Like many Copperas Cove residents, Robert LaMonte is a patriotic person. He served his country in the military for many years and continues to do so as a civilian at the United States Army Operational Test Command on West Fort Hood, where he's a senior test support officer. He cites his love of the Army for his involvement, and he's happy at his post.

But LaMonte's commitment to serving his country is more intense than that. The 81-year-old native New Yorker has worked for the military for more than 61 years, and he's served in not one branch, but four: the Navy, Army, Army Reserve and National Guard.

His story, as complex as it is, has earned him the respect of many, including Gen. Robert M. Shoemaker, who organized his retirement ceremony from active duty in 1976, and his co-workers today. Which is why many will be sad to see him go when he retires (for the second time) on April 4. Today is his last day in the office.

"I've always known him to be one of the kindest most humble people I've ever known in my life," said Eloise Lundgren, OTC public affairs officer. "He's going to be a great loss to OTC, but we're very happy for him."

The beginning

LaMonte was born in Queens City, New York, on Nov. 27, 1929, and his first job was delivering the Saturday Evening Post and Liberty Magazine to people on his route.

He learned to deal with obstacles early on. His mother died in 1940 from heart disease, and he and his brother were raised by their grandparents. LaMonte continued to work in various places to afford clothes and shoes, and held the titles of vegetable store delivery boy, drug store soda fountain jerk, shoe salesman, assistant butcher and gas station attendant.

He graduated from Huntington High School in 1949, and he already knew where he was heading next.

"Most of the guys in high school joined the Navy," he said, noting there was a Navy Reserve post in his town. "All of us grew up on the water. I guess we all felt more comfortable with the Navy."

He joined with a classmate, and the two planned to embark on their adventure together. But they were split up, with LaMonte going to the Great Lakes for basic training and his friend going elsewhere.

"So that didn't really work out," he said.

He showed promise from the start, bypassing two years of college with a battery of tests administered to all incoming sailors. He went on to the Anacostia Naval Air Station in Washington, D.C., for fire control school to sharpen his math.

When a bulletin came out about naval flight school in Pensacola, Fla., he changed courses again.

"I always wanted to fly," he said.

He graduated the entry course first in his class, but while in school he experienced a major setback. LaMonte had come down with dengue fever.

Doctors improperly diagnosed him. They pumped 800,000 units of penicillin into him twice a day. He soon broke out with water blisters.

Fortunately, a doctor from Panama came to see him, and corrected the mistake immediately.

"He said, 'Take him off penicillin, you're killing him,'" LaMonte remembers.

Within two weeks, LaMonte was released from the hospital, cured. But more bad news came.

The flight surgeon determined the penicillin treatment had ruined LaMonte's depth perception.

"I was terribly disappointed, I wanted to fly but I couldn't find the ground," LaMonte said.

He was told to return to his fleet in Anacostia or leave the service. He chose the latter.

LaMonte went home to Long Island, N.Y., planning to go to college, until his uncle, a 1st Cavalry Division soldier on leave from serving in Korea, stepped in.

"He said we have four generations in the Army," LaMonte said, adding his great, great, great-grandfather and great grandfather had fought in the Civil War, his grandfather served in the Spanish American War and his uncle served in World War II.

LaMonte drove to Fort Knox, Ky., with his uncle and enlisted for Armored Officer Candidate School in June 1952. He was later assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

Then another life change came, but this one was LaMonte's doing.

Married life

He had met Jackie on a blind date set up by his best friend, her best friend's husband, on the eve of Christmas Day 1951. He claims he told her he wanted to marry her that night, and the two finally wed in November 1952 in Jackie's hometown of Northport, N.Y.

After training in Fort Drum, N.Y., LaMonte deployed to Korea in June 1953 with the 24th Infantry Regiment, where he stayed on Koji-do island. A prisoner of war camp was there, and he was involved with prisoner exchanges.

"It was a small island, and we had a lot of prisoners," he said.

He didn't stay on that small island long, however.

"My wife was having our first child and my wife's grandma was writing me nasty letters saying, 'Why aren't you home with your wife?'" he said. "It was not a hard decision. I had to get her grandma off my back."

LaMonte transferred to the Army Ready Reserve when he came home in October 1954, and went to work in a bank in Jackie's hometown as a teller, then as a debit agent at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Neither job paid well.

