Gary E. Luck
Recipient of the Purple Heart medal
Gary Edward Luck (5 August 1937 – 14 August 2024) was a four-star general of the United States Army. Following his retirement, he was a senior advisor to the United States Joint Forces Command prior to that command's inactivation. He was a Senior Fellow for the National Defense University in support of the Pinnacle, Capstone, and Keystone programs.
Early life and education
Luck was born on 5 August 1937. Receiving a bachelor's degree in engineering from Kansas State University in 1959, he held a master's degree from Florida State University and a doctorate in business administration (Operations Research and Systems Analysis, a/k/a ORSA) from George Washington University. In addition, Luck attended numerous military schools and courses, to include the Armor Basic and Advanced Officer courses, Army Aviator training, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the United States Army War College.
Military career
Luck was a combat veteran of both the Vietnam War and the Gulf War and held a variety of command and staff positions throughout his Army career, to include: Chief of Staff, 8th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, Europe; Director, Force Programs, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans, HQ Department of the Army; Assistant Division Commander, 101st Airborne Division; Commanding General, 2nd Infantry Division, Korea; Commanding General, Joint Special Operations Command (1987–1989); Commanding General, U.S. Army Special Operations Command; and Commanding General, XVIII Airborne Corps during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm (1990–1993).
His last military assignment before retiring from active duty was as Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command (Korea)/Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea. During this time the United States and North Korea nearly went to war over North Korea's development of weapons-grade plutonium at the Yongbyon nuclear facility and threat to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Luck warned President Bill Clinton that a renewal of the Korean conflict would cost "A million, a hundred billion, and a trillion," meaning 1 million American casualties, $100 billion in economic costs to the United States, and $1 trillion in industrial damage to South Korea.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gary E. Luck” is recipient of the Purple Heart medal. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gary, Luck and Recipient, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Gary E. Luck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.