European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - March 31, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Portrait of a i Renaissance Man in combat boots by Don Tate stiff writer a Burn 5 lilt. I Hini in e ,1 . If you it jul out la be a general smiles Liis general i m Mil sure you should be a  if you re miking a Bikul Brig. Gen. Timothy Lames , empty the Ileri Olyes in the . Luniw the  cliches at the door. Huw Many soldiers on the Road to mating general Over got relieved o command after refusing direct orders in Aliata the enemy in combat attack his commander had ordered. No sir colonel the Captain had replied. Dumb order. You attack if you want to. Or Dukch i out with a fellow officer Over what he regarded As callous stupidity beyond excuse and  relieved of command. When in came to the lives or his men Timothy  Grogan slopped being anybody s caricature of Ihn blindly bed enl Good Soldier Anda Cicdon his town bettor instincts. He did As they my in those Sli iries about heroes who do what they have to Ifo what he had to do. I is unusual  to generalship probably started with his Early desire logo West Point but he s not cute. It was t so much 1 wanted logo la become a Soldier. I m not sure i even knew what thai meant he says. I was just drawn  the  indeed the Young Grogan was drawn toward Many things. He was even a jazz trumpet player for a while. Bui whether the parts of his nature that eventually led him to become a scholar in medieval English and love Arl and teach poetry and go to he opera All he sensitive civilized stuff had anything to do with the nature of his decisions in Moody combat lie does t know. There was All along More than sensitivity to the its. His Inu Reti  to science and mathematics Ute geology and anthropology or Story and the Law and being Light i  boxing Champion of West 1 unit and coaching the us Vulf team and pitying basketball Anil Larne and football and Goll and the guitar. His favorite old English Aulow was so obscure nit body even knows his name for sure. In the age of the fullest flowering of trash culture Timothy James Crogan would come close to being a modern Renaissance Man in boots. And something Mote something not every Renaissance Man might have had issued in mental equipment. Ii was Bach in Portland Ore where his father was a policeman thai Young Grogan strongly considered a career in music. I was a trumpet player. I played jazz 1 thought t wanted to do it professionally. I did ii professionally looked at the life and said this is a bad life so music was one Avenue i thought about i guess when i was in High school i thought in terms of learning everything could learn and letting nature take us  there was that piece of him hat yearned for West Point. Ever since i was a Little  always inspired by others one key role Model was a close Friend later killed in Vietnam who attended the Academy who embodied the kind of traits i hoped to have myself Good athlete scholar Bright interesting interested in the world bul it never dawned on me to make the military a career. Probably stil has to says Crogan now 47, with 25 years in die army come summer. Ii just kind of happened hat Way. Going and coming around the in red All the experiences. I found there was great versatility in being an army  even West Point did Noi capture my soul he says. It gave me military training but still on the edges 1 was doing Many Oiler  he went to the Point during the glow and sudden darkness of the Kennedy years became an officer within two months of the Day John Kennedy was shot. He found the real world of the army  i was suddenly a platoon Leader Al fort Carson Colorado teaching Mountain climbing and survival Lank gunnery and dealing with soldiers that army he says was still kind of a past world War ii army on the Edge of  we did t talk Abnusi the russian threat we talked about some mythical aggressor and put funny uniforms on him and played  soon the Young Captain of tanks was gelling ready or the most believable adventure of his life. Going into Vietnam i suppose what i was concerned will most was How Well will i do in combat " a Man lends to wonder about things like thai he says. I was Young and virile you know and i wan cd to go find out. Right now but when he reported to 41 h div headquarter in Vietnam he go stuck on a staff lob for several months. All the while he strained at the bit asking himself How will i do am i a Good enough Leader three weeks before the tet offensive in january t9m, he went out to take command of a Lank company in the Central Highlands and the answers began la Roll in like Thunder. And not just about himself. About men in War about Leaden whose Little mistake filled body bags in the army i be been generally fortunate to have associated with some very very Good people. Teachers coaches trainers mentors who made ii worthwhile for me made in stimulating inspiring. But that s not always he Case. If you Don t work for Good people. It s a whole different experience in the experience of combat he would find out just How different. May 1968, Binh Dinh province. Not a place to leave a Soldier wondering for Long about his military com Perance or what kind of Ball bearings he s got inside himself Grogan and his Lank company Are temporarily attached to anole or battalion and getting into hell Aloui  they Are ordered to Rescue a company which has been overrun in a open area ringed by Hills and Jungle. Hundreds of n Vai North vietnamese Are coming Al the survivors from everywhere Al least a regiment around them Only about 25 americans Are left out o 1 so and the re in bad bad shape. Out there trying to dig into Rice paddles in an area reduced to no bigger than Hii  Crogan and his tanks Cut through the Nova lines and set up a Hasty perimeter around the trapped platoon. For hours thai s All there Are 12 tanks against a regimen. But during the Day he begins picking up reinforcements including air support and by afternoon with his ranks swelled to More than Jod men he counterattacks. But we could t gel fire superiority. There were Loo Many of them. And they were hard fighters. We fought in the same general Are All  Day and Hal  during the night choppers resupply them Wilh a Mountain of ammo in an ended perimeter now about 250 meters in diameter. 12 wipes Nugai Ine Norh 31, 1908