"So I became a milkman, and it paid. Most union jobs in Long Island paid well."

LaMonte delivered 600 quarts of milk, eggs, cream and butter to homes in Great Neck and Huntington each day. But flying was never far from his mind.

"I decided on a whim in '56 to go to the naval hospital and have a flight physical. And I passed it."

He went to San Marcos as a second lieutenant to begin training at the flight school for the Army Reserve in 1957.

"That's when I decided Texas was going to be our home," he said. "It felt like home."

After attending combat fit training in Fort Rucker, Ala., he returned home and continued his job as a milkman. He then switched to the National Guard's 42nd Infantry Division, where he was more likely to be able to fly.

He went through the Armored Advance Course at Fort Knox in 1959, and was promoted to captain that same year. He also completed the Army Rotary Wing Transition Course in Mineral Wells in 1961.

When LaMonte returned home, he applied for active duty again, but his application was not received well.

"They felt they'd spent too much money on me," he said. "The company commander put it in his bottom drawer."

His application was finally sent off, but in January 1962 he still hadn't heard anything.

"I put my three children and my wife in the car and drove to the Pentagon to find out what happened to my application," he said.

An employee told him she'd "have her girls" look through the stack of applications, find his, and have orders for him by 4 p.m.

"I came back and she had orders for Fort Hood with the 1st Armored Division."

Vietnam

LaMonte came to the base in March 1962, left for Fort Stewart, Ga., in October to train during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then shipped out to Vietnam. He deployed in 1963 for 13 months, returned to Fort Benning, Ga., for air assault tests, and returned to Vietnam in 1965.

LaMonte said he enjoyed everything about his time abroad, except being away from his family.

"We'd record tapes and send them back and forth," he said. "The kids wrote me letters, and of course they also videotaped."

His wife kept busy with a singing group and played golf, and she organized gatherings.

"My wife headed up a group of Army wives in Fort Benning, and they played cards and drank wine on Friday nights," he said. "They'd try to call us, and they were never successful."

In Vietnam, LaMonte flew Huey helicopters and supported senior advisors, and later oversaw the building of barracks for soldiers. He once met actress and USO tour participant Martha Raye when she presented him and his men with a check for $400 to buy pews for a chapel, which he counts as a highlight of his time overseas.

There were dark days too, such as when a commander LaMonte often flew with died on Easter Sunday.

"It was not my day to fly," he remembered, noting his boss was with the commander. "He went in to rescue some downed crew members and never came out."

LaMonte later became an assistant airfield commander.

"Command is always the best part of your career. If you could stay in command the whole time it would be heaven," LaMonte said. "But you can't, you have to be well-rounded."

Stateside

LaMonte was promoted to major in July 1966 and returned home in October 1967 with 27 Air Medals, a Bronze Star, Presidential and Vietnam Unit Citations and a Vietnam Service Medal.

He took command of the 197th Aviation Company at Fort Benning. It was then he heard a Modern Army Selected Systems Test, Evaluation and Review program was beginning at Fort Hood, so he transferred in November 1969. His family followed, and it was then they came to Copperas Cove.

They had lived in Wainwright Village during LaMonte's first stint at Fort Hood, but this time housing was full.

"In '69 there was half of housing there is now," he said.

The family had considered living in Killeen, but that would mean LaMonte's two older daughters would go to Killeen High School, which he said was having problems with GIs coming to meet girls on campus.

"Cove had a closed campus and was very family-oriented so we went to the Cove."

While at Fort Hood, he began the Fort Hood Glider Club and trained to be a co-pilot. After a hard landing that took the wings of a glider, the corporate commander made them move their practice to Georgetown.

In 1970, LaMonte was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He served as assistant secretary to the general staff under Maj. Gen. Jack Norton at the time.

A year later, he experienced his worst crash yet.

"In May 1971, I was up for my final ride with an instructor in the glider," he said. "He made me slow down on the downwind, and I said we shouldn't do it."

The instructor took over, and aimed their landing for a small open field.

"We bounced 90 meters, went between two trees, it took the wings off. I got knocked out, broke my left femur and five ribs, punctured my lungs, and broke my back in 3-to-5 places."

His instructor was even worse off; he'd hit his head, and later died.

"That was the worst one I'd been in. I've been shot at and hit, but never knocked out of the sky."

