Admiral T. Joseph Lopez
U.S. Navy
Commander in Chief US Naval Force & NATO
Vietnam – Bosnia
1959-1999
U.S. Navy
Commander in Chief US Naval Force & NATO
Vietnam – Bosnia
1959-1999
Joe Lopez was born in 1940 in Powellton West Virginia. Powellton was in the south central part of the state where bituminous coal drove the economy. Bituminous coal was used to power the factories but “burned with a lot of soot”. As time went on and there were greater concerns about the environment, bituminous coal fell out of favor and that region of West Virginia suffered economically and still does today. Powellton had three coal mines.
Joe’s father was the first US born son of Joe’s grandfather who immigrated to the US from Calabria, Italy. His father was from a family of eight and his mother was from a Dutch-German family of 13. Initially his father and his grandfather worked in the coal mines. Later both men, along with Joe’s uncle, invested in real estate. They built several family homes where 5 or 6 families lived and had a service station right next door. Later they added on a restaurant that his mother ran and then a small grocery store run by his uncle. Much of Joe’s family still lives in the area.
“It was a different kind of upbringing. People were very hard working, loyal, friendly, and patriotic. West Virginia gave more of it’s sons and daughters to battle than any other state in the nation per capita.” Joe recalled running out on to the football field as a freshman in high school hearing the Star Spangled Banner and having chills run up and down his spine. “That still happens today. It’s a different sort of upbringing that people unfortunately don’t get to have today.”
In high school Joe initially played basketball and football but transferred to Don Bosco, a Catholic all boys boarding school. The school was so small it didn’t have a football team, so Joe focused on basketball and baseball and captained both teams in his senior year. He remembers the team being pretty good and advancing to the state quarter finals in the Catholic tournament. Joe also recalls the priests being very demanding and pushing him to perform his best academically. It paid off and he graduated Valedictorian. Joe’s father gave him some timeless advice growing up. “If it’s not hard, it’s not worth it. If it’s easy, don’t bother. Try and work with people who are better than you so you can get better.”
Joe graduated from high school in 1957 after having just turned 17. He attended a small junior college, and he looked forward to playing basketball. He made the team and played but his grades dropped. Joe didn’t have a scholarship and at the end of his first year his father wanted him to live at home and work in the family store because money was an issue. Joe dutifully obliged but he was working so many hours at the gas station his grades dropped further. Joe was not happy. He talked with a friend, and they decided to join the Navy.
Joe enlisted at the end of his sophomore year in 1959. When he came back from bootcamp in Great Lakes, IL the year was 1960 and he married to his high school sweetheart. He then went to “A” school in Miilington, TN. He was going to go into aviation electronics. One year and a day after they were married, the Lopez’s had their first child. Joe’s first assignment was in Norfolk, VA. He was given the opportunity to work in aviation simulator training, which at the time was state of the art. After four years Joe was considering leaving the Navy and he spoke with his division officer who told Joe he had good potential to be an officer. Joe re-enlisted and was selected to the Seaman-to-Admiral program. He went off to Officer Candidate School in the fall of 1964 knowing he wanted to be a career Naval officer if he was selected. He graduated in December of 1964 and hoped to have a career as a pilot. However, he wore glasses, and he would have been limited to being the back seat navigator. “I really wanted to drive. The second best thing in my mind was to try and get into destroyers. The fastest and sleekest ships.”
His first ship was the USS Eugene A. Greene where he was the electronics officer. Later he moved up to Combat Information Officer and then First Lieutenant responsible for the entire outside of the ship. They deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. He returned to the states and attended school to be a Weapons Officer. Upon completion Joe was assigned to the USS Wallace L. Lind and deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin for 8 months. Joe was promoted and received his first command as Commander of River Assault Division 153, also known as the Dirty Water Navy. These were 35 to 40 foot long fiberglass boats that were very fast and carried 5 men. They were known as Patrol Boats River (PBR). Each PBR was armed with two 50mm machine guns and a 60mm mortar in the back. Before they were deployed, they went through extensive training in San Francisco Bay include SERE training. SERE, survival-evasion-resistance-escape, is designed to give the men training in what it is like to be a POW. Joe lost 12 pounds in 5 days. He was captured and placed in a simulated POW camp. “I thought it was one of the better training weeks I ever had. It makes you answer questions about yourself. How much can you take? “
He spent August of 1969 to August of 1970 in Vietnam commanding PBR’s and ASP’s (Assault Support Patrol Boats). Much of their time was spent patrolling the Saigon River and the Vam Co Tay River near the Parrots Beek of Cambodia. “We were averaging a fire fight about twice a week.” In April of 1970 President Nixon decided the safe havens for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in Cambodia had to be eliminated. A secret mission was developed to invade the Parrots Beek. The mission called for 80 boats and was to be a strictly Vietnamese operation because the US was not supposed to be in Cambodia. The day before the mission the South Vietnamese commander was fired. Joe was put in charge. He took 80 boats with helicopter cover and headed into battle. “It was an amazing operation and was very unexpected by them.” For the next six weeks there were no fire fights. His unit was pulled out and headed down to protect the Saigon River.
