Bruce B. G. Clarke

Infobox Military Person
name= Colonel Bruce B.G. Clarke
born= birth date|1943|1|26
placeofbirth= Ft. Benning, Georgia


caption=COL Clarke taking command of the 2d Brigade, 1st Infantry Division in 1988
allegiance=flag|United States of America
branch= United States Army
serviceyears= 1965 - 1995
rank= Colonel
commands= 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment 3d Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division
|awards= Legion of Merit Bronze Star with V for Valor Combat Infantryman Badge Jump Wings Ranger Tab

Bruce Bennett Gorham Clarke (born January 26, 1943, Ft. Benning, Georgia) is a former U.S. Army officer. Clarke is currently president of Bruce Clarke Consultants, Inc., a defense consulting firm. He is widely published on military and national security affairs and is the author of "Expendable Warriors".

Family

Clarke was born in Ft. Benning, Georgia to LTC Arthur F. Gorham and Corrine "Colonel" Bennett Gorham (later Clarke). After LTC Gorham was killed leading paratroopers from the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment during Operation Husky, the allied invasion of Sicily during World War II, Clarke's mother married Edwin R. Clarke who adopted Clarke. Clarke's sibilings are Dr. Richard Clarke and Cindy Clarke Carnahan.

Clarke married his wife Sue in 1969 after the two had met on a blind date during a golf tournament upon his return from Vietnam. While a graduate student at UCLA, the Clarkes appeared on the Newlywed Game winning a bedroom set. The Clarkes have three children and two grandchildren.

Education

Clarke attended public schools in Wichita, Kansas before winning a scholarship to the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Excelling both as a student and as an athlete, Clarke was accepted to both Stanford and Harvard but, to the surprise of many of his Ivy League-bound classmates, elected to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

In 1961, Clarke joined the Class of 1965 at West Point. While at West Point, Clarke was known for overloading on political science courses. He graduated third in his class in military history. Upon graduation in June 1965, Clarke received a commission as a second lieutenant in the cavalry.

Clarke holds a master of arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the National War College. Clarke was a member of MIT's Center for International Studies' Seminar II.

Army career

and later participated in both the planning and retaking of the combat base. In 2007, Clarke wrote about his experiences in "Expendable Warriors" from Praeger Security International. [The book's website is located at http://www.expendablewarriors.com.]

Returning from Vietnam, and recently married, Clarke moved to Los Angeles to attend the University of California, Los Angeles where he earned a master of arts degree. Because of a shortage of officers, Clarke was forced to leave UCLA before finishing his PhD for a teaching post in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point. Among his students at West Point was David H. Petraeus, former commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and architect of the successful surge strategy. Clarke next attended the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas and then moved up through a variety of positions within the 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kansas.

In 1979, Clarke was tapped to join the Army staff in the political-military affairs bureau under future Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General John Shalikashvili. One of his first assignments was as a member of the Reagan-Carter presidential transition team. In 1982, he took command of the 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Bad Kissingen, Germany. Clarke and his troopers were responsible for over 150-km of the East-West German border in the Fulda Gap.

. Clarke served as the senior military officer in arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union. In his three years at the State Department, he regularly shuttled between negotiations in Washington and Geneva.

In 1988, Clarke returned to the uniformed Army as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kansas. Clarke's training of the Dagger Brigade for desert combat would prove fortutious as days after giving up command in 1990 to Colonel Tony Moreno, Iraqi forces overran Kuwait. The 2nd Brigade eventually helped lead the ground invasion during Operation Desert Storm capturing Safwan, the site of the cease fire talks between General Norman Schwarzkopf and Iraqi commanders. In recognition of his service to the armor community, in 1990 Clarke was inducted into the Order of Saint George, one of the U.S. Armor Association's highest honors. [For more information about the Order of St. George see the U.S. Armor Association's website at http://www.usarmor-assn.org/stgeorge.aspx.] That same year, Kansas Governor Mike Hayden named Clarke an "honorary Kansan" apparently unaware that Clarke was a lifelong Kansan.

Clarke's final posting was as Director of National Security Studies at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. While at the Army War College he published extensively on military modernization and helped shape the work on conflict termination studies. In late-1992 this work was put to the test when, following President George H.W. Bush's deployment of forces to Somalia for Operation Restore Hope, Clarke led a team to consult with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on building an exit strategy. The military and political bureaucracies rejected their advice and failed to establish a coherent policy to guide the withdrawal of forces. The U.S. was further drawn into the conflict before President Bill Clinton pulled troops out after the Battle of Mogadishu and the Blackhawk down incident. Clinton and his Secretary of Defense Leslie Aspin were roundly criticized for also failing to establish an exit strategy. For his work at the Army War College, Clarke was awarded the General Dwight D. Eisenhower Chair in National Security in 1994. In 1995, following 30-years on active duty, Clarke retired. Former 1st Infantry Division Commanding General and Army Chief of Staff General Gordon R. Sullivan presided over the cermony and awarded Clarke the Legion of Merit.

Post-army career

training Saudi armor officers and soldiers on the M1A2 main battle tank. After two years in Saudi Arabia, Clarke returned to the U.S. and joined QuVis, a start-up technology company, where he helped them develop their military and government business.

In 2000, Clarke founded Bruce Clarke Consultants, Inc. to work with defense contractors on technology integration issues. Since 2005 he has also served as an advisor to Rockhill Partners, a venture capital partnership. His work on defense issues, national security strategy and knowledge of the Middle East has led to his advising at least two members of the U.S. Senate.

Publications

. In July 2008, it was announced the book will be released in paperback. He is also the author of "Conflict Termination: A Rational Model" (Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 1992). He was a contributor to "Managing Contemporary Conflict: Pillars of Success" edited by Max G. Manwaring and William J. Olson (Westview Press, 1996) and "Maneuver Warfare Anthology", edited by Richard D. Hooker, Jr. (The Presidio Press, 1993). He has authored numerous publications for military audiences having been published in the "Army Times", "Armor", the "Joint Forces Journal", "Military Review", "Infantry", "Field Artillery" and the "Journal of Conflict and Terrorism". Clarke has also been published in the "Washington Post", the "Baltimore Sun", and "The Topeka Capital-Journal".

References

*cite news |first=Barbara |last=Hollingsworth |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Retired officer: Iraq war has consolidated terrorists |url=http://www.cjonline.com/attic/commercial.restored/stories/012304/loc_officer.shtml |work=The Topeka Capital-Journal |publisher= |date=Jan 23, 2004 |accessdate=2008-07-28
*cite news |first=Kevin M. |last= Hymel |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Review of "Expendable Warriors: The Battle of Khe Sanh and the Vietnam War" |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1292819941.html |work=Army |publisher= |date=June 1, 2007 |accessdate=2008-07-28
*cite news |first=Chris |last=Grenz |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Military cutbacks: Survive, thrive. Army installation may see Big Red One return to state |url=http://www.cjonline.com/attic/commercial.restored/stories/122803/kan_brac1.shtml |work=The Topeka Capital-Journal |publisher= |date=Dec 28, 2003 |accessdate=2008-07-28
*cite news |first=Bruce B. G. |last=Clarke |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Clarke: U.S. can't risk any error in preemptive strikes
url=http://www.cjonline.com/attic/commercial.restored/stories/072402/opi_clarke.shtml |work=The Topeka Capital-Journal |publisher= |date=7/23/2002
accessdate=2008-07-28