FEATURE STORY
Aundre f. Piggee LIEUTENANT GENERAL, U.S. ARMY DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF, G-4
By Dr. Samuel Odom
TT
hese days Lieutenant General Aundre F. Piggee is in charge of all the logistics policies for the Army’s 1 million Soldiers. Currently working in the Pentagon, in 37 years, he has commanded thousands of Soldiers, held 24 assignments, spent more than a third of his time outside the United States, including in Iraq, Kuwait,
dad punished him as the principal. But his dad was principal second, and father first. So when he got home, his dad would ask what happened at school. “I looked at him like he was on another planet,” he recalled. Then the young Piggee got the parent lecture and the parent punishment! The goal was to make sure he understood what his parents’ acceptable standards were. He went on to be a point guard for his high school basket- ball team, making it to the state championship and then earning an academic scholarship to the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, where he graduated with a degree in biology. He found his military passion by accident. As a freshman, it was mandatory to take either ROTC or physical education. He chose ROTC as a convenience -– it was closer to his dorm room and he would not have to change clothes. After a year, the university scholarship he had earned ended, but the ROTC program offered him a scholarship. He turned it down, since he had zero intention of joining the Army. But when his dad, who had just finished paying off tuition for Aundre’s older sister and brother, found out he told the future three-star general that if he would accept the ROTC scholarship he would buy him a car. The younger Pig- gee said: “That’s a deal!” That began LTG Piggee’s journey in the Army. Since then, he has worn the title of Commander five times, twice during operational assignments. His first time in Command was with the 77th Maintenance Company in Germany. In the 1990s he deployed to Saudi Arabia as a plans officer, and to Kuwait as a support opera- tions officer. He spent many years at Fort Hood and today still wears on his uniform its 1 st Cavalry Division combat service identifica- tion badge. As a Lieutenant Colonel, he took his Soldiers from Fort Hood to Bosnia-Herzegovina as Commander of
Saudi Arabia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Korea and Germany. He holds three degrees, plus an honorary doctorate from the Uni- versity of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. LTG Piggee is a 1979 Gamma Sigma initiate at the Univer- sity of Arkansas at Pine Bluff where he served as the Chapter Polemarch from 1979-1981. Piggee also served as the Korea Alumni Chapter Polemarch from 2002-2004 and currently is a member of the Alexandria-Fairfax (VA) Alumni Chapter in Alexandria, VA. Every time he sees his mom, a 30-year retiree from the Lone Star Army Ammunition Plant, in Texarkana, Texas, she always asks him the same question: When are you getting out? He has stayed in because he felt a sense of family in the Army, and a sense of purpose of doing something bigger than himself – and he certainly has. Along the way he has had some fun, too, like the opportu- nity in April to throw out the first pitch at Nationals Park for the Washington Nationals. To the surprise of no one who has seen how hard he works and calm he can be, LTG Piggee stepped on the pitcher’s mound, and threw a perfect pitch over the plate. LTG Piggee grew up in Stamps, Arkansas, with a popula- tion of 1,200, and one red light. It was the same town in which Maya Angelou, whom he often quotes, was raised. His dad, a World War II Veteran, had been in Patton’s Third Army, was the principal at his county school. When LTG Pig- gee got in trouble, he got sent to the principal’s office, and his
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