“West Point Prepared Me To Do Whatever I Wanted To Do”: A ’61 Grad’s Lifetime Of Service

Charlie Hansell moved around a lot as a kid based on his father’s career as a geologist and he eventually attended high school in Denver, Colorado. His dad had attended the Naval Academy for a few years before finishing at a civilian school, so Charlie initially applied to Annapolis. His congressman had no appointments left for the Naval Academy, but had one for the Military Academy, so Charlie ended up at West Point. As a Cadet, he spent time on the wrestling team, but unfortunately found himself behind a national champion wrestler in his weight class. He commissioned into the Artillery and initially served in Hawaii, where he trained a platoon of Soldiers to serve as helicopter door gunners supporting advisors in Vietnam. His four-month deployment to Vietnam in 1964 made him among the earliest in his class to serve in-country. He later returned as an advisor himself in 1970-71, after earning a graduate degree in geography and teaching at West Point for two years in the late 60s. In the second half of his career, Charlie played a key role in the rebuilding of the Army in the post-Vietnam era through several different assignments at locations around the United States and in Germany. After promotion to Brigadier General, he concluded his active-duty service as the commander of US Army Cadet Command (ROTC) 2nd Region. After retiring from the Army, he went back to school and earned his certification as a CPA before starting his own accounting practice. In this interview, Charlie talks about his wide range of experiences in the Army including his early time as a small-unit leader, his two different deployments to Vietnam, and his time on the training side of the Army at the end of his career. He concludes the interview by sharing his thoughts about what West Point means to him.