In August he returned to the US and was slated to attend the Naval Postgraduate School to complete his college degree. He completed his degree in International Relations. He was selected for the Masters Program which he completed in 12 months and from there he went to the Armed Forces Staff College. In October 1977 Joe was promoted to Executive Officer onboard the USS Truett. This was a very successful tour and the ship earned the Admiral Arleigh Burke Award as the most improved ship in the Atlantic Fleet as well as the Golden Award for the highest re-enlistment rate in the Atlantic fleet.
Joe then headed to Washington, DC for his first tour as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. In September of 1982 Joe assumed Command of the Destroyer USS Stump and deployed to the Persian Gulf during the Iran Iraq War. This was a new ship and had state-of-the-art equipment. The ship earned the Gunnery Ship of the Year, known as the Chezak Award.
Joe really enjoyed this tour and said he was surrounded by some exceptionally competent people who went on to do great things in the Navy. His XO went on to be a Rear Admiral and his Chief Engineer and Combat Systems Officer both retired as Vice Admirals. “I would like to be remembered that the people who worked with me and learned with me, that they were successful.” That is one way Joe says he measures his success.
When they returned home from deployment, they headed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for overhaul. They had to take down their antennas to get under the Brooklyn Bridge. When they finally docked, they found themselves in the same birth that the battleship USS Iowa (WW II) had been built.
In November of 1984 Joe was selected for Captain and went to the Bureau of Naval Personnel to work for the Chief of Naval Personnel. After a couple of years in this position Joe was selected to be the Commander of Destroyer Squadron 32 in the Mediterranean in 1987. By 1989 Joe had risen to the rank of Admiral.
His first position as Admiral was Deputy for Operation and the head of Current Operations. “Everything that happened in the military worldwide went across my desk.” Joe was responsible for briefing the Chairman of the Joint Operations. “It was exciting”. During this time General Colin Powell became Joe’s boss. Within two weeks after his arrival there was an insurrection in the Philippines. There was an attempted coup by the Philippine armed forces and the US flew aircraft off US Carriers to assist President Acquino in putting down the coup. “I sat right beside General Powell and we were doing the planning late into the night and it was exciting. Within a month or two we were having problems with Panama.” The decision was made by President Bush to depose Manuel Noriega. Joe did the initial planning of the invasion of Panama and then turned it over to General Steiner who was the head of JSOC. “The invasion came off like clockwork.”
Joe had been in this position for less than a year, but he had the opportunity to brief Secretary of Defense Cheney. Joe must have made a good impression because he received a call that he was one of 12 Generals and Admirals nominated to be the next Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. He went for an initial interview with Secretary Cheney and Joe thought it went well but he knew the current person in this position was an Admiral. The job normally rotated from one branch of the service to another so Joe didn’t expect to be seriously considered. Much to his surprise “he made it to the finals”.
Joe went back for a second interview with Secretary Cheney. The Secretary asked him what he thought they should do with the battleships. Joe said he thought they should be retired and listed several compelling reasons. Cheney said, “well he (Admiral Owens who was currently in the role) doesn’t agree with you.” Joe said, “well, we’ll duke it out after I leave, and I’ll let you know who won.” There was a big laugh. Joe got the job.
