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On 1 July 1936, as the new cadets lined up in Central Barracks at West Point, <em>Dean Benson </em>and I were exactly the same height. According to the custom of the times, we were assigned as roommates. When the option subsequently became ours, we continued to room together until graduation. Dean was easy to live with. Always calm, confident, cheerful, and optimistic, he acted as a counterpoise to my more variable moods. Those cadet days remain as vivid in my mind as nearby yesterdays. It is hard for me to accept the fact that Dean has joined the deceased members of the Long Gray Line.</div>
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Dean was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 23 September 1915. He attended the University of Minnesota for two quarters in his pre-West Point days. His military career had an early beginning with the Minnesota National Guard and Reserve Officers Training Corps at Minnesota University. He remained a loyal rooter of Minnesota, his “land of a thousand lakes," throughout his cadet days. At West Point, Dean was a dedicated cadet. He loved the Corps and all it represented. He was a great swimmer, a gifted lacrosse player, a tireless cross-country runner. His strong clear voice served the mighty chorus of the Cadet Choir and the Glee Club for all four cadet years. Dean was honored with Corporal stripes as a yearling, and the rank of Cadet Lieutenant in First Class Year. He was graduated in the upper 25 per cent of the Class of 1940, and chose the Field Artillery.</div>
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Dean Benson lived a full life in the Army he loved so well. He was delighted with his first station, Oahu, but then came 7 December 1941. After an on-scene participation in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dean fought World War II with the 11th, 90th and 8th Field Artillery Battalions of the 25th Infantry Division in the South Pacific Theatre at Oahu, Guadalcanal, Northern Solomons, and Luzon. For his service in World War II, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals and an Air Medal. Upon return to Continental United States, he served with the G1 Section of Headquarters Army Ground Forces from 1945-47, winning the Army Commendation Medal; was with the Command and General Staff College as student and instructor from 1947-51; he attended the Armed Forces Staff College in 1952; served with G3, Headquarters United States Army Europe from 1952-53; was Executive Officer, 5th Infantry Division Artillery from 1953-55; was graduated from the Army War College in 1956; was Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the University of Minnesota from 1956-59; served with Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations, Department of the Army, and the Office Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1959-63, and as Deputy Commander, Joint United States Military Advisory Group Thailand from 1963-64 for which he was awarded the Joint Commendation Medal; and thereafter was assigned to the Office, Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development (OACSFOR), Department of the Army. In his last assignment he chaired a Department of the Army study group whose findings and recommendations resulted in significant improvements in the management of the Army’s civilian manpower.</div>
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While at Leavenworth, Peggy Marshall came into Dean’s life, became his wife in February 1951, bore him two fine children, and made his life the rich, warm, inspiring experience that only those who know such a life can appreciate. Together Peg and Dean raised Dean Jr. and his sister Marty (Martha).</div>
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I last saw Dean in 1969 while he was on duty in the Pentagon as the Deputy Director of the Plans and Programs Directorate, Office Chief of Staff, Force and Development. Dean had joined Plans and Programs in September 1964 and held this key job through the tours of five successive directors. One of these Directors described Dean’s performance to me as follows: “In ACSFOR, the Plans and Programs Directorate was charged with planning and justifying the total Army force structure below Division and Separate Brigade levels:<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>justifying, managing, and allocating all military and civilian manpower spaces in the Army; developing and coordinating the Army Force Development Plan; being the expert on the Office Secertary of Defense Plans, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS); planning and defending the Army Operating and Training Budget (totaling up to eight to ten billion dollars at the height of Vietnam); and Army readiness (jointly with Office Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations). During the Vietnam build-up, starting in mid-1965 and after, the Director of Plans and Programs was deeply involved at the Chief of Staff—Secretary of the Army level in devising alternatives for rapid buildup without mobilizing. This took the bulk of his time. As a result, Dean was left the full job of seeing to it that the Army we had kept running; that personnel surveys were accomplished; that the detailed troop programs were kept current; that mobilization plans were up to date; that budgets were justified; that the Five Year Defense Program was kept current. He had full authority always to chop for Plans and Programs and for Assistant Chief of Staff, Force and Development on General Staff matters. His was a man-killing, twelve hour a day job which he did exceptionally well but, even more, which he did with good cheer. Dean was a perfectionist, who in this last job trained more good staff men than anyone I know. He trained them to reason logically and to write succinctly and convincingly.”</div>
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A colonel who served under Dean at that time had this to say: “Colonel Benson was tremendous during the Vietnam buildup. He coordinated the force planning for deployment of forces to Southeast Asia. Day and night there was crisis after crisis. Had it not been for his unflappable nature, his great good humor and his wealth of experience and advice, the action officers and branch chiefs could not have withstood the frantic pace. He was their Rock of Gibraltar; a calming influence that enabled them to keep their perspective; the guardian of their morale—he was tremendous; and their advisor as well as their boss. The Pentagon has never seen finer troop leading.”</div>
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General Michael S. Davison, who was Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development in 1965-66, wrote to me as follows:</div>
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“Dean worked for me while I was in ACSFOR 1965-66. He was the Deputy Director of Plans and Programs and was deeply involved in the force structure business. At that time we were struggling to meet the requirements of our Vietnam unit deployments. We were under tremendous pressures.</div>
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“Dean was a tower of strength during this crucial period. He had a profound knowledge of the force structure business and its budgetary relationships. He was completely unflappable at a time when flaps were the normal way of life. Dean’s calm intelligence, candid expression of views, strong integrity, and dauntless courage were strengths upon which I depended daily. I believe that a great measure of the success that we enjoyed during those hectic times resulted directly from Dean Benson’s personal contribution to our overall effort.”</div>
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Dean’s distinguished service with ACSFOR epitomized his whole career and won him the Legion of Merit. That performance of duty capped his long years of faithful, brilliant service with the Army in the field, with the Army School System, in the University on duty as Professor of Military Science, and on the General Staff at the highest level; years which had their fruit in the training and leading of a generation of soldiers and junior officers in peace and war, in training camp and battle, through trial and calm. How many times over the years have I been greeted by the question, “Oh, were you Dean Benson’s roommate? He is a wonderful officer and a great human being.” It has been my privilege to know Dean better than any man. The fires of West Point forge the soldier and the man. They also bare a man’s soul and reveal his true character. I saw Dean Benson through the trials of Beast Barracks and the long, hard pull to graduation. He was truly a great human being.</div>
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In addition to Peg, Marty and Dean Jr., Dean Benson is survived by his mother, Mrs. Martha W. Benson; his sister, Mrs. E. Malter; and his brother, Mr. Earl H. Benson. His family mourns the passing of a loved one; his classmates, the loss of a great soldier, true gentleman, and lifelong friend. For Dean Marti Benson, Class of 1940, United States Military Academy, has joined company with the long line of departed heroes of West Point, in the Valhalla of Lee, Grant and Sherman; of Pershing, MacArthur and Eisenhower; and the thousands of other sons of West Point who gave of their strength and energies, in full measure of devotion, for God and country, and for the Corps.</div>
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<em>—Charles C. Noble Classmate; Friend</em></div>
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