Jerry D. Pritchett In The Spotlight

Jerry D. Pritchett graduated from East Texas State University in the spring of 1967, and enlisted in the U.S. Army in September, 1969 under the OCS College Option program. After attending Basic Combat Training and Advanced Individual Training, he was briefly assigned to the 2d Battalion 21st Infantry, 24th Infantry Division at Fort Riley, Kansas. During this tour, he participated with his battalion in the redeployment of the 24th Division to Germany to participate in large scale training exercises with pre-positioned equipment.

Lieutenant Pritchett was assigned to B Company, 2d Battalion 28th Infantry in May of 1969. His initial assignment with Dauntless Bravo was first platoon leader. The Fire Support Base the company worked from then was Aachen, in MR III, north and west of Lai Khe. Later, the battalion built an FSB which was soon abandoned to the elements when it turned into a mire with the onset of seasonal rains. At that time the battalion was attached to the Third Brigade, Lai Khe. During this period, the company conducted small unit operations, reconnaissance-in-force, combat patrolling, ambush patrols, and provided security to Division Engineers conducting Rome Plow operations on the axis of infiltration into Saigon. The platoon and company also provided security to U.S. Navy Riverine Forces operating on the Saigon River.

The battalion moved onto Fire Support Base Mahone in the summer of that year, and participated in "Dong Tien", Progress Together, operations with battalions of the 5th ARVN Division. The 2d-28th shared FSB Mahone, then renamed Kien, for an ARVN commander killed in action. In the late summer of 1969, Pritchett was reassigned as the Executive Officer of B Company. It was during September that his first child, a daughter, Stacey, was born in the United States. During that fall, the battalion was reassigned to the First Brigade, and the battalion rear moved overland from Lai Khe to Dau Tieng, in a base area of the Michelin Rubber Plantation. He was reassigned to the brigade headquarters in the late fall as the Brigade S-3 Air.

When the Division left Viet Nam, he was assigned to the Infantry Training Center at Fort Polk Louisiana, where he commanded a BCT company, he was promoted to Captain, and later was Aide-de-Camp to the commanding general. While assigned to Fort Benning for the Advanced Course, his second child, son Sean, was born. He also attended the Basic Airborne Course during this tour at The Infantry School.

In 1973, upon completion of the Infantry Officers Advanced Course, he was assigned to the Third Armored Division in Germany. During that tour, he served as battalion S1, S4, and commanded C Company, 3d Battalion. 36th Infantry (M). He then served with the 9th Infantry Division, Fort Lewis Washington from 1977 until 1980 as an Organizational Effectiveness Staff Officer with the headquarters, and then the S1 of the First Brigade. During this assignment to Fort Lewis, his marriage ended in divorce. It was also during this tour he was promoted to Major.

In 1980, he was assigned to the Organizational Effectiveness Training Center at Fort Ord, California. While at Fort Ord, he completed the Command and General Staff Officers Course. In 1983, he was again assigned to Germany, serving with the 59th Ordnance Brigade in Pirmasens as officer personnel manager, and later the Adjutant General/Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff, Personnel, where he served until 1986. During this tour with the 59th, he married an ordnance officer, Josephine Kwiatkowski.

When he returned to the United States in 1986, he was assigned to the Readiness Group, Fort Dix, New Jersey. He retired from military service in October, 1987, and relocated to Taylor, Pennsylvania. He has since been employed by the Department of Public Welfare as a Field Personnel Officer at the Farview State Hospital, at Waymart, and the Department of Corrections in the same capacity at the State Correctional Institution, Frackville. His daughter Katherine was born in 1990. He resides with his wife Josephine and daughter Katie in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.