By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
managing editor
KEYSER — A Cumberland native who graduated from West Point in 1955 and retired as a major general following a distinguished career in the military, will be the guest speaker this morning at the Jonah Edward Kelley Award Ceremony.
Major Gen. Joseph Powel Franklin, U.S. Army (ret.), has “shown the qualities of selfless service and dedication to his country and to West Point throughout his life,” according to Major Gen. Carl H. McNair Jr., US Army (ret.), who served as president of the West Point Class of ‘55.
“Joe’s academic skills allowed him to select the Corps of Engineers as his branch of choice at graduation. After branch schooling, which included Parachute and Ranger qualification, he served with Combat Engineer units in Europe.
“In 1959 he was selected to attend MIT where he earned masters degrees in both civil and nuclear engineering,” McNair said in a letter recommending his classmate for the Distinguished Graduate Award.
After graduating from MIT, Franklin assumed his duties with the Nuclear Power Field Office of the Army’s Nuclear Power Program, and led efforts to design the world’s first floating nuclear power plant, and well as pioneering the removal of a portable nuclear power plant from Greenland and returning it to the United States.
Later on Franklin was assigned as commander of the 299th Combat Engineer Battalion in Vietnam, where he led his battalion in operations in the Central Highlands and in the reduction of enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia.
He was awarded the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and two Air medals as a result of his service.
From Vietnam, Franklin was assigned to the Office of Plans and Police and worked with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, using his nuclear training and field experience to write a paper that was used as the basis for recasting the United States’ nuclear arsenal under the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT).
“For his outstanding performance in this important position, he was recognized with a second Legion of Merit and the Joint Service Commendation Medal,” McNair said.
In 1976, Franklin assumed command of the 4th Basic Combat Training Brigade at Fort Knox.
“Joe’s command tour ended in 1977 when he was again recalled to the JCS to be the first Army officer to serve as the special assistant to the director of the Joint Staff,” McNair said. “His primary responsibility was to oversee the agenda for the meetings of the Joint Chiefs in their private conference room, ‘the tank.’
“While assigned there, in 1979, Franklin became one of the first members of the Class of 1955 to be promoted to brigadier general,” he said.
Other assignments took Franklin back to West Point, where he served as commandant of cadets and worked to develop new policies strengthening the Honor Code in the wake of the historic cheating scandal; and later to serve as assistant division commander for the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. While there, he received a special call from the Chief of Staff to take an assignment as chief of the Joint U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Group in Madrid, Spain.
Franklin retired from the Army in 1987, but remained in Spain to form a company which consulted
for United States corporations involved with the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the World’s Fair in Seville.
“Because of his successes, Franklin was recruited in 1992 by the vice chairman of Bear Stearns, a New York financial firm, to lead Frequency Electronics Inc., an American Stock Exchange company that had been accused of overcharging and was indicted and suspended from government contracting,” McNair said.
“Calling on his outstanding leadership and rock solid integrity, he finally was able to reach an agreement with the Justice Department that preserved the company’s assets and gave it a platform to rebuild the business it had lost. Since then the company has prospered and has been a valuable contributor to the US defense, space, and telecommunications industries.”
Franklin stepped down as CEO in 1999 but remains as chairman of the board.
Franklin has earned a number of awards and honors over the span of his career, and holds memberships in a number of professional and community organizations.
Locally, he holds memberships in the Cumberland Country Club, Oakland Country Club, and Deerhaven Yacht Club of Deep Creek.
He and his wife reside in Arlington, Va.
The Kelley Award ceremony gets underway at 9:30 a.m. this morning in the Church-McKee Arts Center on the campus of Potomac State College.
Nominees for the award this year are Taige Redman, Matt Wilmer, and Daniel Zinn.
