WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.600 I want you to picture a resume for a second. 00:00:02.680 --> 00:00:04.179 Just imagine you're holding it in your hands. 00:00:04.320 --> 00:00:06.200 Like one of those old typed ones. Yeah, exactly. 00:00:06.440 --> 00:00:08.939 Maybe it's typed on that really thin onion skin 00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:11.179 paper they used to use back in the day. Right. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:14.279 And you start reading the very top line. And 00:00:14.279 --> 00:00:17.699 it says, Gold Troutman Medal for Excellence in 00:00:17.699 --> 00:00:20.420 Chemistry. Which honestly sounds like you're 00:00:20.420 --> 00:00:24.000 looking at a resume for a lab researcher. Correct. 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.300 Or maybe a university professor. Right. It's 00:00:26.300 --> 00:00:28.980 very academic, very precise. Then you go to the 00:00:28.980 --> 00:00:30.640 next line and it says student body president. 00:00:30.899 --> 00:00:33.100 Okay, so he's got some charisma. He can shake 00:00:33.100 --> 00:00:34.960 hands and talk to people. Yeah, he's not just 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:38.000 a lab rat. And then the next line says mining 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:40.880 engineer. So now we're picturing a guy in a hard 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:45.340 hat. You know, surveying copper deposits or checking 00:00:45.340 --> 00:00:48.060 geological charts. A completely solid industrial 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:50.439 career. Absolutely. But then you keep reading 00:00:50.439 --> 00:00:52.560 and the plot just completely falls off the rails. 00:00:52.700 --> 00:00:54.719 Suddenly you see Major General Battle of the 00:00:54.719 --> 00:00:57.320 Bulge. Yeah, that is quite the pivot. You see 00:00:57.320 --> 00:01:00.240 Commander of the Aleutian Campaign. You see Silver 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:02.920 Star with three oak leaf clusters. It really 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:05.219 feels like a contradiction, doesn't it? Completely. 00:01:05.420 --> 00:01:07.519 It's like two entirely different people just 00:01:07.519 --> 00:01:09.840 sort of inhabiting the exact same body. And that 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:13.109 is exactly why we are here. Welcome to today's 00:01:13.109 --> 00:01:15.450 Deep Dive. I'm your host, and I've got our resident 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:17.769 historical expert here with me to help unpack 00:01:17.769 --> 00:01:20.269 all of this. Hey, everyone. Glad to be diving 00:01:20.269 --> 00:01:22.549 into this one. We are doing a deep dive today 00:01:22.549 --> 00:01:25.030 into the life of Major General Frank L. Cullen, 00:01:25.129 --> 00:01:28.150 Jr. And honestly, when I first looked at the 00:01:28.150 --> 00:01:30.109 stack of sources... There was a lot of material. 00:01:30.329 --> 00:01:32.469 There really was. They had historical records, 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:37.049 military biographies, obituary data. And I thought 00:01:37.049 --> 00:01:38.689 this was just going to be a straightforward story 00:01:38.689 --> 00:01:41.239 about a soldier. But it's not. It's really not. 00:01:41.379 --> 00:01:43.340 If you really look at the trajectory of Frank 00:01:43.340 --> 00:01:46.140 Collin, it isn't just a story about a career 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:49.040 pivot. Right. It's a case study in how the specific 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:52.920 mind of a scientist and engineer really can be 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:55.640 weaponized. We are going to look at how a guy 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:58.239 who studied dirt and rocks in the Arizona desert 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:00.680 ended up commanding thousands of troops in the 00:02:00.680 --> 00:02:03.579 freezing snow of the Ardennes. And that transition 00:02:03.579 --> 00:02:07.260 right there. From mining engineer to division 00:02:07.260 --> 00:02:10.330 commander. That is what I really want to unpack 00:02:10.330 --> 00:02:13.689 for you today. Because on the surface, those 00:02:13.689 --> 00:02:16.530 jobs seem miles apart. Oh, they seem completely 00:02:16.530 --> 00:02:18.770 unrelated. But you're suggesting they're actually 00:02:18.770 --> 00:02:21.030 the same job. Oh, in the context of the 20th 00:02:21.030 --> 00:02:24.009 century, yes, absolutely. How so? Because war 00:02:24.009 --> 00:02:26.509 became an industrial problem. It became an engineering 00:02:26.509 --> 00:02:29.770 problem. And Cullen is the perfect example of... 00:02:30.060 --> 00:02:32.280 citizen expert. The citizen expert. I like that 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:34.780 phrase. He's the guy who brings a highly technical 00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:38.419 civilian brain to the absolute chaotic problem 00:02:38.419 --> 00:02:40.400 of the battlefield. We'll start where the resume 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:43.330 starts. His roots in the desert. Because long 00:02:43.330 --> 00:02:45.490 before he was a general, he was basically a desert 00:02:45.490 --> 00:02:48.509 rat. He really was. Frank L. Cullen Jr. was actually 00:02:48.509 --> 00:02:52.530 born in Seattle in 1892. But his formation, the 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:54.509 real making of the man, happened in the American 00:02:54.509 --> 00:02:56.689 Southwest. Because his family moved to Tucson, 00:02:56.810 --> 00:02:59.430 Arizona right in 1903. Exactly. And Tucson in 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:02.009 1903 isn't the massive sprawling city you see 00:03:02.009 --> 00:03:04.340 today. It's basically the frontier. It is rugged, 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:07.060 but his family wasn't exactly roughing it in 00:03:07.060 --> 00:03:09.860 a wooden shack either. His father was a corporate 00:03:09.860 --> 00:03:12.639 accountant who later became a school superintendent. 00:03:13.060 --> 00:03:15.180 Okay, so Frank grows up in a household that really 00:03:15.180 --> 00:03:18.580 values structure in education. Precision, that's 00:03:18.580 --> 00:03:21.039 the key word. And he clearly absorbed that. He 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:23.639 goes to Tucson High School and then the University 00:03:23.639 --> 00:03:25.699 of Arizona. Like we mentioned at the top, he 00:03:25.699 --> 00:03:27.780 wasn't studying military strategy there. No, 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:30.139 he was studying the earth. Mining engineering. 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:33.680 He graduated in 1915, I think. Yep, 1915 with 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:36.439 a Bachelor of Science. And then he went straight 00:03:36.439 --> 00:03:40.180 back and got his Master's in 1916. And that gold 00:03:40.180 --> 00:03:42.280 Troutman Medal for Chemistry that we mentioned? 00:03:42.539 --> 00:03:44.840 Yeah, that's not a participation trophy. No, 00:03:44.919 --> 00:03:46.620 it really sounds like top -of -the -class material. 00:03:46.939 --> 00:03:49.580 It signifies a very high level of intellect, 00:03:49.819 --> 00:03:53.340 but specifically a disciplined intellect. Think 00:03:53.340 --> 00:03:56.530 about it. Chemistry allows for zero error. Right. 00:03:56.590 --> 00:03:58.990 If you get the formula wrong, things either explode 00:03:58.990 --> 00:04:01.770 or they just don't work. Exactly. And mining 00:04:01.770 --> 00:04:03.990 engineering is the exact same way. It's all about 00:04:03.990 --> 00:04:07.330 geology and structural integrity and heavy logistics. 00:04:07.710 --> 00:04:09.030 He was actually working in this field, right? 00:04:09.069 --> 00:04:11.729 He was. He worked for the Bureau of Mines. He 00:04:11.729 --> 00:04:13.889 worked for the Los Chisos Mining Company in Texas 00:04:13.889 --> 00:04:16.870 and the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company in 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:21.910 Bisbee. So by 1916, he is fully embedded in this. 00:04:22.329 --> 00:04:25.410 heavy industrial world. He's a guy who solves 00:04:25.410 --> 00:04:28.790 problems with a slide rule and a geological survey 00:04:28.790 --> 00:04:30.970 map. But and this is the key contradiction we're 00:04:30.970 --> 00:04:33.750 talking about. He wasn't just a nerd hiding in 00:04:33.750 --> 00:04:36.000 a lab. Right, because he was the student body 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.500 president from 1915 to 1916. Which implies he 00:04:39.500 --> 00:04:41.439 could talk to people. He wasn't just staring 00:04:41.439 --> 00:04:43.759 at rocks. He was actively leading his peers. 00:04:44.019 --> 00:04:45.680 And he was the athletic editor of the yearbook, 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:47.720 too. Yeah. The Desert, I think it was called. 00:04:47.759 --> 00:04:50.519 Yeah. He was deeply involved in the social fabric 00:04:50.519 --> 00:04:53.160 of the university. And crucially, he was part 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:55.160 of the university's Corps of Cadets. Which is 00:04:55.160 --> 00:04:57.660 basically the ROTC of its day. Essentially, yeah. 00:04:57.839 --> 00:05:00.860 And he rose to the rank of cadet lieutenant colonel. 