John O. Marsh Jr.

Marsh was born in Winchester, Virginia. He graduated from Harrisonburg High School in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1944, during World War II, and was selected at age eighteen for Infantry Officer Candidate School (OCS) graduating as a second lieutenant of infantry in November 1945, then assigned to the Army of Occupation of Germany where he served from 1946 to 1947. He was a member of the United States Army Reserve from 1947 to 1951. He entered the Army National Guard in Virginia in 1951 and graduated from the Army's Airborne School in 1964. He retired from the army in 1976 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. ==Career==

Meanwhile, in 1952, Marsh was admitted to the Virginia Bar, and started practicing law in Strasburg, Virginia, where he served as town judge. He fought in the Vietnam War for a month without telling his fellow soldiers he was a Congressman. United States Secretary of the Army From 1981 to 1989, he served as the United States Secretary of the Army under President Ronald Reagan. Of his tenure as the Secretary of the Army, Marsh said "I didn't become Secretary of the Army to go around hangdog and half ashamed, apologizing for the United States Army in Vietnam, because it needed no apologies." ==Later career==

Marsh was then selected to serve as chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board, a position he held from 1989 until 1994. He later served as chairman and interim CEO of Novavax, Inc., a pharmaceutical company. Marsh was a confidant of Dick Cheney when the latter was vice president. From 1998 to 1999, Marsh was visiting professor of ethics at the Virginia Military Institute, and adjunct professor of law at The College of William & Mary from 1999 to 2000. In 2007, when patient conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center had become a national concern, Marsh and former Secretary of the Army Togo West were appointed by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to an independent review panel tasked to investigate medical and leadership failures. Among the panel's many recommendations was to close the aging facility and relocate medical services to what was then the National Naval Medical Center located in Bethesda, Maryland. Marsh was also a member of the Markle Foundation. ==Personal life==

Marsh lived in his hometown of Winchester, Virginia, with his wife; they had three children and seven grandchildren. Marsh Jr. died on February 4, 2019, of complications from congestive heart failure in Raphine, Virginia, at the age of 92. ==References==