destination for service and education. It is not either or. It is not join the Army or go to school. You can be a Soldier who goes to school, and educators at all levels around the nation have embraced the way the Army trains and educates young people.
For a long time the Army and educators did not work together. Educators did not want young people going into the military. They didn’t support the Army in the 1960s; they wonder if they should support the Army now.
But the Army transformed and many educators now see it, understand it, and realize the Army is a great destination. So the education conferences have really opened the eyes of educators and in turn, the educators have opened the schools. Army ROTC is still the biggest single scholarship producer in America, $288 million last school year.
Q. Can you sum up the legacy of the U.S. Army Accessions Command?
A. I am so proud of the professionals that form the Accessions Command—we have a great team. I think when you look back, it was fortunate that as the Army entered into what has become prolonged combat operations in 2001 that the next year, 2002, saw the creation of Accessions Command. There was one command that would bring young people into the Army, be responsible to train them seven of those nine years. We developed a new approach to recruiting, new approach to ROTC, growth in Junior ROTC. We helped to transform basic combat training to prepare our Soldiers for the rigors of combat.
Fighting a long war with an all-volunteer force had never been done before now. To have a headquarters like Accessions Command integrating, coordinating and synchronizing the many missions that bring talent to the Army, is a significant achievement.
I understand the Army’s decision to deactivate Accessions Command and I support it as a Soldier. The way that I feel about it is that we formed a team, our Accessions Command staff, that went to the NCAA Final Four and we won, and now all of the players are going to other organizations in the NBA. There is still great talent, it is just that the team is breaking up—Fort Knox is really lucky to have that talent available to serve in their organizations.
Q. Let’s talk about your time at Fort Knox. How would you describe serving here with BRAC fully ramped up and those challenges?
A. It started four years ago when I first took command. We knew in 2007 that we were going to move out here and we formed the board of directors. It was very exciting to be involved not only with the on-post leadership, starting with Maj. Gen. Robert Williams, and I worked with Maj. Gen. Don Campbell, then Maj. Gen. Mike Milano, but also the off-post leadership, with Brad Richardson and the OneKnox team, retired Maj. Gen. Bill Barron and the CORE committee, retired Col. Don Williams and Mr. Swope, working with the mayors like Mayor Sheila Enyart and Mayor J.J. Duvall.
There was a lot of work involved but we had a great team of professionals led in large part by (now retired) Col. Scott Cotrell but supported by Col. Needham, then Col. Schwartz and now Col. Bruce Jenkins, and the garrison team, and the Corps of Engineers. All of those folks built infrastructure, changed the information technology, got the homes ready, got the schools ready … it was quite a journey. Then of course we moved out here and we have seen over the last year, the last images of seventy-one years of armor training. We have seen our tanks loaded on trains and training classes closed and those classes opening at Fort Benning. There’s an exciting aspect to all of that.
There were only two tank battalions in the Army in the years between the first and second world wars and one of those was at Fort Benning. When Gen. George Patton set up the 2nd Armored Division, it was at the Harmony Church area of Fort Benning. So to a degree, the Armor Center has come full circle. They have gone home.
But there is also a bit of melancholy feeling because for 71 years Fort Knox was the envy of the world in armor development, armor training and cavalry training. The M1 tank was envisioned here, the development of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle was helped along here. Armor combat and training doctrine was produced here. There is a bit of nostalgia in seeing them pack up and move.
But the other side of it, you know the Army Song says, ‘the Army goes rolling along,’ and all of these wonderful organizations are coming out here, coming together and creating synergy. U.S. Army Recruiting Command is recruiting young new Soldiers and U.S. Army Cadet Command is recruiting and training great new officers and Human Resources Command is assigning those Soldiers worldwide and managing their careers.
In fact, last summer 800 young cadets trained at Fort Knox to be lieutenants and one of those rascals could be the chief of staff of the Army in 30 years! And it all starts here. That is why strength starts here because the Army gets built from the organizations that are on post.
That’s why it has been very satisfying to see the growth. It’s been the first time I’ve turned a shovel of dirt over and years later put my office in the building that sprung up out of the dirt. You kind of like it as a commander when the plan works.
Just the outreach from the communities to want to be a part of it, wanting to be hosts to our teams that have arrived here, the outpouring of support for the Adopt-A-Platoon program. You have so many different people from Louisville to Radcliff to Elizabethtown that adopted the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Barbara Proffitt and her team at the hospital have personally adopted the 233rd Transportation Company. The Meade County Chamber is adopting the 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), so as they get ready to leave, the Meade County team is ready to support them. Every community is embracing our Soldiers, our Families, our civilians, looking for opportunities to work together. That’s what’s been so very encouraging is to see the plan worked, and the plan get executed.
You know the other day I came back from Louisville and all the way from the gate to the Lt. Gen. Maude Complex was bumper-to-bumper traffic. And I thought, all of those people have a job, they’re leaving work and going home, and how great it was that those civilians were headed home to go to Little League baseball games, or take their sons or daughters fishing, and they have the satisfaction of having a job on Fort Knox; I thought it was pretty neat. BRAC helped transform Fort Knox and provided opportunities here; other areas weren’t so lucky.
Q. Another part of the BRAC change here is two more large deployable units, the 3rd Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. Let’s talk about the stamina and endurance of this Army as they are going through multiple deployments.
A. The Army has been under strain. I have a son in Afghanistan for his first deployment, but his platoon sergeant is on his fifth deployment. So over the last 10 years, every other year, he has been gone on deployment. Leaders have been gone half the time.
On the optimistic side, the Army is still performing extremely well. We don’t get beat in battles, we don’t have a lot of accidents in theater. We have this wonderfully trained, combat-hardened leadership corps that knows what it is to endure the rigors of combat, and they know how to prepare their Soldiers better because combat isn’t an idea, it’s something they’ve dealt with three and four years of their lives. But now with the end of combat operations in Iraq and the president having directed 33,000 to come home from Afghanistan, Soldiers will be deployed for a lesser amount of time, and will have more time between deployments. Our challenge will be to help those Soldiers and their Families gain resiliency after combat and encourage them to prepare units for what the nation will need. Now is the time that the Army will reset itself to be ready for the future.
But even during this time of strain, our retention and enlistment numbers are remarkable and historic, young people who want to serve the country, we’re very grateful to them and their Families. Remarkable talent is coming through the Recruiting Command and Cadet Command— the highest we’ve seen since 1992.
Q. What has been the greatest challenge so far in your career?
A. The greatest challenge has been trying to keep units ready to fight in eras of reduced resources. We go through cycles. In the 1970s, the Army was not very well resourced. It was very hard to train and to be ready because you did not have the manpower, did not have the money for training or equipment you might need. So you were challenged to be ready.
By the time we get into the 1980s the Army is building up in the Cold War and we were adding the Apache helicopter and the MLRS, the Abrams Tank, and the Bradley Infantry Fighting vehicle. We are becoming an all-volunteer force and moving away from the wonderful draftees who served. There were more resources for us to train and to be ready. We were very ready when we went to Desert Storm. I think the American military showed that.
But what happened after that? We started bringing down resources and so we took people out of the Army and then you were still required to be ready for when the nation calls. So I think the greatest challenge that I have seen is trying to keep units ready in times of reduced resources.
We could be facing that cycle again as we come home from Afghanistan and we come home from Iraq and we face the nation’s economic challenges. We could face another period of time where we are not as resourced as we have been. It will be important for leaders to work as hard as they can to keep their units ready for the next time the nation calls them. For the nation, we must remain Army Strong!