John Bahnsen - Pentagon Duty

Pentagon Duty

In December 1966, Bahnsen reported for duty with the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development, from where He was assigned as a staff officer in the Operations Branch, Plans and Programs Division, Army Aviation Directorate. His duties involved verify the readiness of aviation and air cavalry units set to deploy to Vietnam. During this assignment, Bahnsen used his off-duty time enroll in graduate courses offered by George Washington University in the Pentagon classrooms. This assignment entailed considerable temporary duty to bases all over the country, but primarily up and down the East Coast and South. A man of war if there ever was one, Bahnsen found no joy in his one-day of patrolling Washington, DC during the riots that broke out after the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

It was during this time that Bahnsen visited frequently with his mentor, then Colonel George S. Patton, who was also assigned to the Pentagon. After Patton rotated to Vietnam to take command of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, he arranged to have Doc released from his Pentagon duties early in order to take command of the regiment's Air Cavalry Troop. That event took a heavy toll on Doc's marriage to Pat, not unlike that taken on marriages of many servicemen who spend more time away from home than they do with their families.