He arrived on Monday for the week of transition and Thursday night Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Secretary Cheney said, ‘are you ready to go?’ and Joe said yes. Cheney called that weekend and told Joe to arrange for a helicopter to Camp David and invite Colin Powell, General Schwarzkopf and General Kelly. They arrived at Camp David and when President Bush came into the room he said, “Dick, I see you have someone new.” The President took a moment to take Joe and show him his office. He showed Joe the desk drawer where Truman and Eisenhower had signed their names and told Joe, “that’s where I’ll sign”.
Joe was involved in helping organize the coalition and meeting with King Fahd, King Hassan, and Hosni Mubarak. “This was work that would have normally been done by the State Department, but Secretary Baker was busy negotiating the downsizing of the nuclear force of Russia and the US.” “It was eye-opening spending those two years with the Secretary of Defense and watch the strategy involved and taking all of the notes of the meetings.”
I asked Joe what he thought of Dick Cheney. “I loved him. He was straight forward. Had a dry sense of humor. Strong family man. A straight shooter. I didn’t find a lot of differences between him and General Powell. They had different personalities, but both were devoted to the nation. They didn’t always agree….. but when they went in to see the President, they were both in lockstep. I admired both men for that. There are 4 or 5 people that you meet in your lifetime, and you learn a great deal from and admire and he was one of them.”
In July of 1992 Joe was promoted to 3 Star Admiral. His next position was as 6th Fleet Commander where over the next 18 months he learned a lot about Turkey and the Mediterranean. In December of 1993 he assumed the role of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations where he was involved in the budgeting for the Navy and it’s future procurements. “It a job where if you do it well you probably won’t know how well because you are in the job of buying the future Navy.”
In 1996, after three years in that position, Joe became Commander in Chief of US Naval Forces, Europe based in London and Commander in Chief, Allied Forces, Southern Europe (NATO), based in Naples. He was “two hatted” and received his fourth star. During this time, he also commanded the NATO Peace Implementation Forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His headquarters was in Sarajevo, Bosnia from July 1996 to November 1996. In Bosnia Joe was responsible for 50,000 people working inside of Bosnia. The mission was to maintain peace for the citizens of Bosnia and oversee the first election, which took place peacefully.
After 39 years, on January 1, 1999 Joe retired. During our discussion Joe talked about the importance of being able to project influence as well as projecting force. He also talked about the need to form coalitions to get things done and that is done through relationships that need to be developed over time. He also talked about how fortunate he was to have the support of his family and great people that worked for. “Enjoy every job and do the best you can.”
“I feel like Lou Gehrig. The luckiest man in the world.”
Thank you, Joe, for a career of service to your country and making the world a safer place.
Joe’s father was the first US born son of Joe’s grandfather who immigrated to the US from Calabria, Italy. His father was from a family of eight and his mother was from a Dutch-German family of 13. Initially his father and his grandfather worked in the coal mines. Later both men, along with Joe’s uncle, invested in real estate. They built several family homes where 5 or 6 families lived and had a service station right next door. Later they added on a restaurant that his mother ran and then a small grocery store run by his uncle. Much of Joe’s family still lives in the area.
“It was a different kind of upbringing. People were very hard working, loyal, friendly, and patriotic. West Virginia gave more of it’s sons and daughters to battle than any other state in the nation per capita.” Joe recalled running out on to the football field as a freshman in high school hearing the Star Spangled Banner and having chills run up and down his spine. “That still happens today. It’s a different sort of upbringing that people unfortunately don’t get to have today.”
In high school Joe initially played basketball and football but transferred to Don Bosco, a Catholic all boys boarding school. The school was so small it didn’t have a football team, so Joe focused on basketball and baseball and captained both teams in his senior year. He remembers the team being pretty good and advancing to the state quarter finals in the Catholic tournament. Joe also recalls the priests being very demanding and pushing him to perform his best academically. It paid off and he graduated Valedictorian. Joe’s father gave him some timeless advice growing up. “If it’s not hard, it’s not worth it. If it’s easy, don’t bother. Try and work with people who are better than you so you can get better.”
Joe graduated from high school in 1957 after having just turned 17. He attended a small junior college, and he looked forward to playing basketball. He made the team and played but his grades dropped. Joe didn’t have a scholarship and at the end of his first year his father wanted him to live at home and work in the family store because money was an issue. Joe dutifully obliged but he was working so many hours at the gas station his grades dropped further. Joe was not happy. He talked with a friend, and they decided to join the Navy.
