Harry Kinnard

Harry William Osborne Kinnard II (May 7, 1915 – January 5, 2009) was a senior United States Army officer who, during the Vietnam War, pioneered the airmobile concept of sending troops into battle using helicopters. Kinnard retired from the military as a lieutenant general.

Military career

Kinnard grew up in Dallas, Texas. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1939, he entered military service.

World War II On December 7, 1941, Kinnard was stationed at Pearl Harbor, and manned a machine gun to defend the base on the morning of the Japanese attack. He parachuted into France in the early hours of the Normandy Landings in June 1944, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism during Operation Market Garden, as part of the Allied airborne attack against German forces in the Netherlands in September 1944. The message has been variously recorded as:

With improving weather allowing air support to assist the troops, the American forces were able to hold Bastogne. "Nuts" came to symbolize the American determination to overcome against the odds.

Twenty years after the Battle of the Bulge, Kinnard drew criticism from members of the 101st Airborne Division for his comments in a newspaper interview where he said, "We never felt we would be overrun. We were beating back everything they threw at us. We had the houses, and we were warm. They were outside the town, in the snow and cold". Many members of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry sent military historian Stephen Ambrose, the author of "Band of Brothers", the article containing the comments with their own opinion, the mildest comment by an E Company member being, "What battle was he in?".

Airmobile After the war, Kinnard served as commanding officer of the Aviation Test Section at Fort Bragg. In 1963, in response to the Howze Board directive to test all aspects of airmobility as a unit of the Regular Army, he was selected to command the 11th Air Assault Division (Test) at Fort Benning. He and others developed an organizational structure and plans in less than four months for a division that would use helicopters to move one-third of its infantry battalions and supporting units in one single helicopter lift.

When the test was concluded, the assets of the 11th Air Assault Division (Test) and the 2nd Infantry Division were merged into a single unit. The colors and subordinate unit designations of the 1st Air Cavalry Division were transferred from its post in South Korea. On 3 July 1965, in Doughboy Stadium at Fort Benning, the colors of the 11th Air Assault Division (Test) were cased and retired and the 1st Air Cavalry Division colors were moved onto the field and passed to the commander of the former 11th Air Assault Division, Major General Kinnard. At the same time the personnel and units of the 1st Cavalry Division that remained in Korea were reflagged as a new 2nd Infantry Division.

Vietnam War In July 1965 the 1st Air Cavalry Division was ordered to South Vietnam.

Kinnard was ordered by COMUSMACV General William Westmoreland at the end of October 1965 to take the 1st Air Cavalry on the offensive and seize the initiative in Pleiku province. During this action, the division conducted 35 days of continuous airmobile operations. The opening Battle of Ia Drang resulted in heavy North Vietnamese casualties at the cost of 300 American deaths. It was described in the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young, which was also the basis of the subsequent Mel Gibson film We Were Soldiers.

Kinnard in Museums World War II memorabilia from Kinnard can be seen in Belgium where he fought during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, at December 44 Museum, La Gleize.

Kinnard Mission Training Center, a digital systems training complex at Fort Campbell, Kentucky is named for him. His awards, decorations and several historical items of interest relating to him are on display in its lobby.

Personal Kinnard died at age 93 on January 5, 2009, in Arlington, Virginia. He was survived by his wife, Libby; two sons, three daughters, a stepson, two stepdaughters, 16 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.