Sergeant Major

Baseball, football and basketball players who reach great heights in their professional careers see their numbers retired with them.Today, Paul R. Flickinger Jr., 55, the only sergeant major in the Westminster Police Department, will see the retirement of that rank when he leaves the city force after 26 years.Sergeant Flickinger is to be honored by his fellow workers and friends with a retirement party at the Westminster Fire Hall on Wednesday.He is only the second member of the force to have attained the rank of sergeant major in the department's long history, said Chief Sam Leppo.

An Annapolis-area Marine known as the "Lion of Fallujah" was killed Friday in Iraq while commanding a raid on insurgent forces in Baghdad, military officials said yesterday. Maj. Douglas A. Zembiec, a 1995 Naval Academy graduate who was awarded the Bronze Star with a V for valor for his actions in Fallujah in 2004 and also received a Purple Heart, will be buried tomorrow with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. An unabashed warrior who considered it an honor to lead his Marines into combat, Major Zembiec, 34, had a reputation for inspiring his men with a selfless, lead-from-the-front philosophy.

Col. Thomas E. Hutchins, superintendent of the state police, announced yesterday that he will reinstate the position of sergeant major at the Trooper Candidate Class graduation today in Pikesville. The position of sergeant major was created in 1923 but was abolished in 1970. Hutchins said he is reinstating the position to insure clear communication between himself and troopers on the road. "The role of sergeant major will be to carry my message to troopers and civilian personnel throughout the state and insure it is being understood," Hutchins said in a statement.

CHARLES R. BARKER, age 86, of Wilmington, died January 31, 2006 at St. Francis Hospital. Mr. Barker was born in Baltimore and was a World War II Veteran serving as Regimental Sergeant Major (Master Sergeant) in the European Theater. He was with the Du Pont Company for 35 years and retired in 1981 as a Physical Distribution Analyst. He enjoyed golf, dancing and working on cars and was a member of the Post Cana Organization for widowed people. Helen (nee Kuhn), his devoted wife of 42 years, died in 1989.

WASHINGTON -- The Army charged its highest-ranking enlisted soldier yesterday with sexual misconduct and indecentassault involving four servicewomen over nearly three years.Gene McKinney, the sergeant major of the Army, strongly denied the accusations. "I am not answering to any of these charges because I have not done anything that I have been charged with," McKinney said in a brief news conference in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Wilhemina, by his side."I am still a soldier, a sergeant, and I still believe in human rights, dignity and respect for people," he added in his first public remarks on allegations that were initially made three months ago. He did not respond to questions.

WASHINGTON -- Military prosecutors recommended yesterday that the Army consider a rape charge against its senior enlisted soldier, describing the six women who have accused him of sexual misconduct as heroes who had risked their military careers by coming forward.On the contrary, the defense said, the women were opportunists desperate for publicity or bent on revenge against Gene McKinney, the sergeant major of the Army and the highest-ranking among the Army's 410,000 noncommissioned officers.

WASHINGTON -- A 25-year-old female sergeant told a military hearing yesterday in halting tones that she tried to push away the Army's top enlisted man last year as he had sex with her while she was eight months pregnant."

CHARLES R. BARKER, age 86, of Wilmington, died January 31, 2006 at St. Francis Hospital. Mr. Barker was born in Baltimore and was a World War II Veteran serving as Regimental Sergeant Major (Master Sergeant) in the European Theater. He was with the Du Pont Company for 35 years and retired in 1981 as a Physical Distribution Analyst. He enjoyed golf, dancing and working on cars and was a member of the Post Cana Organization for widowed people. Helen (nee Kuhn), his devoted wife of 42 years, died in 1989.

WASHINGTON - Kenneth Preston left his small Western Maryland hometown in the spring of 1975, ditching his hopes of becoming an architect to join the Army and train to fight the Soviets. Nearly three decades later, Preston has risen to become the top enlisted man in the service - sergeant major of the Army. And he has become an architect of sorts, helping senior leaders design a fighting force to battle a more shadowy and adaptable enemy. "What we've learned is that the battlefield changed," says Preston, who takes his position at the Pentagon after serving for the past year in Iraq with the Army's V Corps.

