Item Number: OH0444 (Record 314329)
Title: Interview with I. Thomas Sheppard (by: Laura M. Calkins, PhD) - October 3, 2005
Interview Date: 03 October 2005
Collection: Dr. I. Thomas Sheppard Collection
Media Type: Oral History (Digital)
Length: 17:33:51 hr/min/sec
Description: (USA) Tom Sheppard was born in 1930 in Orange NJ and attended the New York State Maritime Academy for two years. He was drafted into the US Army in 1951, completing Basic and AIT training at Fort Dix NJ. He completed Artillery OCS in 1952 and was commissioned as a Regular Army second lieutenant. Tom attended AFFE Intelligence School in Japan, and served with the the 24th Division Artillery in Korea. He was posted as an aide-de-camp to BG Edwin L. Johnson in 1954. Later assignments included battery commander, battalion Asst. S3, and Assistant G3 posts with the XVIII Airborne Corps at Ft Bragg NC, completion of the army's first Surface-to-Surface Missile Battery Officers' Course at Ft Sill OK, and commands with anti-aircraft artillery units in the Panama Canal Zone. In 1960 Tom attended the Artillery Officers' Advanced Course at Ft Sill OK, and then became an instructor at the USA Air Defense School. In 1964 he transferred from the Artillery to the Army's new Intelligence Branch, and spent a student year at the Defense Intelligence College. From 1965 to 1966 he served at MACV in Saigon as Chief of Briefings and Reports and Command Briefing Officer on the J-2 staff under GEN Westmoreland. Later he was assigned to the joint and combined intelligence staff of CINCLANT at Norfolk VA, and later to the JCS Strategic Target Planning Staff at Offutt AFB NE. Tom earned Bronze Star Medals in both the Korean and Vietnam wars as well as the Meritorious Service Medal in his last assignment. Tom took early retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1972, became an organizational behavior expert, earning a doctorate at the University of Texas-Arlington, and was a tenured member of the business school faculty at the University of Texas-El Paso.
Citation: Interview with I. Thomas Sheppard, 03 October 2005, Dr. I. Thomas Sheppard Collection, The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University. Accessed 21 May. 2013. <http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=OH0444>.