00:05:00.939 --> 00:05:02.899 That's a high rank for a student. It was the 00:05:02.899 --> 00:05:04.850 highest rank of students. could possibly achieve 00:05:04.850 --> 00:05:07.930 so while his brain was learning how to extract 00:05:07.930 --> 00:05:10.730 copper from the earth his character was learning 00:05:10.730 --> 00:05:13.209 how to extract performance from people so set 00:05:13.209 --> 00:05:16.290 the scene for us here it's 1916 you've got this 00:05:16.290 --> 00:05:19.089 brilliant young engineer working in bisbee he's 00:05:19.089 --> 00:05:21.649 got a master's degree he has this bright future 00:05:21.649 --> 00:05:25.209 in the mining industry why on earth does he throw 00:05:25.209 --> 00:05:28.230 it all away to join the army Well, context is 00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:31.189 everything right. 1916 wasn't exactly a calm 00:05:31.189 --> 00:05:33.829 year. Europe was already burning. The world was 00:05:33.829 --> 00:05:36.670 at war, even though the U .S. wasn't officially 00:05:36.670 --> 00:05:39.750 in it yet. But closer to home, the border was 00:05:39.750 --> 00:05:42.089 on fire. The Pancho Villa expedition. Exactly. 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:44.730 There was a very real sense of urgency in the 00:05:44.730 --> 00:05:46.850 Southwest. And the sources mention he applied 00:05:46.850 --> 00:05:49.990 for a commission in September of 1916. And this 00:05:49.990 --> 00:05:53.009 one statistic really jumped out at me. He applied 00:05:53.009 --> 00:05:55.250 in Nogales, Arizona. There were 15 applicants. 00:05:55.529 --> 00:05:58.350 And only five were accepted. Just five. That 00:05:58.350 --> 00:06:00.230 tells you a lot about the rigor of the process. 00:06:00.490 --> 00:06:02.089 The army wasn't just taking anyone who could 00:06:02.089 --> 00:06:04.009 hold a rifle. They were actively looking for 00:06:04.009 --> 00:06:06.569 leaders. And Cullen obviously made the cut. He 00:06:06.569 --> 00:06:08.589 did. He was appointed a second lieutenant of 00:06:08.589 --> 00:06:11.949 infantry in November 1916. But his first taste 00:06:11.949 --> 00:06:13.990 of service wasn't the trenches of France yet. 00:06:14.170 --> 00:06:16.430 No, it was right there on the border. The Pancho 00:06:16.430 --> 00:06:18.470 Villa expedition. Which was sort of the training 00:06:18.470 --> 00:06:20.990 ground for an entire generation of American officers, 00:06:21.129 --> 00:06:23.410 wasn't it? It absolutely was. It's where they 00:06:23.410 --> 00:06:25.550 learned how to move men and supplies over really 00:06:25.550 --> 00:06:28.629 rough terrain. But for Cullen, that specific 00:06:28.629 --> 00:06:31.550 phase was incredibly short. Because the dominoes 00:06:31.550 --> 00:06:34.490 were falling in Europe. Right. April 1917, the 00:06:34.490 --> 00:06:37.569 U .S. enters World War I. And the timeline here 00:06:37.569 --> 00:06:39.949 is just blindingly fast. Walk us through it. 00:06:40.250 --> 00:06:44.029 Cullen gets his commission in late 1916. He graduates 00:06:44.029 --> 00:06:46.310 from the Army Service School at Fort Leavenworth 00:06:46.310 --> 00:06:50.170 in April 1917. He's assigned to the 30th Infantry 00:06:50.170 --> 00:06:54.009 Regiment, 3rd Division. And by August 1917, he 00:06:54.009 --> 00:06:56.850 is already a captain. That is a meteoric rise. 00:06:57.110 --> 00:06:59.689 Less than a year from a civilian engineer to 00:06:59.689 --> 00:07:02.389 an army captain. It speaks to the desperate expansion 00:07:02.389 --> 00:07:04.810 of the army for sure. But it also speaks volumes 00:07:04.810 --> 00:07:06.829 about his competence. And here is where I want 00:07:06.829 --> 00:07:08.810 to connect back to that mining engineer idea. 00:07:09.050 --> 00:07:11.290 Okay, let's go. Because the sources specify exactly 00:07:11.290 --> 00:07:13.769 what he commanded in France. Machine gun company. 00:07:13.889 --> 00:07:16.110 Right. Now, when most people hear machine gun, 00:07:16.250 --> 00:07:18.769 they tend to think of action movies. Just a guy 00:07:18.769 --> 00:07:22.009 spraying bullets everywhere. Exactly. But in 00:07:22.009 --> 00:07:24.970 World War I, a machine gun company was a highly 00:07:24.970 --> 00:07:27.709 technical unit. So it wasn't just point and shoot. 00:07:27.850 --> 00:07:31.009 Far from it. Think about the Maxim gun or the 00:07:31.009 --> 00:07:34.300 Browning. These are heavy, complex pieces of 00:07:34.300 --> 00:07:37.220 machinery. To use them effectively in trench 00:07:37.220 --> 00:07:40.439 warfare, you are dealing with interlocking fields 00:07:40.439 --> 00:07:43.540 of fire. Which means what exactly? It means you 00:07:43.540 --> 00:07:45.620 have to calculate trajectories. Sometimes you 00:07:45.620 --> 00:07:48.259 are dealing with indirect fire where you're shooting 00:07:48.259 --> 00:07:51.199 over a hill, almost like artillery. So it's geometry. 