Lieutenant Colonel

William E. Armstrong, a retired Baltimore City police commander who earned a reputation for helping children through his work in the Police Boys Club, died of heart disease Friday at his home in Pasadena. He was 78.Born and raised on Streeper Street in East Baltimore, Mr. Armstrong earned a law degree by attending night classes at the University of Baltimore, graduating magna cum laude in 1963.He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in his 27 years with the city Police Department."The thing that I heard most along those years was that he was humane, that he made sure people got an even break," said his wife of 56 years, the former Helen Kroll.

Lewis Rumford II, 92, president of Standard LimeLewis Rumford II, retired president of Standard Lime and Cement Co., died of cancer July 25 at Broadmead retirement community, where he had lived since 1985. He was 92.Mr. Rumford was associated with Bethlehem Steel Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. before he came to Baltimore in 1937 as a salesman with Standard Lime & Stone Co., which made limestone and dolomite additives used in the manufacture of steel.In 1954, he became president of Standard. He retired in 1970.

WASHINGTON -- At first they thought they were witnessing a military fireworks display in the desert as U.S. Army engineers destroyed Iraqi weapons at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war. Now they are wondering if they were gassed.Army reservists serving in a Maryland unit were among the troops closest to the demolition of what is now known to have been an Iraqi chemical weapons cache containing rockets armed with either mustard gas or the lethal nerve agent sarin.A company from the 450th Civil Affairs Battalion, of Riverdale, was billeted outside the perimeter fence of the Iraqi weapons storage site at Kamisiyah when Army engineers blew up the depot in March 1991.

A high-ranking Maryland State Police official has been named the agency's first female lieutenant colonel -- a rank that puts her among the top four state police commanders, officials said.Maj. Cynthia R. Smith, 37, commander of the three barracks in Western Maryland, will begin her duties as head of the Administrative Services Bureau at state police headquarters Jan. replacing retiring Lt. Col. Charles R. Mazzone."My career ambition has been to do the best I can in every job I get," said Smith, a Grantsville resident.

Johnny Potocki is out of his element at Southwestern High School.The retired Army lieutenant colonel cannot order anyone to do anything, cannot hold up a single-minded goal and expect everyone to follow. He can only ask and hope his students respond.But after 30 years in the Army, this is where he wants to be."It's the greatest feeling in the world to stand up and see them grasp what you're teaching," said Mr. Potocki, 53. "I used to run and I get a running high when my endorphins kick in. It's the same thing" with teaching.

WASHINGTON -- Six gay and lesbian members of the military began a constitutional challenge yesterday to the new federal law and Pentagon rules that together will force most homosexuals out of the services.In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Brooklyn, N.Y., three officers -- including a female lieutenant colonel who is the commander of an Army Reserve battalion -- and three enlisted men attacked the so-called "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy that emerged in a compromise between the Clinton administration and Congress.

Continuing his top-to-bottom reorganization of the Baltimore Police Department, Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier announced today that he is abolishing the positions of the department's three deputy commissioners.The commissioner also said the department eventually would be abolishing two other ranks through attrition -- those of lieutenant colonel and captain. The department has one lieutenant colonel and 12 captains.Mr. Frazier told a morning news conference that the moves are needed to improve efficiency and communication in the department.

Frank J. Maguire Jr.Lieutenant colonelFrank J. Maguire Jr., a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Corps of Engineers who helped build a second airport in Berlin in 1948 at the start of the blockade, died Tuesday at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center of head injuries from a fall in his Oxford home May 25.Mr. Maguire, 87, lived in Ellicott City from 1958 until he moved to Oxford in 1980.A native of Baltimore, he attended Calvert Hall College before he graduated from Polytechnic Institute.After earning a civil engineering degree at the Johns Hopkins University, he moved to New York City, where he worked for the Consolidated Edison Co. and did graduate work at Columbia University.

Baltimore's police commissioner announced yesterday a major shake-up that will force out three deputy commissioners and put a handful of colonels at the forefront of his effort to reform the problem-filled 2,900-member force.Two other ranks in the department -- captain and lieutenant colonel -- also will be phased out in an effort to streamline management, Commissioner Thomas C. Frazier said. Among the benefits of the streamlining will be improved communication between police leaders and the community, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings, he said.

Robert M. MillerLanded at NormandyRobert M. Miller, a retired social worker and Army lieutenant colonel who served as national commander of the 29th Division Association, died Monday of cancer at his home on Carrbridge Circle in Towson.Colonel Miller, who was 79, retired in 1975 after 10 years as a social worker for the Maryland Department of Human Resources.In 1961, he retired as a lieutenant colonel in the Army after a career that began 26 years earlier when he enlisted in the 175th Infantry Regiment of the Maryland National Guard.

