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<p><em>Lewis Stone “Bob” Sorley III</em> was the son of Merrow E. Sorley (USMA 1924) and Louise Mabelle Hunt and the grandson of Lewis S. Sorley (USMA 1891) and Nannie Merrow. He was born at West Point, where his father was teaching military art and engineering.</p>
<p>At Rock Island Arsenal, IL, Bob, age 4, got his first tank ride. The next year, at Fort Leavenworth, KS, he was treated to many pony rides. From then his future branch was a given.</p>
<p>Bob, his mother, and his younger sister Judith spent the war years in San Antonio, TX. He was there for high school, attending Texas Military Institute. His senior year he was cadet colonel of the corps of cadets and commanded an honor guard for General Douglas MacArthur, an alumnus, when he visited. During those years Bob was also a member of Boy Scout Troop 23 at Fort Sam Houston and became an Eagle Scout.</p>
<p>Not old enough to enter West Point upon graduation from high school, Bob attended the Sullivan School. He competed for and won a presidential appointment to West Point and also an honor military school appointment (first in the nation on that list) but entered on an appointment from Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson.</p>
<p>At West Point Bob did well academically, especially in English, where he stood near the top of the class. As a First Classman, he was appointed to the brigade staff and was chairman of SCUSA (Student Conference on United States Affairs) VII. During the graduation parade, he proudly wore his father’s cadet cufflinks and his grandfather’s breastplate.</p>
<p>Commissioned in Armor, Bob joined the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Meade, MD. There, he may have been the first member of his class to command at the company level. In April 1957, still a second lieutenant, he was given command of Company H and held that position for several months.</p>
<p>Soon the regiment gyroscoped to Germany, where Bob served for three years patrolling the Czech border. In later years he always said that “the great 2nd Armored Cavalry” was his first and forever favorite outfit.</p>
<p>Subsequently Bob commanded Troop A of the 6th Armored Cavalry at Fort Knox, KY, attended the Armor Officer Advanced Course there, and went to the University of Pennsylvania to earn an M.A. in English prior to a three-year assignment teaching at West Point.</p>
<p>Next, Bob was posted to Vietnam, where he was a G-3 planner at I Field Force in Nha Trang, then went to the Central Highlands as executive officer of a tank battalion (1st Battalion, 69th Armor) operating in the vicinity of Pleiku. He then attended the Command and Staff Course at the Naval War College (graduating first in the class), followed by a Pentagon assignment in the Office of the Army Chief of Staff.</p>
<p>Bob had experienced a failed early marriage, after which his daughter Kathy came with him. At Thanksgiving of 1970 Bob married his longtime friend Ginny Mezey, a widow with three small children (Doug, Tim, and Susan), and their amalgamated family (including his dog and her cat) set off for Germany, where Bob took command of 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment stationed in Erlangen.</p>
<p>Two years later Bob attended the Army War College, where after graduation he remained on the faculty for two years. A final assignment was back to the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Then, recruited by the CIA, he retired at the 20-year mark. He had twice been promoted below the zone and received three Legions of Merit.</p>
<p>At the CIA Bob served under three directors, advanced to three-star equivalent rank, and was on the editorial board of Studies in Intelligence. During those years he also earned a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University.</p>
<p>In his next phase Bob devoted himself to writing, primarily military history, becoming a leading scholar of the Vietnam War. Over three decades he published nine books, the best known probably being A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam, which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Other notable works included biographies of General Creighton Abrams, General Harold K. Johnson, and General William Westmoreland. At the request of West Point, he also wrote Honor Bright: History and Origins of the West Point Honor Code and System, recognized as the definitive work on that complex topic.</p>
<p>Bob was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, served two terms as a trustee of the West Point Association of Graduates, and was executive director of the Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States for eight years. And he was an enthusiastic contributor to class activities, notably editing his class’s 30th Reunion Yearbook, serving on every reunion planning committee from the 30th onward, and compiling an extensive collection of class lore for publication at ’56’s 60th reunion.</p>
<p>Late in life Bob received several honors. He was appointed the first visiting professor of Leadership and Ethics at VMI, where he famously propagated Sorley’s Law: “No Whining.” The Boy Scouts of America named him a Distinguished Eagle Scout, the Army War College designated him an “Outstanding Alumnus,” and West Point recognized him as a Distinguished Graduate.</p>
<p>Bob would probably savor most what his granddaughter Sarah wrote to him (as “Pablo,” his “grandfather name”) one Father’s Day: “It’s always been apparent to me that everything you do is done with love and care.”</p>
<p><em>— Family and Classmates</em></p>
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