I was surprised to see this morning that Benjamin Schemmer died this
past Sunday at the age of 71. Schemmer was a USMA alumnus and US Army
veteran, better known as the longtime publisher of Armed Forces
Journal (later Armed Forces Journal International) until his
retirement in 1992. He was also the author of "The Raid", a very
readable and interesting account of the Son Tay prison raid, and more
recently coauthored "No Room for Error: The Covert Operations of
America's Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan". He left a
few lasting contributions behind, including his COL Arthur D. "Bull"
Simons Scholarship Fund that later evolved into the Special Operations
Warrior Foundation, which provides scholorships to the children of
special operations personnel from all of the services who die during
active operations or training; but my personal favorites were his old
AFJ features, "Darts and Laurels", and the "Al Haig Non-Word of the
Month", which hoisted many a defense insider on his/her own petard for
overly creative use of the english language. Mr. Schemmer was a man
not afraid of rocking the "defense establishment" when he felt it
necessary, and his absence from the arena of knowledgable defense
commentators will be felt.

Brooks