Register, Benjamin Franklin, Jr., Gen., 2008 September 19

This is a Living History interview with Gen. Ben Register class of 1951, conducted by Marilyn Somers on September the 19th the year 2008 at the GTRI Studio at the GTRI Conference Center on 14th Street in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject is the interviewee’s life, and experiences at Georgia Tech.

After Gen. Register left Vietnam with the other refugees, he sailed to the Philippines where he stayed for a few days before flying to Hawaii. His task in Hawaii was to document what went on in Vietnam. He stayed there for thirty days before receiving a two weeks leave, which he used to go back to Columbus, Georgia. Gen. Register was then assigned to Redstone Arsenal at the United States Missile Command as the Director of Procurement and Production. His task there dealt with modernizing the Army. He noticed that no one in Washington talked about the problems that had occurred in Vietnam. Gen. Register’s specific job at Redstone was to develop all of the modern missile systems and to see them through “womb to tomb.” While at Redstone, his staff saw the creation of the “Big 5” and other technologies that are used today. Gen. Register was there for two years. After his tour at Redstone, he travelled to Mainz, Germany, to command a combat vehicle depot. Gen. Register loved living in Germany because his house was close to a lot of interesting places. While he was stationed in Mainz, he was promoted to Brigadier General. He wrote his own promotion ceremony and got all of the German workers involved. When he was promoted, he was assigned to the 2nd Support Group in the 7th Corps. This was a unique command because a Brigadier General was a troop commander. His next assignment was in Stuttgart where he commanded ten battalions for two years. He then helped coordinate POMCUS, one of the outcomes of the modernization process of the Army. Every year, REFORGER missions would take place where U.S. troops would use material in the POMCUS to see how affective it was. As a Brigadier General, Gen. Register had more troops at his disposal than he did when he was a colonel. In 1980, Gen. Register went back to the United States and worked at the Army Material Command. Gen. Register was promoted to Major General after eight months of working there, and he had his promotion at the Officer’s Club at the Defense Logistics Agency. After being promoted, Gen. Register took over one of the commodity commands for Armaments and Munitions in Rock Hill, Illinois. This commodity command provided everything the military uses to the different branches. He loved his job and travelled all over the world. He was tasked with combining two Armament commands and one chemical command. When he finished that assignment, he went to Washington, D.C. to fill the role of the Deputy Director of the Defense Logistics Agency. The DLA coordinated to be the provider of all goods that the Army might need, except for those dealing with special weapons system. Gen. Register soon became the Deputy Chief of Staff of Logistics for the Department of the Army. His responsibility was to foster a sense of change within the DLA in order for the focus to shift more on the war-fighter. He was soon promoted to Lieutenant General and had his stars pinned on by the Chief of Staff of the Army and his wife, Betty. Gen. Register worked in the Army while the AirLand Battle concept was first introduced. After serving for thirty-six years, Gen. Register retired and is currently living in Alabama near the Georgia border. He has a large family and is very busy.