00:07:51.540 --> 00:07:53.519 It is brutal geometry. You have to understand 00:07:53.519 --> 00:07:55.899 the cooling mechanism so the guns don't literally 00:07:55.899 --> 00:07:57.959 melt down. Because they were water cooled. Yes. 00:07:58.220 --> 00:08:01.139 And you have to manage a supply chain of thousands. 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:03.459 of rounds of heavy ammunition moving through 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:06.240 deep mud you have to survey the land literally 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:08.839 look at the topography to figure out exactly 00:08:08.839 --> 00:08:11.939 where to place these guns to deny the enemy the 00:08:11.939 --> 00:08:14.740 most space that sounds exactly like what a mining 00:08:14.740 --> 00:08:17.180 engineer does you survey the land you calculate 00:08:17.180 --> 00:08:19.759 the angles you manage the logistics precisely 00:08:20.649 --> 00:08:23.009 The gold Troutman Medal in chemistry and the 00:08:23.009 --> 00:08:26.509 mining degree weren't wasted at all. He was applying 00:08:26.509 --> 00:08:30.029 that exact same scientific precision to the chaos 00:08:30.029 --> 00:08:32.490 of the Ayn Marn and the Meuse -Argonne campaign. 00:08:32.750 --> 00:08:35.629 He wasn't panicking. He was just solving an engineering 00:08:35.629 --> 00:08:38.190 problem where the variables happened to be bullets 00:08:38.190 --> 00:08:40.549 and terrain. And clearly he solved it well. The 00:08:40.549 --> 00:08:42.490 sources say he was decorated with the silver 00:08:42.490 --> 00:08:44.629 star during this period. And not just once, right? 00:08:45.159 --> 00:08:47.960 No, he received the Silver Star and later oak 00:08:47.960 --> 00:08:50.340 leaf clusters. We'll get into his total count 00:08:50.340 --> 00:08:53.259 later, but for a young captain to be cited for 00:08:53.259 --> 00:08:55.799 gallantry in those absolute meat grinder campaigns 00:08:55.799 --> 00:08:58.179 tells us a lot. It tells us he wasn't sitting 00:08:58.179 --> 00:09:00.379 in a bunker doing math. Exactly. He was out there 00:09:00.379 --> 00:09:02.639 ensuring his calculations actually worked in 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:06.200 the mud. So the war ends in 1918. He's a combat 00:09:06.200 --> 00:09:09.759 veteran, a captain, a decorated hero. And now 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:12.080 we enter the inner war years. The slow years. 00:09:12.419 --> 00:09:14.519 Right. And usually in movies, this is the montage 00:09:14.519 --> 00:09:16.659 where the calendar pages just flip by real fast. 00:09:16.779 --> 00:09:18.639 Yeah. But for a career officer, you can't just 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:20.299 skip this part. This is where the general is 00:09:20.299 --> 00:09:22.759 actually built, isn't it? It is. You don't become 00:09:22.759 --> 00:09:24.779 a division commander just by being brave under 00:09:24.779 --> 00:09:27.799 fire. You have to learn how to run a massive, 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:31.419 complex organization. And Cohen spent the 1920s 00:09:31.419 --> 00:09:34.080 and 30s just grinding it out. It looks like he 00:09:34.080 --> 00:09:35.779 did a tour in the Philippines, but then he went 00:09:35.779 --> 00:09:37.980 back to the classroom literally. Yeah, he became 00:09:37.980 --> 00:09:40.340 the professor of military science for the ROTC 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:43.240 program at the University of Oregon from 1923 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:45.860 to 1927. Which is a really nice callback to his 00:09:45.860 --> 00:09:48.860 own start as a cadet in Arizona. It is. Then 00:09:48.860 --> 00:09:50.480 he was an advisor to the Connecticut National 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:53.159 Guard. And then the heavy hitting education begins. 00:09:53.419 --> 00:09:56.039 He attended the Command and General Staff College 00:09:56.039 --> 00:09:59.299 in 1930 and the Army War College in 1940. And 00:09:59.299 --> 00:10:01.299 the war college is basically the Ph .D. of the 00:10:01.299 --> 00:10:03.500 military, right? It's where they teach you grand 00:10:03.500 --> 00:10:06.019 strategy. Yeah. How to move entire armies, not 00:10:06.019 --> 00:10:08.879 just squads. Exactly. But amidst all this professional 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:11.000 climbing, there's a personal note in the sources 00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:12.600 that I think is really important to mention. 