Citation

The West Point Society of the District of Colombia
2006 Castle Memorial Award
is presented to

Lieutenant General Richard G. Trefry
Class of 1950

Richard Greenleaf Trefry’s military career is one of extraordinary length and quality.  He entered the Army in 1943 and, although he retired from active duty in August 1983, that formal retirement hardly interrupted his service to the Army and the Nation, which continues to this day.

His years of service as a Field Artillery officer, including command of a 175 mm Gun Battalion in Vietnam, were marked by continued growth in professional competence, leadership, and thorough understanding of the systems through which the Army is managed.  This growth formed the basis for the major accomplishments of his tenure as a general officer.

While assigned as the Defense Attaché to the Royal Laotian Government, General Trefry directed an extensive military assistance program, exceeded in size only by Vietnam. The task was made vastly more difficult by the fragmented nature of the effort to hold off the NVA supported Pathet Lao.  Four different US organizations were engaged in the support of at least six different combat forces. BG Trefry instituted a training program for Lao organizations, made significant improvements in standardizing equipment and introduced rational force structures in Laotian organizations, all while carrying out a deliberate but rapid withdrawal of US military personnel in accordance with the peace protocol with the Pathet Lao.  General Trefry made important contributions to the military assistance program in Laos which made possible a negotiated political settlement and cease-fire.

The academic cheating incident in 1976 at West Point occurred during General Trefry’s tenure as Director of Management in the Office of the Chief of Staff of the Army.  General Trefry became the point man for the Chief of Staff and the Secretary of the Army in dealing with the aftereffects.  He guided the studies and recommendations that resulted in improvements in the administration of the Military Academy, especially in the Honor System.  At that time there was a real danger that ill-considered and destructive changes at West Point would be imposed on the Army.  Through General Trefry’s alertness and wise counsel to the Chief and the Secretary, they were able to ensure that useful changes would be adopted and unhelpful ones headed off.

Probably General Trefry’s most significant contributions occurred during his six year tenure as Inspector General of the Army.  He completely reorganized and re-energized the Inspector General organization.  He introduced an Oath of Office, required formal training, and brought about increased pride and professional competence in the Inspectors General.  Most important, he augmented the “compliance” inspections then in use with “system” inspections.  The compliance inspections had been of a single unit, reporting any deficiencies found..  The system inspection, conducted at the same time sought to identify the causes of any deficiencies found and follow the trail up the chain of command and to associated organizations. Changes to regulations or procedures improved not only the inspected unit but many others. General Trefry’s personal influence, with his commitment to soldiers and unerring eye for hypocrisy, was the spark that raised the Inspector General organization to a new level of effectiveness.

General Trefry was appointed Military Assistant to President George H. W. Bush and Director of the White House Military Office, where he served from January 1990 until February 1992.  While the fact that the Office of the President receives support from the military services is well known, the size and scope of this effort are not.  During his tenure General Trefry established effective budgeting, improved coordination and brought up to date the agreements and memoranda of understanding with other government agencies, brought administration, maintenance, security, and travel under close control, reassigned “homesteading” military personnel, canceled unnecessary procurements, regularized and improved training of assigned military personnel, replaced and modernized aging equipment, improved support for the Physician to the President, and coordinated the many necessary facility improvements and equipment modifications.

At an age when most men are well into comfortable retirement, General Trefry undertook a continuing project of major significance to the Army.  During his service on the Army Staff and  as The Inspector General, General Trefry noted a number of seemingly intractable problems with Army Force Management: inconsistent terminology, uncoordinated parts of the process, proliferation of incompatible computer programs, and, perhaps most important, a widespread lack of understanding of the total process. With missionary zeal, before and after his formal retirement, he repeatedly called attention to these problems in his many articles and speeches.  While still assigned as The Inspector General, he conceived and executed a two-year inspection involving force modernization, force integration, and force management.  This inspection resulted in the institution of new force management procedures and the introduction of professional management development courses on these subjects in schools and commands throughout the Army.. 

As one consequence of a 1992-1994 study of Army force management processes and systems, the Army Management School was established at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, in January of 1995, with General Trefry as Program Manager. Attendance at the Army Force Management School is required for all officers assigned to force management positions throughout the Army.  The Chief of Staff requires attendance at a General Officer Course at this school for officers assigned to some forty general officer positions.  The school has more than 30,000 graduates to date.    

The career of Richard  G. Trefry, spanning more than sixty years of extraordinary productivity, is an outstanding expression of the ideals of West Point embodied in its Motto of Duty, Honor, Country.