Bruce Bennett Gorham Clarke (born January 26, 1943) is a former United States Army officer. Clarke is currently president of Bruce Clarke Consultants, Inc., a defense consulting firm. He is widely published on military and national security affairs, including in his book Expendable Warriors (2007) and in a regular column for the Examiner.
Family
Clarke was born in Fort Benning, Georgia to Arthur F. Gorham and Corrine "Colonel" Bennett Gorham (later Clarke). After Gorham was killed leading paratroopers from the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment during Operation Husky, the allied invasion of Sicily during World War II, Clarke's mother married Edwin R. Clarke, who adopted Clarke. Clarke's siblings are Dr. Richard Clarke and Cindy Clarke Carnahan.
Clarke married his wife Sue in 1969 after the two had met on a blind date during a golf tournament upon his return from Vietnam. While a graduate student at UCLA, the Clarkes appeared on the Newlywed Game winning a bedroom set. The Clarkes have three children, a daughter and two sons, and three grandsons and a new grand daughter.
Education
Clarke attended public schools in Wichita, Kansas before winning a scholarship to Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Excelling both as a student and as an athlete, Clarke was accepted to both Stanford and Harvard but, to the surprise of many of his Ivy League-bound classmates, elected to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
In 1961, Clarke joined the Class of 1965 at West Point. While at West Point, Clarke was known for overloading on political science courses. He graduated third in his class in military history. Upon graduation in June 1965, Clarke received a commission as a second lieutenant in the cavalry.
Clarke holds a master of arts degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College and the National War College. Clarke was a member of MIT's Center for International Studies' Seminar II.
Army career
Following Ranger and Airborne Schools, Clarke commanded a 160-man airborne cavalry troop in West Germany. From there he deployed to South Vietnam first as an assistant district advisor and then as a district advisor. Clarke fought in the Battle of Khe Sanh and later participated in both the planning for and retaking of the combat base.
Battle of Khe Sanh
In January 2013, Clarke used his Examiner column to recount his experiences at Khe Sanh and pay tribute to all those who fought there. What follows is the text of that article:
In Expendable Warriors: The Battle of Khe Sanh and the Vietnam War I argue that the US won the battle of Khe Sanh and lost the war at the very same time. There was a battle fought in Khe Sanh village on 21 and 22 January 1968 that very few people know about. Every military historian knows of the artillery barrages and the trenches that were the siege of the Khe Sanh Combat Base (KSCB), but what has been called the biggest ground battle of Khe Sanh took place when at 5 AM on 21 January 1968 the 66th Regiment, 304th North Vietnamese Army (NVA) Division launched an attack against the Hướng Hóa district Headquarters in Khe Sanh Village (about 4 km south of the Khe Sanh Combat Base).
The ensuing fight pitted a mixed force of six different groups (175 men) inside the compound against 2,000 men of the NVA force—the little band of warriors included:
The District Staff of Vietnamese officers and men led by Captain Tinh A-Nhi
An understrength Vietnamese Regional Force (RF) Company
Two Montagnard manned Popular Force (PF) platoons
The Marines of a Combined Action Platoon (CAP) led by SGT John Balanco and the company headquarters led by LT Tom Stamper The four man Army advisory team led by Captain Bruce Clarke A two man Army Intelligence unit called Joint Technical Advisory Detachment (JTAD) consisting of LT Jaime Taronji and SGT George Amos