00:10:12.759 --> 00:10:16.389 About his brother. Right. In 1925, his brother, 00:10:16.549 --> 00:10:19.570 John Harding Cullen, died. I saw that in the 00:10:19.570 --> 00:10:22.649 file. John was a Naval Academy grad, a lieutenant 00:10:22.649 --> 00:10:25.860 commander, and he died quite young. It's a very 00:10:25.860 --> 00:10:28.679 somber reminder that for the Cullen family service 00:10:28.679 --> 00:10:31.779 wasn't just a secure career path. It came with 00:10:31.779 --> 00:10:34.759 mortal stakes. Yeah. Losing his brother, who 00:10:34.759 --> 00:10:37.600 was also a military officer, must have really 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.279 solidified Frank's understanding of what it means 00:10:40.279 --> 00:10:43.320 to wear the uniform. It adds this layer of gravity 00:10:43.320 --> 00:10:45.419 to everything that comes next. And what comes 00:10:45.419 --> 00:10:49.360 next is the big one. 1940. He graduates from 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:52.399 the War College. He's a colonel now. The world 00:10:52.399 --> 00:10:54.940 is on fire again. World War II. And this is where 00:10:54.940 --> 00:10:56.840 the story takes a turn that I honestly did not 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.620 see coming. Because when we talk about WWII, 00:10:59.720 --> 00:11:02.259 we usually talk about D -Day. We talk about Iwo 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:04.740 Jima. We do not talk about the Aleutians. The 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:07.200 forgotten front. It really is forgotten. At the 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:09.700 start of the war, Cullen is commanding the 32nd 00:11:09.700 --> 00:11:12.179 Infantry Regiment. And they get sent to the Battle 00:11:12.179 --> 00:11:15.820 of Attu in May 1943. Now we really need to pause 00:11:15.820 --> 00:11:17.539 here for a second. Because if you just gloss 00:11:17.539 --> 00:11:20.500 over Battle of Attu. You miss the sheer horror 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:22.960 of it. Set the scene for us. Attu is an island 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:25.019 at the very end of the Aleutian chain in Alaska. 00:11:25.500 --> 00:11:27.960 It is barely even land. It's basically a volcanic 00:11:27.960 --> 00:11:30.440 rock jutting out of the North Pacific. And the 00:11:30.440 --> 00:11:32.740 weather there isn't just cold. It's atrocious. 00:11:32.899 --> 00:11:35.440 The soldiers face what they called willy -whas. 00:11:35.559 --> 00:11:37.740 Willy -whas? Yeah, they're these sudden violent 00:11:37.740 --> 00:11:40.120 windstorms that come out of nowhere. They can 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:42.899 rip a canvas tent to shreds or literally knock 00:11:42.899 --> 00:11:46.080 a grown man flat on his face. Wow. And the fog 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:48.360 is constant. You can't see 10 feet in front of 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:51.679 you on a good day. So you have Colleen, the boy 00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:54.600 from Tucson, the desert rad, leading men in freezing 00:11:54.600 --> 00:11:57.120 fog and wind and mud that acts like quicksand. 00:11:57.450 --> 00:12:00.149 It is the ultimate test of adaptability. And 00:12:00.149 --> 00:12:02.769 remember, this is the only land battle of World 00:12:02.769 --> 00:12:05.309 War II fought on incorporated territory of the 00:12:05.309 --> 00:12:07.950 United States. That's a crazy fact. The Japanese 00:12:07.950 --> 00:12:10.210 were dug in on the high ground. Cullen's men 00:12:10.210 --> 00:12:12.629 were fighting hypothermia and trench foot just 00:12:12.629 --> 00:12:14.570 as much as they were fighting the enemy. How 00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:16.610 does an engineer's mind even handle that kind 00:12:16.610 --> 00:12:19.549 of environment? By focusing intensely on logistics 00:12:19.549 --> 00:12:22.789 and endurance. You can't just order a heroic 00:12:22.789 --> 00:12:25.129 charge up a hill if your men are freezing to 00:12:25.129 --> 00:12:26.629 death. Right. They wouldn't make it 10 feet. 00:12:27.070 --> 00:12:29.350 You have to figure out how to get hot food up 00:12:29.350 --> 00:12:31.750 a mountain in the middle of a blizzard. You have 00:12:31.750 --> 00:12:34.870 to keep weapons functioning when the grease inside 00:12:34.870 --> 00:12:38.389 them literally freezes solid. It was a miserable 00:12:38.389 --> 00:12:41.210 grinding campaign. But he succeeded. He did. 00:12:41.429 --> 00:12:44.570 The 32nd Infantry performed exceptionally under 00:12:44.570 --> 00:12:47.450 his command. And I really think it was that specific 00:12:47.450 --> 00:12:49.970 experience fighting in the bitter cold on impossible 00:12:49.970 --> 00:12:53.370 terrain that flagged him for his next major assignment. 