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<em>Ed Black</em> was an exemplar member of the Long Gray Line. Handsome, athletic, intelligent, articulate, witty and charming he was a man who lived under a smiling destiny. Ed sailed through his cadet years with the greatest of ease.</div>
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Ed’s roommate, Ray Sleeper, recalls that Ed as a plebe always had a smile and a resilient sense of humor. Eddie fitted into West Point, yet he stood above the crowd. He was a good boxer on the USMA team and an excellent tennis player, high on the USMA squad. There was a certain sparkle and shine about Eddie Black, with his tall stature, his quick step, his solid good health, his blonde hair and blue eyes. Eddie sang baritone in the cadet choir. He enjoyed singing and we would hear him sounding out one of Mr. Myer’s recessionals as he splashed through a shower. Eddie sang very well—in fact he did everything well.</div>
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Eddie was a math shark and a history buff. We (Ed and Ray) used to argue for hours about the causes of war. His interest in war led to a strong commitment to strategic thinking which he developed and expanded all his life. Even in his cadet days his thinking about strategy was solid and clear. Certainly as the years flashed by he demonstrated his ability and made very significant contributions to US strategic thinking.</div>
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Upon graduation Second Lieutenant Black was assigned to aviation training at Love Field in Dallas. Surely this was one of the toughest periods of Eddie’s life; he simply got airsick every time he flew. So Eddie left flying school and went into the paratroopers where his tremendous personal strength was demonstrated; he persisted and after many jumps he conquered the airsickness. This prepared him to serve during World War II as General William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan’s OSS liaison officer with General Dwight D. Eisenhower. He also served in Germany and France as a plans officer. At various times he was a military assistant to three deputy secretaries of defense and was assistant chief of staff, US Army Pacific in 1969—70. He was a member of the US delegation at the Berlin Conference in 1954 and was military adviser during the Philippines base negotiations in 1956.</div>
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In the Vietnam War, General Black was commander of US support forces in Thailand. He also served three duty tours in Vietnam, the last as assistant commander of the 25th Division. His awards include the Legion of Merit with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star and decorations from the governments of Thailand and South Vietnam.</div>
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My own career and Ed’s were frequently intertwined in Washington. I followed his steps into the National Security Council planning board. Once I asked what was his personal aspiration. Without blinking an eye he said, “I want to be a general.” A mutual friend and an Annapolis classmate ’40, Bill Carpenter, Captain USN Retired, served under Ed in the Inter-American Region office in International Security Affairs. As Bill Carpenter put it, “Colonel Black’s promotion came about in a memorable way. He and some of us who were his assistants made a trip to Panama where we met in January 1966 with the staff of the unified commander, SOUTHCOM, at its headquarters in the Canal Zone. It was while we were there that a civilian official from the Office of the Secretary of Defense took the occasion during a meeting on regional political-military affairs to call Colonel Black forward and to pin on his general’s stars. When Ed Black returned to the Pentagon he was on a par of flag rank with the other regional directors in OSD/ISA.”</div>
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After retiring from the Army in 1970, General Black became executive vice president of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge and later was director of the Kra Canal project in Thailand. Development of that canal would have enabled oil freighters to travel directly from the Persian Gulf to Japan without having to go through Singapore. Ed and I saw a good deal of each other in Thailand in the 1973-75 period.</div>
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Ed received a Master’s Degree in International Relations from George Washington University in 1962. He graduated from the National War College that same year. He became an excellent writer, mostly on national security and strategy. The last time I saw him was when we were putting the finishing touches on John Fisher’s American Security Council 1984 book, A Strategy of Peace Through Strength.</div>
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Ed was loved and respected by many people. On my frequent stopovers in Honolulu, Ed and his lovely wife Cobey and myself would join for dinner at the delightful home of Clare Booth Luce. Mrs. Luce said General Black was “a man of extraordinary optimism about the future of America, an exceptional patriot, one of those rare characters of exceptional ability who had almost no enemies. He was playing tennis the morning of his death, which was typical of him, because he was one of the most alive people I ever knew, and his friends are devastated over his death.”</div>
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Ed was married in 1945 to the former Margaret Cobey, his childhood sweetheart. He is survived by his wife; six children, Star, Christopher, Noel Black Ackerman, Nicholas, Brian and Bruce; and three grandchildren. Cobey has written concerning Ed:</div>
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“Ed’s death was instantaneous—so sudden that he, himself, was unaware of it. Therefore his last day was a typical one—a mile swim at dawn in the ocean that fronts our Hawaiian home; exercises in the park; three sets of tennis in the afternoon—singles, against a partner half his age, and Ed won all three. There were a couple of board meetings that day because he was past president of the Honolulu Chapter of the American Cancer Society, vice president of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council and chairman and founder of the Honolulu Committee on Foreign Relations. He had lunch at the Outrigger Canoe Club with a local businessman who shared his interest in food irradiation. He also had time to work on a “Star Wars” article for the Washington Times, to which he was a regular contributor. After dinner that evening, with me and one of our six grown children—all of whom adored him—he took a walk, brought me the evening paper, smiled as he left the room and was gone. Tanned, trim, radiant, Ed was in superb shape—one of the rare West Point general officers who could have, with ease, slipped into his cadet uniform. He was a brilliant officer and a charming gentleman whose insatiable intellectual curiosity and talent for in-depth writing further checkered an already colorful career. But Ed never let his sense of adventure overshadow his devotion to duty, honor, country. First and foremost he was a patriotic American. We had nearly 40 years of an exciting and fulfilled marriage. He was a devoted husband and father, who has left his family a legacy of love.”</div>
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Ed Black was a totally unique and exceptional individual in every way, an example and a model for his friends, his peers, his troops, his family and for many Americans. His personality and his life were, and his memory is and will remain, an inspiration to everyone who knew him.</div>
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<em>by William R. Kintner with Ray Sleeper</em></div>
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