Joe enlisted at the end of his sophomore year in 1959. When he came back from bootcamp in Great Lakes, IL the year was 1960 and he married to his high school sweetheart. He then went to “A” school in Miilington, TN. He was going to go into aviation electronics. One year and a day after they were married, the Lopez’s had their first child. Joe’s first assignment was in Norfolk, VA. He was given the opportunity to work in aviation simulator training, which at the time was state of the art. After four years Joe was considering leaving the Navy and he spoke with his division officer who told Joe he had good potential to be an officer. Joe re-enlisted and was selected to the Seaman-to-Admiral program. He went off to Officer Candidate School in the fall of 1964 knowing he wanted to be a career Naval officer if he was selected. He graduated in December of 1964 and hoped to have a career as a pilot. However, he wore glasses, and he would have been limited to being the back seat navigator. “I really wanted to drive. The second best thing in my mind was to try and get into destroyers. The fastest and sleekest ships.”
His first ship was the USS Eugene A. Greene where he was the electronics officer. Later he moved up to Combat Information Officer and then First Lieutenant responsible for the entire outside of the ship. They deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. He returned to the states and attended school to be a Weapons Officer. Upon completion Joe was assigned to the USS Wallace L. Lind and deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin for 8 months. Joe was promoted and received his first command as Commander of River Assault Division 153, also known as the Dirty Water Navy. These were 35 to 40 foot long fiberglass boats that were very fast and carried 5 men. They were known as Patrol Boats River (PBR). Each PBR was armed with two 50mm machine guns and a 60mm mortar in the back. Before they were deployed, they went through extensive training in San Francisco Bay include SERE training. SERE, survival-evasion-resistance-escape, is designed to give the men training in what it is like to be a POW. Joe lost 12 pounds in 5 days. He was captured and placed in a simulated POW camp. “I thought it was one of the better training weeks I ever had. It makes you answer questions about yourself. How much can you take? “
He spent August of 1969 to August of 1970 in Vietnam commanding PBR’s and ASP’s (Assault Support Patrol Boats). Much of their time was spent patrolling the Saigon River and the Vam Co Tay River near the Parrots Beek of Cambodia. “We were averaging a fire fight about twice a week.” In April of 1970 President Nixon decided the safe havens for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in Cambodia had to be eliminated. A secret mission was developed to invade the Parrots Beek. The mission called for 80 boats and was to be a strictly Vietnamese operation because the US was not supposed to be in Cambodia. The day before the mission the South Vietnamese commander was fired. Joe was put in charge. He took 80 boats with helicopter cover and headed into battle. “It was an amazing operation and was very unexpected by them.” For the next six weeks there were no fire fights. His unit was pulled out and headed down to protect the Saigon River.
In August he returned to the US and was slated to attend the Naval Postgraduate School to complete his college degree. He completed his degree in International Relations. He was selected for the Masters Program which he completed in 12 months and from there he went to the Armed Forces Staff College. In October 1977 Joe was promoted to Executive Officer onboard the USS Truett. This was a very successful tour and the ship earned the Admiral Arleigh Burke Award as the most improved ship in the Atlantic Fleet as well as the Golden Award for the highest re-enlistment rate in the Atlantic fleet.
Joe then headed to Washington, DC for his first tour as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Navy. In September of 1982 Joe assumed Command of the Destroyer USS Stump and deployed to the Persian Gulf during the Iran Iraq War. This was a new ship and had state-of-the-art equipment. The ship earned the Gunnery Ship of the Year, known as the Chezak Award.
Joe really enjoyed this tour and said he was surrounded by some exceptionally competent people who went on to do great things in the Navy. His XO went on to be a Rear Admiral and his Chief Engineer and Combat Systems Officer both retired as Vice Admirals. “I would like to be remembered that the people who worked with me and learned with me, that they were successful.” That is one way Joe says he measures his success.
When they returned home from deployment, they headed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for overhaul. They had to take down their antennas to get under the Brooklyn Bridge. When they finally docked, they found themselves in the same birth that the battleship USS Iowa (WW II) had been built.
In November of 1984 Joe was selected for Captain and went to the Bureau of Naval Personnel to work for the Chief of Naval Personnel. After a couple of years in this position Joe was selected to be the Commander of Destroyer Squadron 32 in the Mediterranean in 1987. By 1989 Joe had risen to the rank of Admiral.