00:12:53.669 --> 00:12:55.990 Which was the 10th Light Division. Known today 00:12:55.990 --> 00:12:59.190 as the 10th Mountain Division, the Alpine Troops. 00:12:59.190 --> 00:13:02.490 So the army looks at Cullen and says, hey, you 00:13:02.490 --> 00:13:04.730 survived the Aleutians. You clearly know how 00:13:04.730 --> 00:13:07.230 to handle snow and rocks. Come help us figure 00:13:07.230 --> 00:13:09.690 out how to fight on mountains. Exactly. He was 00:13:09.690 --> 00:13:13.299 assigned as deputy commander in July 1943. He 00:13:13.299 --> 00:13:16.179 helped organize and train these highly specialized 00:13:16.179 --> 00:13:18.460 troops. And again, think of the engineering involved 00:13:18.460 --> 00:13:20.940 there. Mountain warfare is all about load -bearing. 00:13:21.059 --> 00:13:23.700 It's pulley systems to get heavy artillery up 00:13:23.700 --> 00:13:26.620 sheer cliffs. It's calculating exposure to the 00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:28.980 elements. It's arguably the most technical kind 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:31.019 of infantry fighting there is. But he didn't 00:13:31.019 --> 00:13:32.960 stay there. He was destined for the main event 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.470 in Europe. In October 1944, Frank Cullen gets 00:13:36.470 --> 00:13:39.269 the promotion to Major General. He takes command 00:13:39.269 --> 00:13:41.350 of the 87th Infantry Division. He takes them 00:13:41.350 --> 00:13:44.490 to France. And almost immediately, they are thrown 00:13:44.490 --> 00:13:46.649 straight into the deep end. The Battle of the 00:13:46.649 --> 00:13:49.090 Bulge. The massive German counter -offensive 00:13:49.090 --> 00:13:52.509 in the Ardennes Forest. Winter of 1944 to 45, 00:13:52.769 --> 00:13:54.850 which happened to be one of the coldest winters 00:13:54.850 --> 00:13:57.529 on record in Europe. It really feels like fate, 00:13:57.590 --> 00:13:59.730 doesn't it? It does. He trains in the desert. 00:13:59.889 --> 00:14:03.509 He cuts his teeth in the mud of WWI. fights in 00:14:03.509 --> 00:14:05.769 the Arctic conditions of the Aleutians, he trains 00:14:05.769 --> 00:14:07.649 the mountain troops, and then he ends up holding 00:14:07.649 --> 00:14:09.830 the line in the snow of the Ardennes. It's the 00:14:09.830 --> 00:14:12.710 culmination of literally everything he had learned 00:14:12.710 --> 00:14:15.100 in his life. The mining engineer's deep understanding 00:14:15.100 --> 00:14:18.159 of terrain, the WWI captain's understanding of 00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:20.539 defensive fire, and the Aleutian commander's 00:14:20.539 --> 00:14:22.659 understanding of how to keep men alive in the 00:14:22.659 --> 00:14:24.379 freezing cold. And they didn't just hold the 00:14:24.379 --> 00:14:26.200 line either. They pushed back. They pushed hard. 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:29.059 The citation for his Distinguished Service Medal 00:14:29.059 --> 00:14:31.799 specifically covers the period from January to 00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:36.230 May 1945. The final push. Yes. It credits him 00:14:36.230 --> 00:14:38.690 with exceptionally meritorious and distinguished 00:14:38.690 --> 00:14:41.490 services during the final drive into Germany. 00:14:41.809 --> 00:14:44.669 His division fought in the Rhineland and Central 00:14:44.669 --> 00:14:47.110 Europe campaigns. Didn't they breach the Siegfried 00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:49.269 Line? They breached the Siegfried Line. They 00:14:49.269 --> 00:14:51.889 crossed the Moselle and the Rhine rivers. And 00:14:51.889 --> 00:14:54.970 these are massive, complex river crossings, which 00:14:54.970 --> 00:14:57.009 again brings us right back to engineering problems. 00:14:57.350 --> 00:15:00.070 Exactly. Crossing the Rhine isn't just about 00:15:00.070 --> 00:15:02.690 raw courage. It's about pontoon bridges and water 00:15:02.690 --> 00:15:05.490 flow rates and precise timing. It was the final 00:15:05.490 --> 00:15:08.370 exam for the engineer general. So VE Day comes. 00:15:08.889 --> 00:15:11.669 The war in Europe ends. Cullen has done it all. 00:15:11.730 --> 00:15:13.590 He's a two -star general. He's a bona fide hero. 00:15:13.870 --> 00:15:17.629 And then the story just stops. It does. And this 00:15:17.629 --> 00:15:19.090 is where we need to talk about the cost of all 00:15:19.090 --> 00:15:22.029 this. I noticed that in the file, too. He retires 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:25.090 in 1946. That is incredibly soon after the war 00:15:25.090 --> 00:15:27.149 ends for someone of his rank. And the reason 00:15:27.149 --> 00:15:29.570 listed on his record is disability incurred in 00:15:29.570 --> 00:15:31.779 the line of duty. That phrase does a lot of heavy 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:33.620 lifting, doesn't it? It covers a lot of ground. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:35.139 We obviously don't have his personal medical 00:15:35.139 --> 00:15:37.360 turds in front of us. But if you look at the 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.080 timeline we just walked you through, the poison 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:44.220 gas and mud of WWI, the sheer stress of command 00:15:44.220 --> 00:15:46.539 and the illusions, the freezing cold of the Battle 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:49.899 of the Bulge, the human body keeps the score. 00:15:50.139 --> 00:15:53.500 He was in his mid -50s by the end of WWII. He 00:15:53.500 --> 00:15:55.740 had pushed himself to the absolute physical limit 00:15:55.740 --> 00:15:58.940 for years on end. We often talk about adaptability 00:15:58.940 --> 00:16:01.429 like... It's just a mental framework, like you 00:16:01.429 --> 00:16:03.649 just decide to be adaptable and then you are. 00:16:03.809 --> 00:16:06.250 Right, just a change of mindset. But in Keelan's 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:08.389 case, adaptability meant physically absorbing 00:16:08.389 --> 00:16:11.970 the shock of two global wars. It meant sleeping 00:16:11.970 --> 00:16:14.669 in a muddy trench when you're 25 and sleeping 00:16:14.669 --> 00:16:17.269 in a snowbank when you're 53. Before we get to 00:16:17.269 --> 00:16:18.789 the very end, I want to circle back to something 00:16:18.789 --> 00:16:21.610 we touched on briefly. The awards. We sometimes 00:16:21.610 --> 00:16:24.509 call it chest candy in the business, but Keelan's 00:16:24.509 --> 00:16:27.700 rack was just... It was incredibly extensive. 00:16:27.919 --> 00:16:30.159 He had the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:32.620 Star, the Air Medal. He had foreign awards too. 00:16:32.759 --> 00:16:34.940 The Legion of Honor from France and the Croix 00:16:34.940 --> 00:16:37.580 de Guerre from both France and Belgium. But the 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:39.799 one that really stopped me in my tracks was the 00:16:39.799 --> 00:16:43.549 Silver Star. The source says Silver Star With 00:16:43.549 --> 00:16:46.250 three oak leaf clusters. Which means he wasn't 00:16:46.250 --> 00:16:48.450 just awarded it once. He was awarded the Silver 00:16:48.450 --> 00:16:51.450 Star four separate times. Can we just pause on 00:16:51.450 --> 00:16:53.610 how exceptionally rare that is for a major general? 00:16:53.809 --> 00:16:56.529 It is almost unheard of. The Silver Star is awarded 00:16:56.529 --> 00:16:59.070 for gallantry in action. It's a combat award. 00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:01.809 Usually generals are in the command tent, miles 00:17:01.809 --> 00:17:04.490 behind the line, moving pins on a map. Exactly. 00:17:05.109 --> 00:17:07.609 To earn four silver stars implies that Keelan 00:17:07.609 --> 00:17:10.109 was consistently at the front line under active 00:17:10.109 --> 00:17:12.789 fire, exposing himself to the exact same risks 00:17:12.789 --> 00:17:15.829 as his private's insurgents. It reinforces that 00:17:15.829 --> 00:17:19.089 idea of him being a hands -on engineer. He wasn't 00:17:19.089 --> 00:17:21.049 managing the mine from the corporate office in 00:17:21.049 --> 00:17:23.450 the city. He was down in the shaft with the workers. 00:17:23.690 --> 00:17:25.650 That's a perfect analogy. And that continuous 00:17:25.650 --> 00:17:28.130 frontline exposure likely contributed heavily 00:17:28.130 --> 00:17:30.509 to the disability retirement. You just don't 00:17:30.509 --> 00:17:32.529 get four silver stars without taking a severe 00:17:32.529 --> 00:17:34.789 physical and mental beating. So he retires to 00:17:34.789 --> 00:17:37.410 California, Monterey County, down in Pebble Beach. 