Joseph George Hartlove, 63, millwright, gulf war veteran Joseph George Hartlove, who retired as a National Guard command sergeant major and a millwright, died Monday of a cerebral hemorrhage at Sinai Hospital. He was 63 and lived in Pikesville. He retired in 1985 after 25 years in the mill department at Western Electric Co.'s Point Breeze plant. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17, serving in its color guard in Washington from 1953 to 1956. One of his duties was to play taps at the Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery each evening.

Col. Thomas E. Hutchins, superintendent of the state police, announced yesterday that he will reinstate the position of sergeant major at the Trooper Candidate Class graduation today in Pikesville. The position of sergeant major was created in 1923 but was abolished in 1970. Hutchins said he is reinstating the position to insure clear communication between himself and troopers on the road. "The role of sergeant major will be to carry my message to troopers and civilian personnel throughout the state and insure it is being understood," Hutchins said in a statement.

Spring green tints the fields across from the 1895 farmhouse in northern Carroll County where Elaine May Stem grew up - a different hue from her view a year ago. Last year, she was donning a flak jacket while serving as a sergeant major in the Marine Corps Reserve in a landscape of browns and grays, from the sands of Kuwait into dusty Iraq. A year-old photograph shows her seated in a folding chair in front of a missile bunker. "Not much green there," she said of the contrast between Carroll County and Al Kut, a town southeast of Baghdad.

WASHINGTON - Kenneth Preston left his small Western Maryland hometown in the spring of 1975, ditching his hopes of becoming an architect to join the Army and train to fight the Soviets. Nearly three decades later, Preston has risen to become the top enlisted man in the service - sergeant major of the Army. And he has become an architect of sorts, helping senior leaders design a fighting force to battle a more shadowy and adaptable enemy. "What we've learned is that the battlefield changed," says Preston, who takes his position at the Pentagon after serving for the past year in Iraq with the Army's V Corps.

Baltimore native Cornell W. Gilmore had been in Iraq only five days Friday morning when the Black Hawk helicopter he was flying in began taking enemy fire in the skies above Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. Gilmore, 45, was headed for a landing at a nearby U.S. base as part of a brief mission as sergeant major for the Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps. Moments later, the chopper crashed onto an island in the Tigris River and burst into flames, killing Gilmore and the five other soldiers on board.

WASHINGTON - The salute is as sharp as a straight razor, something expected from a U.S. Army command sergeant major who has made parachute jumps around the world. The camouflaged fatigues are starched and tailored for an impeccable fit, the spit-shined jungle boots glisten in long walks around the labyrinthine corridors of the Pentagon. And all this from a former cheerleader of the Baltimore Colts. Michele S. Jones of Randallstown is, at age 39, living military history. She is the first woman to hold the rank of command sergeant major in charge of the U.S. Army Reserve.

Joseph George Hartlove, 63, millwright, gulf war veteran Joseph George Hartlove, who retired as a National Guard command sergeant major and a millwright, died Monday of a cerebral hemorrhage at Sinai Hospital. He was 63 and lived in Pikesville. He retired in 1985 after 25 years in the mill department at Western Electric Co.'s Point Breeze plant. He enlisted in the Marine Corps at 17, serving in its color guard in Washington from 1953 to 1956. One of his duties was to play taps at the Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery each evening.

Robert Lee Dixon, 70, house-painter, avid bowlerRobert Lee Dixon, a retired professional house-painter and an avid bowler despite losing the use of his right arm and side because of polio during childhood, died of an apparent heart attack Feb. 22 at his home on Frederick Avenue in Baltimore.He died four days before his 71st birthday.He worked as a house-painter and retired in the early 1980s."He was stricken [with polio] as a baby," said a daughter-in-law, Bridgette Dixon of Baltimore. "He painted with his one good arm for 30-some years.

The Rev. Leonard E. Boyle, who led the Vatican Library into the age of computer catalogs and gift merchandising, died Monday. He was 75.During his 13 year at the Vatican, Mr. Boyle oversaw the world's largest collection of ancient manuscripts.As keeper of manuscripts and chief librarian, he modernized the library by computerizing its old catalogs and wiring the main reading room for computers.He also tried to make money by selling the rights to its warehouse of images.He was in charge of the library when Ohio State University professor Anthony Melnikas stole pages from an ancient manuscript once owned by the 14th-century Italian poet Francesco Petrarch.