ANDREWS
Honorable Robert ANDREWS
Peacefully on December 2, 2022. “There must be a legislation in opposition to how keen we had been that day!” Bob Andrews referencing a day, Could 13, 1967 and his position as a part of the sixth Special Forces Group serving to put together Israelis for what would grow to be the Six Day Struggle.
Thankfully, nothing diminished Bob’s eagerness to serve, nor the mind, power and dedication that characterised that service for over 50 years. Impressed by the US Special Forces motto, “To Liberate the Oppressed” and formed by his expertise as a younger particular operations officer embedded in Vietnamese villages, Bob deeply understood the conduct of nationwide safety affairs, but additionally the implications whether or not or not it’s for a nation or a soldier.
Born in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1937, Bob was educated on the College of Florida in Gainesville. He majored in Chemical Engineering, acquired a fee as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army and went to function a Special Forces Inexperienced Beret in Vietnam, first from 1963-1965 and later from 1968-1969. After returning stateside, Bob had a tour educating R.O.T.C whereas receiving a grasp’s diploma in Asian Research later becoming a member of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. In 1974 he moved to the Army Employees in Washington DC.
The flexibility to type and articulate coverage whereas understanding, from firsthand expertise, the realities of its implementation, underpinned Bob’s a number of roles after leaving the Army together with on the CIA between 1975 and 1980 the place he served as Nationwide Intelligence Officer for East Asia. Later, as Senator John Glenn’s nationwide safety advisor, Bob was in a position to convey this attitude to Capitol Hill, whereas establishing a detailed, private relationship with the Senator who Bob seen as mentor and buddy.
After his time on Capitol Hill, Bob transitioned to the personal sector working for Rockwell Worldwide, McDonnell Douglas and The Boeing Firm main congressional relations and strategic evaluation operations centered on aligning enterprise pursuits with nationwide safety priorities, at all times reminding these round him that “the client” was not a DoD contracting officer, however fairly the women and men of the Armed Forces.
Authorities service referred to as once more in 2001, when President George W. Bush appointed Bob as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Protection for Particular Operations. Within the Pentagon on 9/11, Bob directed deployment of the fifth Special Forces Group into Afghanistan, aware from his time within the villages of Vietnam, that historical past is as vital as terrain and that customized, custom and tribal loyalty be can formidable obstacles to expertise. In July 2002, Secretary Rumsfeld assigned him as Deputy Director of the Afghan Attain-back Group after which in 2005 Rumsfeld moved Bob again to his position as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Protection for Particular Operations. In 2006 Bob assumed the workplace of Deputy Underneath Secretary of Protection for Counterintelligence till 2007 when he was appointed performing Underneath Secretary of Protection for Intelligence for a quick interval, earlier than a becoming return to his first service as Particular Assistant to the Secretary of the Army Pete Geren till 2009.
At intervals all through his profession Bob was additionally an completed writer beginning with The Village Struggle (College of Missouri Press), a research of communist political warfare. His articles and editorial commentary on protection and nationwide safety points appeared in The Washington Put up, USA Right now, The Worldwide Herald Tribune, Readers Digest, The Washington Occasions, Washingtonian Journal, and Navy Overview. His novel, A Homicide of Honor, was revealed by G.P. Putnam’s Sons in 2001. His second novel, A Homicide of Promise, got here out in hardcover in 2002, and appeared in paperback in 2003. His third novel, A Homicide of Justice, was revealed in August 2004. Earlier works included Heart Recreation, Final Spy Out (Bantam-Doubleday), To Kill the Hangman (a screenplay in collaboration with Victor Gold), Demise in a Promised Land, and The Towers (Simon & Schuster). Characteristically his writings mirrored deep subject material experience mixed, even in fiction, with problems with integrity, honor and accountability.
Recognitions of Bob’s service embody the Bronze Star, the Air Medal, the Army Meritorious Providers Medal, the Firm Infantry Badge, the Grasp Parachutist Badge and the Special Forces tab. The Republic of Vietnam awarded him the Gallantry Cross First Class. For his providers to the Division of Protection Bob acquired the Division of Protection Award for Excellent Public Service in 2007 and the medal for Distinguished Civilian Service to the US Army in 2009.
A embellished soldier, completed enterprise government, Senate confirmed nationwide safety chief, Bob was additionally a private mentor to numerous members of the Armed Forces, to pals, kids of pals and on a regular basis younger individuals with whom he shared classes discovered, views developed and a way of honor, not tutorial or unblemished, however actual and private. Equally, with restaurant servers, bartenders, constructing supers and other people a part of on a regular basis life, he knew their names and experiences they usually knew and skilled his care and generosity.
In chatting with a category of Inexperienced Berets at Fort Bragg in 2002, not lengthy after the nationwide tragedy of 9/11, Bob talked in regards to the significance of battlefield bravery, but additionally imaginative mind, the necessity to acknowledge totally different values even within the face of terrorism and the concept that a nation’s future could be formed by a devoted few. Searching over a brand new era of elite troopers, Bob concluded by saying “our nation is blessed to be defended by corresponding to you!” In fact, all those that have had the privilege of understanding, loving and respecting The Honorable Robert Andrews, would say the identical of him!
Bob shall be buried subsequent to his spouse, BJ, who he married later in life. He’s survived by his kids, Elizabeth Andrews, Julia Milstead, and Robert Andrews, in addition to his brother, Charley Andrews of Florida. He shall be interred at Arlington Nationwide Cemetery.
Revealed by The Washington Put up on Dec. 4, 2022.
