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<p><em>Kenneth Graham “Ken” Carlson</em> was born on September 6, 1944 in Detroit, MI, the second son of Gunnar C. and H. Mabel Carlson. His father, a member of the West Point Class of 1931, moved his family around the world. Not long after Ken’s birth the family joined then Colonel Carlson in Japan as one of the first American families to live in occupied Japan. Several Army moves later, Ken, then a teenager, moved with his family to Saigon. He was probably the first in his West Point class to see Vietnam. There Ken worked hard to improve his French after finding the Cercle Sportif was frequented by French teenage girls in bikinis. He first learned weapons techniques and shooting at his Boy Scout and Explorer camp in the mountains near Dalat. Returning to Washington, DC in 1958, Ken enrolled at George Washington High School. Then, nearing 6 feet 5 inches, he was immediately approached by the basketball coach. He became an elite rebounder and was his team’s starting center throughout his high school career. He excelled academically, graduating near the top of his class as a National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>In the fall of 1961, several universities were recruiting him with both academic and athletic scholarship offers. While his father was pleased that Ken’s older brother, Gunnar C. Carlson Jr., had also graduated from West Point (Class of 1961), he suggested that Ken would be wise to accept an offer from Princeton University. But Ken felt a calling to service after hearing President Kennedy’s Inaugural Address. On July 2, 1962, Ken followed in the footsteps of his father and brother and joined the Class of 1966. </p>
<p>Despite a challenging Beast Barracks, Ken’s plebe year was a success. He excelled academically, played plebe basketball for Coach Bobby Knight, and sang in the Glee Club and the Chapel Choir. His enthusiasm, easy smile, and sociability led to a spot on the Hop Committee for four years. One of Ken’s proudest experiences at West Point was being selected to join a provisional company that marched behind the caisson in President Kennedy’s funeral procession. In the classroom he continued his study of French and achieved fluency. His overall academic prowess led to helping several of his classmates improve their academic standing, even coaching one to move well up from last in the class. Ken completed his final year in the top 10 percent in his class.</p>
<p>Ken began his Army career as an Armor officer in Berlin. One of his favorite tales (he was a great storyteller) was about the time he was ordered to line up his platoon of tanks in the Grunewald Forest and drive wild boar for a general officer’s hunt. Berlin was also where he met the love of his lifetime and future wife of some 53 years, Victoria Nelson. In Vietnam he commanded an armored cavalry troop on the DMZ and was wounded twice, once while directing fire and again when blown off a tank. Returning to the U.S., he and Victoria married before an assignment to the Infantry Officer Advanced Course. Ken, an Armor officer, finished at the top of his class. He then fulfilled his father’s wish by earning a master’s degree in international relations and public policy at Princeton. Ken taught for three years in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, recalling that assignment as “the best three years of my life.” Graduating first in his class at the Command and General Staff College, he later returned to Fort Leavenworth, KS to serve as a founding faculty member of the School of Advanced Military Studies. Including multiple assignments in Europe and a final position as professor of strategy at the National War College, Ken retired with 26 years of service in 1992.</p>
<p>Not yet ready to settle down, Ken went into the investment banking business for several years. But after an auto accident that only exacerbated his Vietnam-era back problems, he fully retired. Not long after, Ken was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer. With determination and grit, he eventually fully recovered. He returned to West Point once again as leader of 30 of his classmates who, over the course of four years, helped teach the professional military ethic to cadets in the Class of 2016, his 50-Year Affiliation. One participant classmate said, for that service, “Ken has the respect and a special place in the hearts of every member of the Class of 1966.” </p>
<p>Ken and Victoria had two daughters and two sons, who later expanded their family with 13 grandchildren. Ken was a loving and devoted father and grandfather. He was patient, kind, generous and always ready with a magic trick or two. His children spoke at his memorial service about how their dad was so much fun, how he let the kids climb into his bed while he donned his Hardy Boys reading hat, how he took them trick or treating, how he set up a phone call to the actual tooth fairy, and how he instilled in them a love of country, a sense of patriotism, and a respect for those who serve in the Armed Forces. Ken loved his family deeply, but it was Victoria that was the rock and the center of his life.</p>
<p>His classmates remember Ken as the most energetic and perceptive in a group of very smart people, disarming with an engaging smile, totally authentic and one to be counted on, and having an overwhelming sense of pride in graduating from and serving West Point. “He was the type of soldier you’d want in the foxhole next to you.”</p>
<p><em>— Classmates and family</em> </p>
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