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LTG Orwin
C. Talbott (Ret)
United States Army
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Orwin Clark Talbott was born in San Jose, California,
on 18 June 1918, the son of Ernest O. and Violet S. Talbott. Attending
the University of California he was commissioned and called to active
duty in 1941. Assigned to the 40th Division he was commissioned
in the Regular Army in 1942 an immediately assigned to the 90th
Infantry Division, which was activated and trained in Texas. Talbott
remained with this unit throughout World War II, rising from platoon
leader to battalion commander. Among his World War II decorations
are three Purple Hearts and five campaign stars.
During the Normandy invasion he was a rifle company
commander in the 359th Infantry Regiment, attached to the 4th Infantry
Division as a part of the assault force for UTAH Beach. He was on
the USS Susan B. Anthony AP-72 which was the largest ship sunk in
the Normandy invasion. He landed in the morning of D+1 and ended
the war in Czechoslovakia.
In addition to the Norman command, staff and school
assignments Talbott was military assistant to two Secretaries of
the Army and Executive Officer to an Army Chief of Staff, staying
as his Executive Officer when the latter became Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff and then Supreme Allied Commander-Europe (SACEUR).
In the Vietnam War he commanded the First Infantry
Division (The Big Red One), serving as a general officer in combat
with that famous unit longer than any other officer in Vietnam.
This was followed by command of Ft. Benning, the Army’s world-famous
Infantry School, again serving longer than anyone in thirty years.
His final active duty was as the first Deputy Commander of Training
and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). In this position among other duties
he was in charge of the Army’s schools, training centers and
ROTC. He retired as Lt. General in 1975.
For five years subsequently he directed Maryland’s
historic preservation programs before retiring again. He has since
chaired the state commission on Maryland’s 350th anniversary,
chaired the state’s St. Mary’s City Commission (roughly
compared to Virginia’s Jamestown), been on several volunteer
boards (all related to the history of Maryland or the military),
and for seventeen years served as the president of the Society of
the First Division, that unit’s veterans organization. He
is a member of the Army and Navy (town) Club and the Society of
the Cincinnati.
Talbott has been married to the former Nell Coughran
of Texas, has two children and three grandchildren. He resides in
Washington, DC.
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