His first position as Admiral was Deputy for Operation and the head of Current Operations. “Everything that happened in the military worldwide went across my desk.” Joe was responsible for briefing the Chairman of the Joint Operations. “It was exciting”. During this time General Colin Powell became Joe’s boss. Within two weeks after his arrival there was an insurrection in the Philippines. There was an attempted coup by the Philippine armed forces and the US flew aircraft off US Carriers to assist President Acquino in putting down the coup. “I sat right beside General Powell and we were doing the planning late into the night and it was exciting. Within a month or two we were having problems with Panama.” The decision was made by President Bush to depose Manuel Noriega. Joe did the initial planning of the invasion of Panama and then turned it over to General Steiner who was the head of JSOC. “The invasion came off like clockwork.”
Joe had been in this position for less than a year, but he had the opportunity to brief Secretary of Defense Cheney. Joe must have made a good impression because he received a call that he was one of 12 Generals and Admirals nominated to be the next Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. He went for an initial interview with Secretary Cheney and Joe thought it went well but he knew the current person in this position was an Admiral. The job normally rotated from one branch of the service to another so Joe didn’t expect to be seriously considered. Much to his surprise “he made it to the finals”.
Joe went back for a second interview with Secretary Cheney. The Secretary asked him what he thought they should do with the battleships. Joe said he thought they should be retired and listed several compelling reasons. Cheney said, “well he (Admiral Owens who was currently in the role) doesn’t agree with you.” Joe said, “well, we’ll duke it out after I leave, and I’ll let you know who won.” There was a big laugh. Joe got the job.
He arrived on Monday for the week of transition and Thursday night Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Secretary Cheney said, ‘are you ready to go?’ and Joe said yes. Cheney called that weekend and told Joe to arrange for a helicopter to Camp David and invite Colin Powell, General Schwarzkopf and General Kelly. They arrived at Camp David and when President Bush came into the room he said, “Dick, I see you have someone new.” The President took a moment to take Joe and show him his office. He showed Joe the desk drawer where Truman and Eisenhower had signed their names and told Joe, “that’s where I’ll sign”.
Joe was involved in helping organize the coalition and meeting with King Fahd, King Hassan, and Hosni Mubarak. “This was work that would have normally been done by the State Department, but Secretary Baker was busy negotiating the downsizing of the nuclear force of Russia and the US.” “It was eye-opening spending those two years with the Secretary of Defense and watch the strategy involved and taking all of the notes of the meetings.”
I asked Joe what he thought of Dick Cheney. “I loved him. He was straight forward. Had a dry sense of humor. Strong family man. A straight shooter. I didn’t find a lot of differences between him and General Powell. They had different personalities, but both were devoted to the nation. They didn’t always agree….. but when they went in to see the President, they were both in lockstep. I admired both men for that. There are 4 or 5 people that you meet in your lifetime, and you learn a great deal from and admire and he was one of them.”
In July of 1992 Joe was promoted to 3 Star Admiral. His next position was as 6th Fleet Commander where over the next 18 months he learned a lot about Turkey and the Mediterranean. In December of 1993 he assumed the role of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations where he was involved in the budgeting for the Navy and it’s future procurements. “It a job where if you do it well you probably won’t know how well because you are in the job of buying the future Navy.”
In 1996, after three years in that position, Joe became Commander in Chief of US Naval Forces, Europe based in London and Commander in Chief, Allied Forces, Southern Europe (NATO), based in Naples. He was “two hatted” and received his fourth star. During this time, he also commanded the NATO Peace Implementation Forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina. His headquarters was in Sarajevo, Bosnia from July 1996 to November 1996. In Bosnia Joe was responsible for 50,000 people working inside of Bosnia. The mission was to maintain peace for the citizens of Bosnia and oversee the first election, which took place peacefully.
After 39 years, on January 1, 1999 Joe retired. During our discussion Joe talked about the importance of being able to project influence as well as projecting force. He also talked about the need to form coalitions to get things done and that is done through relationships that need to be developed over time. He also talked about how fortunate he was to have the support of his family and great people that worked for. “Enjoy every job and do the best you can.”
“I feel like Lou Gehrig. The luckiest man in the world.”
Thank you, Joe, for a career of service to your country and making the world a safer place.