Rufus Montgomery

Rufus N. Montgomery, Sr., was a U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps Chief Warrant Officer Five who was widely recognized as one of the Army's foremost food service advisors.

Born in Pensacola, Florida he began his military career as an enlisted soldier in 1965, serving his first tour of duty as a combat infantryman and later as a cook with Company C, 1st Battalion, 503rd Airborne Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate), Bien Hoa, Vietnam. He rose to the rank of Sergeant First Class before appointment as a warrant officer in 1977.

Rufus N. Montgomery, Sr. performed to the highest levels of food services and was widely recognized as one of the foremost food service advisors in the Army. His assignments included the 36th Engineer Group (Combat Heavy), Fort Benning, Georgia and Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, Saudi Arabia; 1st Armored Division, Ansbach, Germany; US Army Natick Research and Development Laboratories, Natick, Massachusetts; 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Nurnberg, Germany; 1st Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Stanley, Korea; 2nd , 325th Airborne Infantry Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

He played a key role in the redesign of remote feeding sites using off- the- shelf commercial state of the art kitchen equipment. Montgomery was instrumental in the revitalization of the Quartermaster Warrant Officer Training with Industry (TWI) Program and he assisted in the development and testing of two major subsystems of the Combat Field Fielding System (Mobile Kitchen Trailer and Supplemental Field Kitchen Kit). As Quartermaster Personnel Management Officer during the Army drawdown in Europe, he developed a distribution plan to staff critical fills where jobs outnumbered assets. His last assignment was as the Combined Arms Support Command Senior Personnel Proponency Officer, where he played an important role in the Army Training Leadership Development Panel Study on Army Transformation challenges and its affect on warrant officers in all grades.

Montgomery’s military career spanned nearly four decades, over 37 years. Since his retirement in 2003, he continued to be active and productive in the Quartermaster community serving as a member of the Board of Directors United States Warrant Officer Association Scholarship Foundation and the Association of Quartermasters. He is a Distinguished Member of the Quartermaster Regiment and was inducted as an Honorary Alumnus-Office of the Quartermaster General by the 44th Quartermaster General in June 1998.

His military awards include the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal (w/5 Five Oak Leaf Clusters), the Army Achievement Medal (w/ four Oak Leaf Clusters), the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm, the Southwest Asia Service Medal, as well as the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait Liberation Medals. He also earned the Combat Infantryman Badge and Parachutist Badge.

ee also

*Quartermaster Corps