NEWS
RELEASE
General Bernard “Bernie” Rogers NATO’s
Longest Serving Supreme Commander Remembered
02
December 2008
Mons, Belgium
–
A memorial
service to commemorate the life of General Bernard W. Rogers, NATO’s longest
serving Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) has
been held at the Memorial Chapel, Fort Myer, Virginia. NATO’s military was represented at
the service by Major General Leonardo di Marco (Italian Army) and Command
Sergeant Major Michael Bartelle (US
Army).
General “Bernie” Rogers
assumed the post of SACEUR at a controversial time in NATO’s history, when the
Alliance had just made the so-called “Dual Track”
Decision to introduce modern intermediate-range missiles to
Europe while also seeking to reach arms control agreements
with the Soviet
Union. Over the next three years he oversaw the
deployment of Pershing II and Ground Launched Cruise Missiles into
Europe and was a strong advocate of the initiative, arguing
that the Soviet
Union’s existing
advantage in such weapons threatened “the very essence of NATO’s strategy of
Flexible Response.”
After arms control
negotiations with the Soviets started in Geneva, he commented that modern intermediate
range missiles for NATO were the “most compelling, perhaps the only, blue chip
on the table for our negotiators.”
Notwithstanding his enduring support for modernising NATO’s nuclear
deterrent he also oversaw a reduction of some 2,400 such
weapons.
General Rogers was an independent minded
commander, willing to state his views without fear or favour, who earned the
respect of his peers and the NATO leadership, the then NATO Secretary General,
Lord Carrington stating that he would be happy to see him stay in post even up
to the age of 100. After an
exceptional extension of service beyond normal retirement age he finally stepped
down in June 1987.
In the words of The Economist magazine, “in almost all
things General Rogers thought and acted for the Alliance: he came as close to
being a true NATO commander, as distinct from an American in an Alliance hat, as
the organisation ever had.”
-End-
Notes to
editors:
Contact Information for Allied Command
Operations Public Affairs Office at SHAPE:
Tel: +32 (0)65 44
4119
Mobile: 0032 (0)
475 77 31 05
Email: shape.pao@shape.nato.int