Books

Written with:
Dr. Mary Magee, Dr. William Moye, and Others
Historical Office, U.S. Army Materiel Command
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007937358

The future of Jimmy Douglas Ross was defined by a chance meeting with a
WWII Army Buck sergeant, home on leave sporting “Airborne” wings. At the time, Ross
was an impressionable teen living in rural south Arkansas. That encounter led to a thirst
for military service and an Army career, which took him all over the world. With his 1958
college diploma and ROTC commission securely in hand, Ross traded his football
helmet and quarterback jersey for a rifle and Army uniform.

From the beginning, the military placed him in leadership roles. After basic
training, the Army tossed Ross and Colin Powell, two fresh lieutenants with strong
leadership qualities, into a group of West Point graduates for Infantry Officers Basic
Course. Ross and Powellʼs military paths intersected several times over the years.
Both served as infantry battalion advisors to South Vietnamese soldiers in the PBT
Special Zone, before most Americans could locate Vietnam on a world map. In 1992,
as next door neighbors at Fort Meyer near Washington, D.C., Powell and Ross shared
the distinction of being among the youngest ever to reach four-star rank.

Rossʼs distinguished career involved commanding numerous Army Posts and
serving as Deputy Chief of Logistics.

I served four years and seven months as Deputy
Chief in DCSLOG and it raced by like a blur of countryside flying past the window of a
speeding train. Desert Shield/Desert Storm, the Panama invasion, and the tearing
down of the Berlin Wall, each in its time, captured my thinking and pulled me into my
work with thought of little else.

When he retired from the U.S. Army, Gen. Ross had served thirty-six years as a
military officer. During that service, he received the Distinguished Service Medal (with
Oak Leaf Cluster), the Legion of Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster), the Bronze Star medal,
the Meritorious Service Medal, two Air Medals, the joint Service Commendations Medal,
the Army Commendations Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), the Combat Infantryman
Badge, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Ranger Tab, and the Army Staff Identification
Badge. His last active duty assignment was as Commander of the United States Army
Materiel Command in Alexandria, Virginia, a worldwide command of 95,000 military and
civilian personnel and 126 different organizations, and 34 Project Manager Offices,
represented in 40 states and 6 foreign countries at 355 locations around the world.

The following John Stuart Mill quote was front and center in each office occupied
by Gen. Ross.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded
state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important
than his own personal safety is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free
unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

A Devotion To Duty is available through the U.S. Army libraries.