ACWGC UNION ARMY HEADQUARTERS FORUM

OFFICERS OF THE ACWGC UNION ARMY,
ATTENTION TO PARADE!

I have received this date the official retirement request of long-time club member and decorated, senior officer, General Dierk Walter, present commander of 3rd Brigade, Second Division, VIII Corps, Army of the Shenandoah. The 2/VIII was Dierk's orginal club assignment.

In accepting General Walter's request, one which he was very insistent upon as it would guarantee his unrestricted return to the club at some future point, I am cognizant of the loss that his leaving creates. In terms of his statistical record the Union Army is being deprived of a very capable and experienced combatant! General Walter's personal DoR game record stands at 61-16-30-12-26, a remarkable attainment of and by itself. It was acquired over a period of more than 10 years, and included the reception of the Union Army's two highest awards, the MOH and OSM, each awarded for a total of three times! General Walter also holds a three-time award of the Sheridan Combat Medal and is a recipient of the Distinguished Sevice Order. His campaign and battle ribbons are too numerous to itemize! He was the 146th member to join the club and is presently the 6th ranking officer with the highest OBD Point total, 3038!

In personal contribution and voluntary service to the club General Walter has few peers, having created the original Union Army War College (now known as the Union Army Library) and having served as its Commandant for a considerable period of time, bringing to bear his considerable skills as a webmaster. One has only to search his name within the Mason Dixon Tavern to get a true sense of his involvement and commitment to the club. He also very capably and adroitly served as the Union Army GinC for the year 2010, during which time he undertook to establish the foundations for a more accountable command structure.

I have personally known him as an intelligent, focused and highly energetic individual, one who is now applying the full measure those skills and his time unreservedly to his young and growing family and his professional life. And I invite all of you that have known him to join me here in saluting him and wishing him well in his future, perhaps leaving a memory of two of your time with him or of him.

Gentlemen of the ACWGC Union Army, we have a former General-in-Chief of the ACWGC Union Army, retiring.

(A copy of this posting will also be left at the Mason Dixon Tavern.)

OFFICERS OF THE ACWGC UNION ARMY,
Present, ARMS!...Order, ARMS!
Parade, DISMISSED!

<<<SALUTE>>>

Retirement is only a prelude to a return. The Club will be here and the Rebs ripe for a beating and Corocoran's Legion a partof VIII corps.

I am really sorry to see you go Dierk but I do hope that you will return some day. Thank you for all you have done for the club over the years. You will be missed greatly.

I salute you General and thank you for your club contributions and especially with your assistance in moving the Army of the Cumberland web site to the new set-up groupings. If you have a moment sit down with my Cumberland Rifles and enjoy the respect and appreciation we have for you. Thanks Dierk.

My best wishes go with you Dierk in your (hopefully) temporary retirement from the club, and in your attendance to family and career. It was with shock that I leaned of your leaving and of the circumstances that, in part anyway, prompted doing so. To me you are a founding father or pioneer in the club or whatever the proper label is for someone being here literally from the beginning. I know you only to be an energetic, conscientious, and brilliant example of what membership in any organization should mean. You were helpful to me personally many times in this club and in a couple of others. I see that our old newsletter created for the MBC is still up on the net and it warms my heart with memories of the enjoyment I received contributing to it and helping you to edit it. You were always wonderful to work with and to know. To say that you are an exemplary strategist and tactician is an understatement. I never had the guts to offer a maneuver with you as I didn't care to get promptly and summarily "trounced." Like others weighing in here, I look forward to your return...like MacArthur. Good luck Dierk and do please drop us a line from time to time to let us know how you are. SALUTE! and with a glass held high this old Italian says to you: "Centi Ani!"

Sir: <salute>

The 3rd offers their best wishes for an enjoyable retirement.

Colonel Ray Matthews
Third (First) Cavalry Division, XV Corps,
Army of the Tennessee

I'm here to salute, and toast my old comrade. Dierk, as many of you know, was a division-mate on my arrival from (then) West Point in April, 2001. Ever since, he's been a man of great skill and dedication, and has logged as many hours in service of this club as any of his contemporaries.

In Dierk I've found the answer to why a German should give such attention to an American conflict. His spirit is akin to that of his countrymen, revolutionaries in their homeland in 1848, and fighters for freedom in America in 1861. These men understood that it's all one world, and so does Dierk.

Gen. Meyer notes Dierk's most important accomplishments, but there are many more. What doesn't show up in ribbons and OBD points is his steadfastness in support of his comrades. I'm pleased to have been among those and to count him as my friend.

Sir,

Thanks for all you have done for the club and the Union Army in particular. Your efforts are well appreciated.

<Salute>

General Bill Zuelsdorff
AoP
V/3/4

Sir,
We will await your return.
<<salute>>