Robert AndersonJoan Strom, wife of retired Brig. Gen Roy (Bud) Strom, is escorted out of the Main Post Chapel following the memorial service on Aug. 2 that honored the general’s life and accomplishments.
On Aug. 2, a crowd of several hundred gathered at the Main Post Chapel to honor the life and accomplishments of retired Brig. Gen. Roy “Bud” Strom. He is revered for his more than 30 years of service to the U. S. and known in the community as the “Cowboy Poet.”
Strom
The service was both spiritual and military; hymns were read and sung, and one-by-one, family and friends shared stories about the husband, father, grandfather and friend that Strom was, and how his guidance and mentorship helped shape and nurture their lives. Many stories were of the rancher who established the Single Star Ranch following his retirement from the Army, and others were about the cowboy poet who was co-founder of the Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering, which is two decades old, and recognized by the State of Arizona as one of its premier tourist events.
Then the Fort Huachuca Select Honor Guard and 62nd Army Band rendered full military honors to pay respect to the fallen Soldier. After the playing of taps, Maj. Gen. Gregg Potter, commanding general, United States Army Intelligence Center of Excellence and Fort Huachuca, presented his wife, Joan Strom, with the folded American flag representing her husband’s service to a grateful nation.
Strom was commissioned as an artillery second lieutenant in 1954 and completed the Artillery Officer Basic Course at Fort Bliss, Texas. His first assignment was as a platoon leader with the 764th Anti-Aircraft Artillery, at Fort Clayton, Panama Canal Zone. He also commanded the Caribbean Command Honor Guard Company honoring dignitaries visiting the Canal Zone. After completing gunnery and airborne schools, at the rank of captain Strom receive his first assignment as an intelligence officer at the Field Office, 109th Counterintelligence Corps Group. The was the beginning of a successful and distinguished career in military intelligence that would lead to his 2009 induction into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame at Fort Huachuca.