00:17:37.910 --> 00:17:40.809 Not a bad place to recover, honestly. No, it's 00:17:40.809 --> 00:17:42.670 a beautiful country. And he actually went into 00:17:42.670 --> 00:17:44.309 real estate sales. Which brings him completely 00:17:44.309 --> 00:17:46.910 full circle, dealing with land again. It really 00:17:46.910 --> 00:17:50.349 does. And the legacy continued, too. The sources 00:17:50.349 --> 00:17:52.910 highlight his family quite a bit. He married 00:17:52.910 --> 00:17:56.069 Ella Green Sneed, whom he met way back at the 00:17:56.069 --> 00:17:59.009 University of Arizona. A true Wildcat romance 00:17:59.009 --> 00:18:01.529 that lasted a lifetime. And their kids seemed 00:18:01.529 --> 00:18:04.250 to inherit that exact same mix of public service 00:18:04.250 --> 00:18:07.450 and technical skill. Yeah, I saw that. His daughter, 00:18:07.529 --> 00:18:10.349 Virginia, became a historian. She documented 00:18:10.349 --> 00:18:13.150 the desert in a book called Outpost in the Desert, 00:18:13.230 --> 00:18:15.990 I believe. And his son, Frank III, became a civil 00:18:15.990 --> 00:18:19.150 engineer, echoing his dad's original degree almost 00:18:19.150 --> 00:18:22.250 perfectly. Yeah, his other son. John. He went 00:18:22.250 --> 00:18:24.630 to West Point, fought in Vietnam, and then eventually 00:18:24.630 --> 00:18:26.910 became a commodity trader. So the pattern just 00:18:26.910 --> 00:18:29.069 repeats itself. Engineering, military service, 00:18:29.289 --> 00:18:31.930 understanding the earth and markets. It's a very 00:18:31.930 --> 00:18:34.829 strong family DNA. So when we step back and look 00:18:34.829 --> 00:18:36.569 at the whole picture for you, the listener, Frank 00:18:36.569 --> 00:18:39.589 L. Cullen Jr., what's the ultimate takeaway here? 00:18:39.789 --> 00:18:42.289 We've got the miner, the machine gunner, the 00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:44.970 general. For me, the real takeaway is about the 00:18:44.970 --> 00:18:48.029 immense value of the citizen expert. We sometimes 00:18:48.029 --> 00:18:50.910 think that to be... truly great at something, 00:18:51.049 --> 00:18:53.450 especially something like war, you have to be 00:18:53.450 --> 00:18:56.170 born into it or study only that one specific 00:18:56.170 --> 00:18:58.609 thing your entire life. Right. The whole stay 00:18:58.609 --> 00:19:01.690 in your lane mentality. Exactly. But Cullen proves 00:19:01.690 --> 00:19:04.470 the complete opposite. His value as a military 00:19:04.470 --> 00:19:06.569 commander came directly from the fact that he 00:19:06.569 --> 00:19:09.029 was a mining engineer first. He brought a completely 00:19:09.029 --> 00:19:11.549 different toolkit to the battlefield. He understood 00:19:11.549 --> 00:19:15.410 the physical world. He understood rocks and earth 00:19:15.410 --> 00:19:18.130 and chemicals and weather in a fundamental way 00:19:18.130 --> 00:19:21.190 that a standard textbook military tactician might 00:19:21.190 --> 00:19:23.390 not have grasped. He didn't succeed despite being 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:25.859 a mining engineer. He succeeded because of it. 00:19:25.940 --> 00:19:28.359 Exactly. The precision of the chemist and the 00:19:28.359 --> 00:19:30.980 deep practicality of the miner were exactly what 00:19:30.980 --> 00:19:33.279 the chaos of the 20th century needed to win those 00:19:33.279 --> 00:19:36.000 wars. But we also have to remember the heavy 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:38.980 price tag attached to all of that. We do. And 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:40.900 that's the provocative thought I really want 00:19:40.900 --> 00:19:42.920 to leave you all with today. We look at the shiny 00:19:42.920 --> 00:19:45.279 medals, we look at the high rank, and it looks 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:48.279 like pure glory. It looks like a heroic movie 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:51.039 poster. But that one little line in his file, 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:55.359 retired for disability. That is the reality check. 00:19:55.539 --> 00:19:58.259 The true cost of being that exceptionally adaptable 00:19:58.259 --> 00:20:00.299 isn't written anywhere on the metal citation. 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.559 No, the cost is written on the body. He solved 00:20:03.559 --> 00:20:06.660 the impossible problems. He won the massive battles, 00:20:06.700 --> 00:20:09.359 but he paid for it with his health. He gave literally 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:11.839 everything he had until he physically couldn't 00:20:11.839 --> 00:20:14.299 give anymore. Well, that is a heavy but very 00:20:14.299 --> 00:20:17.049 necessary place to leave it for today. Next time 00:20:17.049 --> 00:20:18.970 you're driving past a local cemetery or maybe 00:20:18.970 --> 00:20:21.269 scrolling through some old archives online, take 00:20:21.269 --> 00:20:23.390 a second to look up the names. You might just 00:20:23.390 --> 00:20:25.390 find a mining engineer who helped save the world. 00:20:25.569 --> 00:20:27.950 There are hidden figures everywhere if you just 00:20:27.950 --> 00:20:29.950 know where to look. Thanks for listening to this 00:20:29.950 --> 00:20:31.549 deep dive. We'll catch you on the next one.