Hans Pawlisch

Hans earned his BA with honors in history in 1970 and MA degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1974. He received his Ph.D. in legal history from King’s College, the University of London in 1981. He has taught on the faculties of the Queen’s University of Belfast, Northern Ireland, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the American Military University. He also served as the Command Historian for the United States Central Command, the US Army Engineer School, the Military Airlift Command, and as Chief of the Joint Operational History Branch of the Joint History Office in the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He has written classified annual histories and studies concerning military operations in the Middle East and Africa. Among his scholarly awards is the 1986 John Ben Snow foundation Prize presented by the North American Conference of British Studies for the best book published by a US or Canadian citizen in the field of British history or social science. In 1993 he also received the Archivist of the United States Achievement Award for preserving the records of the US Central Command relating to Operations Desert Shield/Storm. In 2010 he retired from government service and received the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Distinguished Civilian Service Award. He was permanently retired as an Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel in 2008 after thirty-eight years’ service. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal and other awards. He has been active with the American Historical Association where he served on the Herbert Feis Award committee for three years. He also served as President ,Vice President, Treasurer and Trustee of the US Commission on Military History (USCMH). He currently serves as First Vice President of the International Commission of Military History (ICMH)--a UNESCO sponsored organization based in the Netherlands. He is active in the Irish Legal History Society and the Military History Society of Ireland. Since his retirement he has rekindled the preoccupations of his youth, chairing occasional conference sessions dealing with early modern Ireland--the North American Conference on British Studies and the Renaissance Society of America.

I was a transfer student from Stephen F. Austin High School in Bryan, Texas in November 1964. I graduated from WFB in January 1966--only one year at WFB.