Frank A. Camm

Frank Ambler Camm (13 March 1922 – 17 January 2012) was a United States Army officer who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York class of January 1943, he served in Europe during World War II with the 303rd Engineer Combat Battalion, which he commanded in the Allied occupation of West Berlin. After the war he joined the Manhattan Engineer District, and commanded an atomic bomb assembly team at Sandia Base, in New Mexico. He commanded the 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion in the closing stages of the Korean War, and served in the Vietnam War on the staff of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, directing the McNamara Line project. He was the Director of Military Applications at the United States Atomic Energy Commission as from 1970 to 1972, the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for Operations from 1974 to 1975, and the deputy commander of Training and Doctrine Command from 1976 to 1977.

Early life Frank Amber Camm was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky, on 13 March 1922, the son of Frank Camm, an Army officer, and his wife Felicia Taylor. He had a twin brother, a younger brother, and a sister. The family moved about frequently, and he grew up in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, the Territory of Hawaii, and the family farm, St Moor, in Amherst, Virginia. His father once found some of his guns stopped in front of a flimsy-looking truss bridge. When he was informed “That tall, skinny engineer lieutenant says the bridge is safe”, he replied, “I know that engineer. Drive across!” The bridge did not collapse. and Camm became the commander of the 144th Special Weapons Unit.

Camm earned a master's degree in engineering from Harvard University in 1951, topping his class, followed by further military engineering studies at Fort Belvoir. In 1953 he assumed command of the 2nd Engineer Combat Battalion in Korea, where it was engaged in the final stages of the Korean War as part of the 2nd Infantry Division. The following year he became chief engineer of the Okinawa Engineer District. He returned to the United States in 1956 as a student at the United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, and attended the National War College from 1960-1961. He commanded the 521st Engineer Group in Germany in 1962-1963, and then served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in Washington, D.C., for which he was awarded the Legion of Merit. He earned a second master's degree from George Washington University in 1965, this time in international relations,

On returning to the United States, he served on the Army staff, where he was involved in tactical nuclear war planning. From 1970 to 1972, he was the chief engineer of the Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division. In this role he was involved with the Army's response to the environmental movement, and he was awarded a second oak leaf cluster to his Legion of Merit. He was then seconded to the United States Atomic Energy Commission as its Director of Military Applications from 1970 to 1972. As such, he oversaw the work of the nuclear weapons laboratories Los Alamos, Sandia, and Livermore, the Nevada Test Site, and nine nuclear weapon production plants. He was Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations from 1974 to 1975. His final assignment was as the deputy commander of Training and Doctrine Command from 1976 to 1977, supervising 26 Army schools and training centers and Army Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC), where he fostered the use of laser beams for simulating combat.

He is survived by a similarly named son who rose to be a senior economist at the RAND Corporation, conducting numerous high profile studies related to defense issues and the military industrial complex on behalf of the Pentagon.