Published: May 10, 2008 11:01 pm            

Cross gives program for American Legion

Executive Director Walter L. Cross, a resident of Stillwater, became the first full time executive director for the Oklahoma Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) Jan. 1, 2008. He serves as the principal full time employee for the Oklahoma Committee of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve involving the 14,000 plus members of the Guard and Reserve of Oklahoma.

Director Cross is a retired master sergeant having served almost 21 years of active duty in the United States Army. He is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. His military awards include the Bronze Star Medal with “V” device for valor in ground combat, the Bronze Star Medal First Oak Leaf Cluster for Meritorious Service, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with First and Second Oak Leaf Cluster, the Army Achievement Medal with First Oak Leaf Cluster, as well as various other personal and unit decorations. His final military assignment was as the Senior Operations Sergeant, 3rd Infantry Brigade, 95th Division, U.S. Army Reserve.

Cross explained that the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) is a Department of Defense organization. It is a staff group within the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs (OASD/RA), which is in itself a part of the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The nation’s Reserve components (referring to the total of all National Guard members and Reserve forces from all branches of the military) comprise approximately 48 percent of our total available military manpower. The current National Defense Strategy indicates that the National Guard and Reserve will be full partners in the fully integrated Total Force. Our Reserve forces will spend more time away from the workplace defending the nation, supporting a demanding operations tempo and training to maintain their mission readiness.

ESGR conducts both proactive and reactive services by primary means of assistance in preventing, resolving, or reducing employer and/or employee problems and misunderstandings that result from National Guard or Reserve membership is done through a nationwide Ombudsman Program.

ESGR has a national network of over 900 volunteer ombudsmen who help resolve issues between employers and their employees who serve in the National Guard and Reserve. ESGR Ombudsmen have successfully mediated over 95 percent of cases in the past year. Oklahoma ESGR is always looking for more volunteers to work as ombudsmen and can contact Cross if interested.

Cross told a story of how he wrote the book “Custer’s Lost Officer: The Search for Lieutenant Henry Moore Harrington 7th U.S. Cavalry.” He was a medic in Vietnam and has an interest in bones and skulls because of his experiences.

Nearly 131 years ago, 2nd Lt. Henry Moore Harrington, an 1872 graduate of West Point, led the men of Company C, 7th U.S. Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Company C’s commander, Capt. Thomas W. Custer, was attached to the staff of his brother and the regiment’s field commander, Lt. Col. George A. Custer. 1st Lt. James Calhoun, C Company’s second ranking officer, was detailed to command Company L on that fateful day, leaving Henry the only officer assigned and in command of Company C.

Henry died that day, June 25, 1876, as did every man in the five-company battalion directly under the command of George Custer. The rest of the 7th Cavalry continued the fight another two days in a defensive perimeter under the direction of Maj. Marcus A. Reno and the regiment’s senior company grade officer, Capt. Frederick W. Benteen.

Henry’s remains were picked up a year after the battle almost to the day by a passing Army surgeon accompanied by a 5th U.S. Cavalry patrol. The surgeon misidentified Henry, thinking the yellow stripes down his trouser legs indicated a 7th Cavalry bugler rather than an officer. In accordance with standing instructions of the U.S. Surgeon General, he sent the “specimen” to the Army Medical Museum in Washington D.C. Years later, the remains, identified as specimen number 2120, were sent on to the Smithsonian Institution where they remained, unidentified, for 130 years.

The book is well written and shows how Cross was able to identify Lt. Henry Moore Harrington. With his insistence, the Smithsonian Institution x-rayed the skull and found metal particles indicating he was shot in the head and other very interesting details indicating how much of a valiant fighter he must have been.

Membership applications in the American Legion Post 129 can be requested by calling 269-9444 and asking for Gerald McClain, vice commander.

        

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