Robert Manteuffel

Robert Manteuffel

Robert Lee Manteuffel was born and raised on the high plains of western Kansas. His family provided officers to the armies of Europe for over seven centuries, amassing numerous awards, including the Pour le Merite, and Knight’s Cross with oakleaves, swords and diamonds.

On May fifteenth 1977, Robert graduated first in his class from the Virginia Military Institute, and was inducted into the Kappa Alpha Order. Commissioned as an armor lieutenant, he served in basic training battalions and, while attached to the Third ACR, tested five of the first seven M-1 tanks ever built.

While waiting the requisite two years for law school, he was involuntarily transferred to USAREUR in 1979, when the Shah fell in Iran and the Soviets massed on the Afghan border. In Germany, he served in a tank battalion, where he took command of a company as a first lieutenant.

Upon his return, he attended the US Air Force Institute of Technology for a master’s degree in Operations Research, Strategic and Tactical Sciences, to become the mirror image of a Soviet operations officer. After three years as a computer gamer using simulations for weapons engineering and force design, he was separated from the Army and went to law school at SMU as a Hatton W. Sumners Scholar. He practiced as a Texas trial lawyer for over thirty years with a modicum of success.

In the first of a planned series, Pagan: The Cold Warrior’s Tale, Manteuffel recounts his time from the late 1970s through the 1980s as a platoon leader, in a battalion plagued by heroin trafficking and violence—where rogue soldiers colluded with terrorists to murder, kidnap, rape, steal, and engage in sexual harassment. Through unwavering leadership and personal example, Manteuffel with his platoon sergeant transformed his unit, ultimately earning recognition as the best tank platoon in USAREUR. Later he would serve as an executive officer and then command the most improved company in Europe.