Robert Kingston
Robert Charles Kingston ( July 16, 1928 *, † February 28, 2007 in Alexandria, Virginia) was a general in the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1985, the first commander of the U.S. Central Command, responsible for the Middle East.
Military career
Kingston joined in November 1948 as a simple soldier in the service of the U.S. Army. However, in the following year he graduated from Officer Candidate School at Fort Riley, Kansas, and received his commission on December 20, 1949 as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry. He commanded troops at every level from platoon to brigade.
In 1970 he was transferred to the headquarters of the U.S. Army in Washington, DC mixed and served as deputy secretary of the General Staff of the Chief of Staff of the Army, General William C. Westmoreland office. In June 1972, followed during the Vietnam War a foreign assignment in South Vietnam. Kingston was promoted to Brigadier General and served as Deputy Commanding General of the Second Regional Assistance Command of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, and as Deputy Senior Advisor to the II U.S. Corps and Military Region 2 In January 1973 Kingston took over the command of the Joint Casualty Resolution Center in Nakhon Phanim, Thailand. After his return to the United States in 1974, he took over the post of assistive division commander of the 1st Infantry Division and was promoted to Major General in September 1975. In the same year he took over command of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Center for Military Assistance / U.S. Army Institute for Military Assistance at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In June 1979, he left Fort Bragg to in Dongducheon, South Korea, to take over the command of the 2nd Infantry Division until June 1981.
1981 Kingston was then promoted to Lieutenant General and assumed command of the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. This command was regrouped in 1983 and is an independent Unified Combatant Command and has since been known U.S. Central Command. Kingston was therefore promoted on November 6, 1984 General and was in command for another year until he made it on 27 November 1985, General George B. Crist, and shortly thereafter went into retirement.
Kingston's then 36 - year-old wife, Josephine Cody " Jo " Kingston, died in 1992. They had two children, a son and a daughter.
General Robert Charles Kingston died on 28 February 2007 at the age of 78 years in Alexandria, Virginia, to the consequences of a fall.
Awards
Selection of decorations, sorted on the basis of the Order of Precedence of Military Awards:
- Distinguished Service Cross
- Army Distinguished Service Medal
- Silver Star (2 × )
- Legion of Merit (4 × )
- Distinguished Flying Cross
- Bronze Star (2 × )
- Air Medal
- Joint Service Commendation Medal
- Army Commendation Medal ( 2 × )
- National Defense Service Medal (2 × )
- Vietnam Service Medal (8 × )
- Korean Service Medal (10 × )