Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Erick Studenicka | Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, left, and Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell, right, pin Maj....... read more read more
When he entered the Army at age 18 in December 1975, Robert T. Herbert’s main aspirations included passing his basic warrant officer course and becoming a rotary-wing pilot.
The notion he would ever attain the rank of major general was pure fantasy, an outrageous idea as improbable as the prediction individuals would someday carry wireless, hand-held “cellular” telephones and the world’s computer networks would be linked by something called the internet.
In August, however, Herbert, 60, of Las Vegas, surpassed even his wildest military expectations when he became the first major general in the Nevada Army Guard in more than three decades. He’s the first Nevada Army Guard officer to attain two stars since William Engel was major general while holding the office of Adjutant General from 1979-1983.
“It’s been a remarkable ride,” said Herbert, whose in-state promotion was hosted at the Capitol by Gov. Brian Sandoval on Nov. 7. “I never in my life dreamed I’d ever be a major general.
“I joined as a warrant officer one and all I wanted to do was fly. To be a major general now working at the Pentagon devising national strategy for the National Guard is something I could have never foreseen.”
In his new rank, Herbert will continue in the post he’s held since October 2015: He’s the special assistant to the Chief of the National Guard Bureau (Gen. Joseph Lengyel) for National Security Policy.
“I feel very privileged and honored to be there (at the Pentagon),” Herbert said. “I’m going to do everything I can – as I have for many years – to take care of the National Guard.”
The son of an Army master sergeant, Herbert was a self-described military “brat” who grew up at numerous bases around the world. His early exposure to military aviation caused him to determine his career path as a teen: He knew he wanted to be a pilot.
Herbert tried to join the Air Force but was dissuaded by the fact Air Force pilots needed four years of college before seeing a cockpit. Instead, he took advantage of the Army’s High School to Flight School program and was flying helicopters over the border between East and West Germany at the age of 19.
After his stint in Germany, Herbert was assigned to the 7th Aviation Battalion at Fort Ord, California. One of his cohorts in the battalion was Randy Sayre – the commander of the Nevada Army Guard from 2003-2006 – who cajoled Herbert into applying for a test pilot job in the Nevada Army Guard once his active-duty obligation concluded.
From 1982-1989, Herbert worked for the Nevada Army Guard as a test pilot. In 1989, he directly commissioned as a second lieutenant and eventually became the state aviation officer. He’s the last directly commissioned officer in the Nevada Army Guard and is the rare major general who never attended an officer candidate school.
In the early 1990s, Herbert first dabbled in politics as a liaison for then-adjutant general Maj. Gen. Tony Clark. One of Herbert’s early lobbying efforts helped the state acquire Chinook and Black Hawk helicopters to replace Nevada’s antiquated Huey and Skycrane airframes.
As Clark’s liaison, Herbert began meeting with Nevada’s junior senator from the tiny town of Searchlight – Sen. Harry Reid – on a quarterly schedule. The two forged a good working relationship and Reid asked Herbert to work for him through a military fellowship program managed by the Brookings Institution.
After some rumblings from the National Guard Bureau about Herbert’s close ties with Reid while officially employed by the National Guard, Herbert chose to join Reid’s full-time staff after his fellowship concluded. Herbert would remain on Reid’s staff for the next 20 years as Reid rose through the senatorial ranks to become the majority leader. Concurrently, Herbert remained a traditional Soldier in the Nevada Guard.
The pairing of Reid and Herbert proved to be a boon for the Nevada Guard. During the two decades Herbert worked on Reid’s staff, more than $200 million in infrastructure and equipment funding was allocated to the Nevada Guard. Every Nevada Guard installation in the state was either built, replaced or refurbished during the 20-year period while Herbert worked as a Reid staffer.
While his primary residence was in Washington, D.C., Herbert would often travel back to Nevada for his drill weekends. Some of his more visible positions included stints as the deputy commander of the Nevada Army Guard from 2006-2013 and the assistant adjutant general for the Army from 2013-2015. He began his role as national security policy advisor for retired Gen. Frank Grass, the prior Chief of the National Guard Bureau, in 2015.
When Reid chose not to run for a sixth term in 2016, Herbert also decided to step aside from public service. He’s now a senior vice president for Porter Group, a political consulting firm headed by retired Nevada congressman Jon Porter.
For the time being, Herbert is enjoying his new civilian job that allows him more time than in recent year to escape the Beltway and explore the Silver State’s backroads on one of his four motorcycles.
But he also realizes, as the Nevada Army Guard’s highest-ranking officer, he could become a candidate for high-visibility jobs in the future, either within the state or in Washington, D.C.
“My future could go any one of several directions,” Herbert said. “At some point, Gen. Lengyel and I will make the decision whether I will stay on board to help him, whether I retire at some point, or whether there is the opportunity to come home and be the adjutant general.
“All of those decisions are at least a year off. A lot of the decision will be based on (current Adjutant General) Brig. Gen. Bill Burks’ decisions. The governor picks the adjutant general, so we’ve got an election to go through first (in 2018) to find out who will be the next governor and then see whom he or she selects.”
| Date Taken: | 11.08.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 09.28.2021 12:42 |
| Story ID: | 406191 |
| Location: | CARSON CITY, NV, US |
| Web Views: | 182 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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