The Squirrel That Saved Annie

Colonel Jack Stevenson, United States Army retired, grew up in Salisbury, Maryland with his childhood friend and later sweetheart, Debbie. After a serendipitous meeting at school lockers while thirteen years old, their friendship and love grew steadily through college, including four years at the West Point Military Academy for Jack. Marriage followed immediately thereafter. An exciting military career lasting twenty-six years ensued. Overseas assignments included infantry, paratrooper and later logistics duty in Germany, Italy, and Korea. From lieutenant to colonel Jack led and commanded units at each level rising to his most impactful position as battalion commander of nearly 2,500 soldiers supporting the Army's elite 82d Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm- attendant to Saddam Hussein's (Iraq) invasion of Kuwait in 1990. The singular achievement of his unit included the performance of 500 line-haul drivers logging over four million miles delivering fuel, ammunition and supplies without a single accident nor fatality. An ABC news crew visit to his unit in the desert, led by anchor Sam Donaldson, just prior to the U.S. forces movement into Iraq interviewed Jack on camera. He praised the achievements of these "elite and heroic" drivers, who during one six-week phase, drove thirty hours continuously, six hours off, then repeated. An edited clip of his interview was aired on ABC news. Among Jack's military awards and decorations are the Superior Defense Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Bronze Star. After retirement from the Army, Jack joined the private sector spending the next few years as a Director of Logistics for internet service and satellite communications firms, responsible for international logistics services in seven countries in Europe and Asia. Later, he rejoined service to the U.S. Army as a senior consultant to the office of the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics in the Pentagon, led by a three-star general. A lasting retirement came when his wife, Debbie, was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. Jack's interest in writing poetry stems from short verses he penned for Debbie even before marriage. He continued composing for her intermittently over their fifty years of marriage. Attraction to this art form led him to undertaking a near full-time composition role during Debbie's recurrent cancer in 2019.