AN OFFICER & GENTLEMAN
BY SHANNON ROBINSON
The Story of Gary McKenzie - USA – Army Captain
Nearing the final years of the Vietnam War, 1968 was a time when many men were drafted overseas to fight the Viet Cong. At 14 years old, Gary McKenzie started researching the military, and he discovered the Army was for him. A born and raised Texan who had never been on a plane, on July 1st 1972, 17-year-old Gary took his one-way ticket to New York on Braniff Airlines, prepared to change his life forever. McKenzie started at West Point on July 2nd.
One of the highlights of Gary’s time at West Point was participating in the West Point Glee Club. “Everyone wanted to be in it because you got to travel all over the country.” All across the lower 48, Gary and his brothers sang at some prestigious events. They even had the opportunity to sing at the 1975 Miss USA Pageant, where Gary also had the honor of escorting Ms. Ohio.
One fateful night performing in Springfield, Virginia, Gary met Sandy. She was a friend of his roommate, and Gary knew he had to act quick to date her. They soon did, and decided they wanted to marry. Drawing from a lottery to see when they could get hitched, the following year they were married at West Point on June 4, 1976.
Graduating from West Point at the top of his class, Gary was a 2nd Lieutenant who focused his training on field artillery. The Glee Club prepared him well because for the next six years, Gary continued traveling across the United States. He first joined the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. He said they were constantly training. As a Fort Observer, he went out with the infantry and practiced drills. He became a qualified Paratrooper and attended Air Assault school. Gaining all the skills and experience he could, Gary was Distinguished Honor Graduate #1.
He applied for flight school and moved from Kentucky to Alabama in ’78, where he spent nine months at Ft. Rucker and learned to fly helicopters, primarily the Huey and the Bell Jet Ranger.
McKenzie traveled all around the US for the Army. While stationed at Camp Irwin in California, Gary recalled a day they were flying two Hueys north of Las Vegas and planning to meet at Indian Springs. 8 men in each helicopter, they could overhear the pilots on the radio—they were lost, running late, and low on fuel.
Gary McKenzie - USA
Flying visual and not instrumental, they were strung out two miles apart above the clouds. Suddenly, jets were shooting out and taking off between them. The pilots declared an emergency landing and landed at an open airfield below. What they didn’t know is the jets were Thunderbirds, which now had to circle above the airfield while the Hueys landed. Embarrassed and out of line, the unit waited as the jets landed specifically so they could chew out each and every one of them. Fortunately, years later, Gary can now refer to this as the day he got to fly with the US Thunderbirds.
Gary received orders to report to the 1st Cavalry Division at Ft. Hood where he joined Delta Troop 1/9 Cavalry. He persisted through training as a Scout Platoon Leader. He described this period as “lots of flying and lots of training.” Most of their flying was done at tree-level or lower, and they would identify targets, call up the gunship (Huey Cobras), and eliminate the targets.
When Gary was discharged in 1981, he was a Jr. Military Commissioned Officer, which made him a hot commodity going into the work force. He began working for Exxon in Kingsfield, Texas, and he worked in the oil and gas industry until he retired in January 2020.
The Oil industry took Gary to Russia for the first time. The experience was difficult for him to manage at first. His training had been to prepare for potential Soviet attacks, so working with the Russians as a businessman was jarring at first. “When you’re trained to hate someone,” it can be hard to turn those instincts off when you suddenly have to work with them. However, after years in the industry, Gary managed to turn the apprehension into good business and professional friendships.
Among his honors in the military, Gary is also a proud Son of the Republic of Texas and a big Texas history buff.