The U.S. Army Operational Test Command added one more member to its Hall of Fame during a ceremony Thursday at its headquarters building.

Standing under the command's motto, "Truth by Testing," written on the command's edifice, Harold Dean Horton, 71, accepted the honor with an anecdote about integrity.

As a young officer in the Army's only independent operational test organization, Horton was once told by a senior officer to falsify a test report, he said.

Horton refused, and his position was in limbo until the officer was discovered and punished.

He encouraged all test officers present to remember who they work for.

"Never forget that your ultimate consumer of the product is our active-duty soldiers," he said.

The Virginia native spent 23 years in the Army, deploying three times to Vietnam. He retired as a major before beginning a second 24-year test career with the Airborne Special Operations Test Directorate at Fort Bragg, N.C., a satellite campus of the Fort Hood-based command.

Horton lives in North Carolina.

Col. Laura Richardson, the command's senior officer, called his dedication to the Army and the command admirable.

"That number of years of service alone deserves a round of applause," she said.

Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Bobb said that despite the relative youth of the Operational Test Command, at just over 30 years old, the unit's legacy is of great value to testers.

That leads many former active-duty soldiers, such as Horton, to seek positions within the command's unique civilian-soldier structure, he said.

"Some retire after 20, 25, 30 years, and give more" to the command as civilians, he said. "We didn't lose that knowledge or experience."

Past Hall of Fame inductees include retired Gen. Robert M. Shoemaker, one of many local dignitaries who attended the tribute.

Welcome home

The command also welcomed home a test team from a six-month deployment to the Middle East during Thursday's ceremony.

The Operational Test Command, based at Fort Hood, assesses the performance of combat equipment before the Defense Department purchases it for wide use. Every six months, a forward operational assessment team deploys to test such items in combat.

The 16th Forward Operational Assessment Team — a mix of about 25 active-duty soldiers and civilian personnel who deployed to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan in February — received multiple honors during the ceremony, including Bronze Star medals and Defense Meritorious Service medals.

Chief Warrant Officer-3 William Jarrett, who deployed from the command's satellite Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Directorate at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., was the only team member to receive a Purple Heart medal.

The 17-year soldier was injured on July 5 in southern Afghanistan when his vehicle hit a roadside bomb. He broke his leg in two places, but should be able to run again within six months, he said.

Richardson called Jarrett's medal "unusual" for a tester, and Jarrett agreed.

"I thought we'd be crunching a lot more numbers that going out as often as we did," he said, smiling.