I never saw an officer who cared so much for his troops and so little for his career. I guess he figured the Army brass couldn’t do anything worse to him than the Vietcong already tried, and he was exceptionally high on the VC’s shit list. Strangely enough, after a tour of duty at Campbell that included him punching out the provost marshal (the Army’s version of a police chief) in front of everyone at the officer’s club, they promoted him to bird colonel and gave him a really good follow-on assignment.
This was a good one: Cactus Jack had a monthly officer’s call at the O Club, in which they’d all get together, have dinner and talk about their issues. We had a platoon leader in battalion who was third generation airborne - her father and grandfather were both airborne, and the wings she wore on her hat were worn by them both. Well, the PM was in there drunk as shit, saw her hat on the table, started screaming about how worthless paratroopers were, then threw her hat on the ground and stepped on it. So…McGuinness beat the shit out of him. Got away with it too…it probably helped that the division commander was wearing his father’s wings.
He had this neat tradition. When a company commander took over a unit, he gave the captain an unopened bag of nonjudicial punishment forms, and a charge: your job is to lead your soldiers so effectively you return this to me unopened at the end of your command. Most of them were able to.
Another good McGuinness story. One day we were all at the Troop Medical Clinic getting our flu shots. This clinic served my battalion and also the Division Artillery. Well…the DIVARTY commander was a five-foot-tall full bird named Dudley Tademy. Tademy is apparently one of the finest artillery officers to ever serve, but he was also a world-class prick. Tademy walked in the front door, saw a medic he thought needed a haircut, and fired him on the spot in front of 200 people - something you’re not supposed to do, but Tademy didn’t give a shit about that. Then he got on the phone to the Medical Department Activity commander to have him come get this guy and bring another one with a better haircut. While Tademy was screaming at this other colonel on the phone, McGuinness walked in the back door. One of our guys, who showed up after Tademy threw a fit, yelled “at ease” as you do when a colonel walks in. Tademy put down the phone and screamed, “next time anyone yells that while I’m in here, it better be for a general officer!” So McGuinness walked to the front, took one look at Tademy, and said “damn, they have an expensive answering service in this place!”
My group commander in Korea was Paul Menoher, who retired a three-star general. One day he asked me what unit I came from before going to Korea. “311th MI, sir.” “Cactus Jack’s outfit, right?” “Yes sir.” “How did you get so lucky?”
Jack McGuinness would make you better than you thought you could be…just by being around him. That’s why I call him the last good colonel.
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