The transition

When a pilot is knocked out of the sky, LaMonte said, he usually has to take a flight physical again to be cleared to resume flying. Gen. Phillip Seneff excused LaMonte from that step, saying if he flew with him for two months he could bypass the physical.

Seneff later set LaMonte up for a civilian job on Fort Hood.

"He knew I was a reserve officer and I couldn't stay more than 20 years," he said.

LaMonte became chief of housing at Fort Hood, where he stayed until his retirement. He participated in the design of Comanche Villages I, II and III.

On Nov. 30, 1976, he retired with 27 years of service, 20 as an active officer.

"I think that was the highlight of my career," he said of his retirement ceremony. He noted the 7th Cavalry Regiment stood for his pass and review, which held meaning because that was the unit his relatives had served in, and his own son would go on to serve in.

The ceremony was organized by Shoemaker, who LaMonte had known for years. His children had even received riding lessons from Mrs. Shoemaker.

"General Shoemaker was a great, great guy. They wouldn't have named the high school after him if he wasn't."

After retiring, LaMonte earned a master's degree in business management and later taught upper-level business courses at what is now Tarleton for 18 years. His teaching career almost took him abroad.

"I was getting ready to go to work for CTC overseas, when a fellow called to see if I wanted to take his job."

His wife recommended he take it.

"My wife said, 'No TDY? Grab it!'"

LaMonte became the chief of assignments and terminations at Fort Hood, but lost that job when he was laid off during a reduction in force. He went to the Fort Hood Contracting Division, but was laid off again for the same reason. He named the RIFs as the most difficult thing he faced during his time with the military.

"That was kind of disappointing. As an Army retiree, you have no tenure."

It was then he found a job at OTC, and he's been there ever since.

William Fesler, G4 Deputy Commander for OTC, said he and LaMonte have parallel histories, and the two have worked together since the late '80s.

"I am currently his supervisor and friend, heavy on the friend," he said.

Fesler praised LaMonte's professional skills, calling him OTC's most experienced contract specialist, and pointing out he's been requested to sit and serve on the Contracting Solicitation Boards for the past four Test Support Contracts that work for the Operational Test Command, formally TEXCOM.

"Bob's involvement over the past 10 years has been in obtaining the Test Support Contract personnel and equipment necessary to collect and reduce the data that is used to report to congress on the operational effectiveness and suitability of systems the meet or exceed the program manager's mission requirements," he said.

"Bob's experience and service with this command has led to the fielding of hundreds of new and improved combat systems used to better support and protect our soldiers and military from enemies in the War on Terror."

Home for good

Though LaMonte has been hard at work, he said he's liked his post-retirement years better than his pre-retirement ones.

"We were moving every year during active duty," he said, noting his wife got tired of that. In fact, he and his family felt no need to move from Texas when he retired, or thereafter.

"I always wanted to retire in a tax-free state, but Florida is too hot and muggy and buggy," he said. "I don't miss the north, except in April, May and October for the change in the leaves and the spring flowers. And my wife doesn't miss it. She loves Texas."

All four of his kids graduated from Copperas Cove High School, and his son followed in his footsteps. He attended the Virginia Military Institute, then spent nine years in the Army Reserve, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. One of his seven grandchildren is a Marine.

Today LaMonte's youngest daughter and son live in Copperas Cove, and he has another daughter in Pflugerville and one in Austin.

As a retiree, LaMonte said his time will be spent with his wife, and taking care of long-overdue projects.

"I've got a lot of honey-dos, so it'll probably take me a year or two to do those," he said.

Good-byes

Though LaMonte is looking forward to his retirement, his co-workers will miss him, and vice-versa.

"I guess after 27 years I just got to love the army and particularly OTC. It's like a family out here. We take care of each other, love each other," he said. "And I've just always liked testing."

Fesler said he will not only miss LaMonte's hard work at OTC, but his presence as a person as well.

"Bob LaMonte will be greatly missed here at OTC, not just because of the extensive experience but because of his ever-friendly and smiling face to cheer us up every morning before we start the day's work," he said.

Lundgren agreed.

"We're going to miss him greatly and we wish him and Jackie the best," she said.

LaMonte said when looking back on his 61-year career, it was the people he worked with who made it all worth it.

"I think the people make any organization," he said, "particularly the Army."