Col. Louis Beck, a retired career Army intelligence officer who served in three wars, died of liver failure Aug. 2 at the Veteran Administration's Extended Care and Rehabilitation Center in Northeast Baltimore. He was 90 and had lived in Northwest Baltimore. Colonel Beck, the son of parents from Lithuania and Belarus, was born and raised in Hartford, Conn., where he attended Hartford High School. In 1943, he was inducted into the Army, where he earned his General Educational Development diploma.

James A. Jones, a retired Maryland State Police lieutenant colonel who was an early advocate of alcohol and drug testing to reduce highway accidents, died of an embolism Dec. 19 at his Perry Hall home. He was 78. Born in Baltimore and raised in Overlea, he was a 1948 Calvert Hall College High School graduate. He joined the Navy and became an aviation electrician aboard an aircraft carrier. Among other decorations, he received the Korean Service Medal with two battle stars. He joined the Maryland State Police in 1957 and was stationed at Waldorf, Upper Marlboro, Bel Air and Golden Ring, before moving on to the state police headquarters in Pikesville.

Vietnam veteran Gerald W. Elliott had waited 40 years for this moment, and he wasn't about to let Tropical Storm Hanna keep him away from the military ceremony at which he was to be decorated with two Purple Hearts. Elliott, 61, a Salisbury resident, accompanied by his wife of 39 years, a daughter and a granddaughter, arrived shortly before the 11 a.m. ceremony yesterday at the Marine Corps Reserve Center in Northeast Baltimore. Originally scheduled outdoors, it was moved because of the foul weather to a large gymnasium that was filled with Marines, some 50 of whom were in military formation.

In a room lined with empty bookcases, Prince George's County Del. Anthony G. Brown sits at the head of a long wooden table, surrounded by most of the 44 people who have just signed on to Gov.-elect Martin O'Malley's transition team. He urges members to introduce themselves, to share a bit about their backgrounds. But when the first few are long-winded, Brown, an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel, politely tells them to shorten it up. He advises a simple change of direction: Name and organization, he says, would do just fine.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- An independent commission has found CBS News guilty of "myopic zeal" in its airing of possibly forged documents that suggested President Bush lied about his service in the Air National Guard. A 224-page report, whose chief authors were former Attorney General Richard L. Thornburgh and former Associated Press CEO Louis D. Boccardi, claimed that the pressure of getting the story before competitors, and not political bias, was responsible for the lapse in journalistic judgment.

Edgewood unit member makes lieutenant colonel Clifford R. Hopkins, a member of the Headquarters Aviation Depot Maintenance Roundout Unit at Edgewood, was promoted to lieutenant colonel recently. Hopkins is a resident of Severna Park. He has been a member of the military for 22 years and has been with the Edgewood unit, where he is quality assurance division chief, since 1995. In civilian life, Hopkins works for the Defense Department as a computer scientist. 2 teenagers charged with building bomb Two 16-year-old boys were arrested Thursday night and more arrests were expected after two small bombs detonated in the parking lot of the Havre de Grace Community Center and a third was found that did not go off, authorities said.

Howard William Dashiells, a retired Maryland State Police lieutenant colonel and an expert in forged documents, died Tuesday of complications from Alzheimer's disease and a stroke at the Sunrise Assisted Living community in Severna Park. He was 80. Mr. Dashiells was born in Baltimore and raised in the Forest Park neighborhood. After graduating from Forest Park High School in 1940, he joined the Army Air Corps and was trained as an air gunner. During World War II, he served in northern France - in Normandy and Ardennes, during the Battle of the Bulge - and in central Europe.

The acting superintendent of the Maryland State Police has replaced two of his predecessor's top commanders as part of his first round of promotions since taking over the agency, officials said yesterday. Col. Thomas E. "Tim" Hutchins promoted two majors to the rank of lieutenant colonel in charge of the department's operations and administrative bureaus. He also replaced his chief of staff. Lt. Col. Edwin Lashley, a 27-year state police veteran, replaces Lt. Col. Mark S. Chaney as commander of the operations bureau, which includes patrol divisions and special operations sections.

John Samuel Revelle, a retired insurance salesman and Army National Guard lieutenant colonel, died of congestive heart failure Jan. 23 at Maryland General Hospital. The Bolton Hill resident was 86. Mr. Revelle's mother died during childbirth at Crisfield's old Marine Hospital, and he was raised by the hospital's head nurse, Florence S. Smith, in Crisfield and Salisbury. She arranged for a scholarship enabling Mr. Revelle to attend McDonogh School, where he was a 1937 graduate. He remained active in alumni affairs, and his son and two grandchildren also became graduates of the school.

Anthony M. Solberg, a retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, died of cancer Jan. 10 at his home in Bel Air. He was 68. A native of La Crosse, Wis., he graduated in 1957 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and shortly after married his high school sweetheart, Carol Vondrashek. During his 23-year military career, he served at West Point and the War College, as well as in Germany, Vietnam and Iran. He retired in 1980, while stationed at Aberdeen Proving Ground. He continued his ties to the military as vice president of Dynamic Science Inc. in Aberdeen, a contractor for Army bases.