Photo By Capt. Emerson Marcus | Former Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., speaks to a crowd during a memorial service at the Las...... read more read more
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, former Senate Majority Leader, began his eulogy Saturday of Maj. Gen. Robert Herbert with a baseball analogy in front of about 200 people at the Nevada National Guard’s Las Vegas Readiness Center.
“In baseball, you have people who play third base, second base, first base, shortstop or the outfield…Robert Herbert could play any position,” he said.
The Army aviator turned longtime senior policy advisor for Reid and eventual major general in the Nevada Army National Guard died Sept. 24 at the age of 64.
Nevada Guardsmen honored Herbert with a memorial service Saturday that included a CH-47 Chinook and UH-72 Lakota flyby. Herbert is set to eventually be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Meticulous, hardworking and beloved, Herbert was remembered through heartfelt stories during Saturday's memorial service.
In his message Saturday, Nevada Army Guard Chaplain Maj. Troy Dandrea brought a five-inch-thick binder packed with business cards.
“I found this in (Herbert’s) archives this week,” Dandrea said as he placed the oversized binder on the podium. “This is 2009-2013.”
It wasn’t all business, though.
Former Nevada Congressman Jon Porter reflected on Herbert’s personality when he recalled a time Herbert and friends were drinking good wine and playing, perhaps too loudly, “Free Bird,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
“Nobody messes with Free Bird,” Porter remembered Herbert saying when they were told to turn down the music.
Before the ceremony, a photo collage displayed a black-and-white image of Herbert as a child wearing a U.S. Army uniform. The son of an Army master sergeant, Herbert grew up at numerous bases around the world.
He entered the U.S. Army at the heart of the Cold War in 1975. The 19-year-old soldier’s first mission overseas: patrol the East-West German border. He later joined the Nevada Army National Guard. From 1982-1989, Herbert worked as a test pilot and eventually commissioned as the state’s aviation officer.
In the early 1990s, Herbert worked as a liaison for then-adjutant general Maj. Gen. Tony Clark, successfully lobbying to replace Nevada’s antiquated Huey and Skycrane airframes for more-modern Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters. Reid took notice, especially on the then-junior senator’s helicopter flights over Nevada with Herbert at the helm.
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. He was also an expert in transportation policy around the nation. Reid said his hard work and dedication “helped transform Nevada and the country.”
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.
After military service, Herbert served as senior vice president for Porter Group, a political consulting firm headed by Porter.
On Saturday, a Nevada Guardsman also read a letter from President Joe Biden addressed to Herbert's wife, Karen.
"Though this grieving process never truly ends, I promise you the day will come when the memory of Bob will bring a smile to your lips before it brings tears to your eyes," the letter read. "My prayer for you is that this day comes sooner rather than later."
Herbert's most recent honor occurred this spring, when the Nevada National Guard handed over its armory in Yerington to become the next Yerington City Hall, named the Robert T. Herbert Administrative Building. On the day of the dedication of the armory — even with all his accomplishments — Herbert was quoted in local media as saying, “Nothing means as much to me as this honor being bestowed on me today.”
Only six months after the dedication of the new city of Yerington building, state leaders, including Nev. Gov. Steve Sisolak, U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, Congresswomen Dina Titus and Susie Lee, Nevada Adjutant General Maj. Gen Ondra Berry, along with a long list of other elected and state officials met Saturday to honor Herbert one last time.
| Date Taken: | 10.04.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.04.2021 19:28 |
| Story ID: | 406694 |
| Location: | LAS VEGAS, NV, US |
| Web Views: | 238 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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Nevada National Guard
Robert Herbert
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