Staff Sergeant Michael Rand, USA†
Even 50 years later, the very mention of his name makes eyes open wider. SSG Michael Rand was a Bronx native who found his calling in the U.S. Army. As a JROTC instructor at Xavier, SSG Rand commanded instant respect but still found a way to be a friendly mentor or even an older brother. SSG Rand was a captivating teacher who brought a high sense of adventure to his classes. “He could make close order drill fun,” said Lawrence J. Gubas ’59. “He was a vital force, so incredibly positive.” Before his military service, Rand was head usher for CBS Radio at what is now the Ed Sullivan Theater. After serving two years in the U.S. Marine Corps, he transferred into the Army and married his wife, Rosalind. From 1953 to 1958 he was JROTC Military Science Instructor at Xavier, where he coached the Rifle Team to four national championships. After leaving Xavier, SSG Rand continued his service as an Army recruiter in New York, where he was very active in his son’s and daughter’s school as President of the PTA. He later served as an instructor at the New York Military Academy prior to being transferred to Fort Richardson, Alaska, before commencing a tour of duty in Vietnam.
On the morning of October 27, 1966 SSG Rand was killed in action near Cu Chi, Vietnam. He was 37. SSG Rand was recommended for the Bronze Star with a V for Valor.
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Lieutenant General D.P. McAuliffe, USA (Ret.) '41†
By Denny McAuliffe
For Dennis P. McAuliffe '41, the road from Xavier led to Panama, where he played a major part in the contentious Panama Canal Treaty negotiations and then ran the historic canal for 10 years. In 1990, his distinguished career ended the way it began -- in the midst of war.
After graduating from Xavier in 1941 as cadet battalion commander and class president, Phil, as he was known, was appointed to West Point. His war-shortened class graduated on June 6, 1944 -- D-Day. “My most memorable day of World War II,” he later wrote, occurred on his 23rd birthday. Fighting in Germany, his company entered Ohrdruf, the first concentration camp liberated by U.S. forces. “I was among the first Americans to see it.”
Phil married Kathleen Bolton in Texas in 1948, and their three children charted his early career stops -- Carolyn was born in Korea, Kathie in Okinawa and Denny in Philadelphia, where Phil got a master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Assigned to Fort Bragg, NC, and then Fort Sill, OK, Phil helped test-fire the Army’s first nuclear artillery shell to be fired from a 280mm gun. In 1967-69, at the height of the Vietnam War, Phil was the executive officer to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Earle Wheeler. Phil saw combat again. Promoted to brigadier general in 1969, he went to Vietnam as the 1st Infantry Division’s assistant commander, then served for a year as the senior military adviser to South Vietnamese Gen. Do Cao Tri. The initial phase of the 1970 U.S. invasion of Cambodia was Operation Parrot’s Beak conducted by Vietnamese forces, led by Tri -- with Phil at his side.
But it was in Panama where Phil made his unique contribution. In 1975, Phil was promoted to lieutenant general and named commander-in-chief of the U.S. Southern Command, headquartered in Panama. As the senior U.S. military official in the country, Phil became a central figure in the politically charged Panama Canal treaty negotiations to give Panama eventual control of the waterway. Phil hosted and briefed two-thirds of the U.S. Senate and their staffs on their fact-finding missions to Panama. An ardent supporter of the treaty, Phil testified at several key Senate hearings and persuaded the Joint Chiefs of Staff to support the treaty’s defense provisions, which he helped shape.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter appointed Phil to be the first administrator of the treaty-created Panama Canal Commission. He retired from the Army to take the post, which he held for 10 years, reappointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Phil was the only American administrator of the commission. In December 1989, less than two weeks before Phil’s term officially expired, U.S. forces invaded Panama. In fact, Phil’s job was one of the reasons the U.S. launched Operation Just Cause to oust Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega. The treaty stipulated that on Jan. 1, 1990, a Panamanian, picked by the Panamanian government, take over the canal administrator’s post. The U.S. was not about to turn the operation of the canal over to a crony of the corrupt, drug-dealing Noriega.
A Panama Canal tugboat was named for Phil. The “D.P. McAuliffe” is still in service, guiding ships through Phil’s beloved canal.
Each week we will be publishing the story of 2014 Xavier Hall of Fame Inductees. SSG Michael Rand, USA† and LTG D.P. McAuliffe, USA (Ret.) '41† will be recognized at Xavier’s Hall of Fame Dinner, which will take place November 7 at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers. For tickets and more information, register online or please contact Mrs. Helene Strong at 212-924-7900 x1654, or by e-mail at strongh@xavierhs.org.