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Citation
The West Point Society of the District of
Colombia
2009 Castle Memorial Award
is presented to
General Donn A. Starry, USA (Ret)
Class of 1948
The 2009 Castle Memorial Award is presented to General Donn A. Starry,
USA (Retired) for outstanding service to the nation, to the United
States Army, and to West Point. General Starry has exemplified “Duty,
Honor, Country” as a soldier and as a citizen for more than sixty years.
Upon graduation from West Point Starry became a member of the Armor
branch, subsequently commanding tank and armored cavalry units in Germany, the
United States, and Vietnam, where he led the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in
the historic Cambodian incursion of 1970. Starry proved tactically brilliant,
inspiring, and heroic. Seriously wounded while saving the life of another
officer, he was awarded the Silver Star, the Soldier’s Medal, the Bronze Star
Medal for Valor, and the Purple Heart.
A man of limitless energy, great vision, a wide range of interests, and
love for the soldier, he excelled not only as a warrior and troop leader
but also as a military intellectual, a conceptualizer and implementer of
doctrine, a training developer and field trainer of high competence, and
an exemplar of character, competence, and commitment, qualities he
brought to bear in a succession of key assignments leading the US Army
Armor Center, V Corps in Europe, the US Army Training and Doctrine
Command, and Readiness Command.
As a military intellectual and educator he was the prime mover
behind AirLand Battle and laid the cornerstone for the Army’s modern training
and leader development systems. Over the years Starry has been a widely
published author, a sought-after speaker, and a prolific correspondent. So
important have these intellectual products been that the Army has commissioned a
project to collect and publish them in an edited two-volume work to be entitled
“Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry.” Following military
retirement Starry served on the Defense Science Board, the Army Science Board,
and as a defense industry leader and mentor to many younger officers.
Donn Starry represents everything we want and expect a West Pointer
to be. The West Point Society of the District of Columbia is proud to name him
the 2009 recipient of the Castle Memorial Award.
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