Just over 30 years ago, one of the U.S. Army’s most renowned and distinguished combat leaders passed away. Yet Maj. Gen. Aubrey “Red” Newman lives on in the numerous professional articles he penned, including 172 columns for ARMY magazine.

Newman, who died in January 1994 at age 90, stayed closely involved with the Army until his last years. I learned much from him and his “The Forward Edge” leadership columns in ARMY, which spanned more than 21 years, ending in 1988. Three of his lessons have particularly stuck with me. Army leaders today might still learn and benefit from these lessons: Leaders must be physically fit to lead in combat, they should possess humility to lead, and they should be avid readers and good writers.

I first became familiar with Newman through “The U.S. Army in Action” prints as a young man. My maternal grandfather was finishing a 30-year Army career when he took me through the old wooden barracks at Fort Gordon, Georgia, now known as Fort Eisenhower, in the early 1960s. There I noticed a print depicting a scene from World War II. In the print, a soldier is pictured standing, waving his arm for his soldiers to follow him onto a tropical beach. That scene stuck with me, and later I found out that the lead soldier in the print was then-Col. Newman.

Avid Reader

My father was also a professional soldier and a member of the Association of the U.S. Army, which publishes ARMY. I enjoyed reading his ARMY magazines, especially Newman’s “The Forward Edge” columns. The articles usually were illustrated with a humorous cartoon, which garnered my immediate attention. After joining the Army and becoming an AUSA member, I opened the magazine to his column first. I was always interested to see how Newman solved the leadership dilemmas he encountered.

As a company commander at Fort Riley, Kansas, in the late 1970s, I met Newman in person. After reading a humorous account of Newman’s time at Fort Riley in one of his ARMY magazine columns, I wrote to ask if I might visit him when I was home on leave in Sarasota, Florida, where he had retired.

Newman graciously invited me to call on him. He was especially interested in what was going on in my rifle company.

Newman had commanded three rifle companies during his career and said it was a defining time. Over the next 15 years, I made a point to visit with Newman when I traveled to Sarasota on leave. The conversations I had with Newman were supplemented by his handwritten letters to me discussing common interests in Army topics.

Physically Fit

Newman was a superb athlete. Transferring from Clemson Agricultural College ROTC in South Carolina, he was a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, when Gen. Douglas MacArthur was superintendent. MacArthur was known for having instituted an overhaul of the academy’s physical education program. His motto became “Every cadet an athlete.”

After graduating from West Point, Newman was selected to compete on the 1928 U.S. Olympics modern pentathlon team. MacArthur was president of the American Olympic Committee when Newman sailed to Amsterdam for the Games with him. Finishing 15th overall, Newman showed enough potential to be selected to train for the 1932 Olympics. Although not selected for the 1932 team, his abilities marked him as a tough, physically fit competitor.

In October 1944, Newman’s physical leadership was put to the test. As an infantry regimental commander during World War II, he led his soldiers during an assault on the Japanese defenses on Leyte Island in the Philippines with an exhortation that became famous: “Follow me!” Months of sustained combat followed.

Newman set the example in fitness, constantly leading his soldiers from the front. His actions garnered him a Distinguished Service Cross for his inspiring and valorous leadership. His forward style of leadership also led to him being seriously wounded in the fighting in the Philippines.

Airborne Accomplishment

At 24 years of service, Newman attended the U.S. Army Airborne School. This would have been a substantial accomplishment for a soldier half his age due to the physical requirements. However, Newman earned his airborne wings despite his severe combat wounds.

He went on to lead airborne infantry regiments in both the 11th, then the 82nd, Airborne Divisions. His admonition in discussions with me and in his writings was that physical fitness was imperative to lead infantry soldiers, especially in combat.

Circumstances forced Newman to work for generals who were his peers or even junior to him in terms of length of service. One such circumstance was when he had to work as a subordinate to Lt. Gen. Joe Cleland, his West Point classmate. Newman told me that Cleland called him into his office to ask if there would be any problem with Newman being his subordinate. Newman told Cleland there would be no problems. They turned out to be a great team in the XVIII Airborne Corps when Cleland was the commander. Newman had a healthy professional ambition, but he subordinated it for the good of his units, demonstrating his humility in doing so. His professional focus remained on service to country and the Army.

Staying Sharp

Another leadership skill Newman practiced was intellectual development. He enjoyed reading and had a particular regard for military history. As an adjunct to being well-read, he strongly believed officers should write about their profession. He advocated reading as a precursor to being a good writer. They are related skills, and Newman believed writing helps develop logical thought processes.

Newman began his writing career in the early 1930s and continued until the 1990s. Penning articles for professional journals, then collating his ARMY magazine leadership columns into three books, Newman was a skilled writer. The last book published before his death was Follow Me II: More on the Human Element in Leadership, published in 1993. Another book, Follow Me III: Lessons on the Art and Science of High Command, was published two years after his death, but it originally had been published in 1987 under the title What are Generals Made of? He signed my copies of his first three books. Additionally, he gifted me a hardbound copy of Instructions for His Generals, by Frederick the Great, from his personal library.

Writing Technique

Newman showed me his extensive files used to produce his ARMY magazine leadership columns. This system would be almost unimaginable to the generations of young people today. It was a time before personal computers and the internet.

Shoeboxes were neatly stacked in one of his closets. Each box was filled with 3-by-5-inch index cards. Each card contained handwritten notes and annotations concerning decades of his experiences, his soldiers and his units. An old manual typewriter served as his “word processor,” and, for years, his manuscripts were painstakingly typed using his index fingers. It worked for him.

Newman’s prescription for producing columns was simple. He would determine a topic, find cards with vignettes or examples to illustrate his points, determine a headline, write the opening narrative (the “hook”), write the body, and, rather than a summary or conclusion, he would condense some “lessons learned” into three or four pithy observations.

Lest I forget—Newman had a wry sense of humor. His columns usually were illustrated with humorous examples, many at his expense. This formula worked successfully for his 21 years of ARMY magazine articles.

‘Follow Me!’

I collected “The U.S. Army in Action” prints over the years. “Follow Me!” depicts then-Col. Newman leading the 34th Infantry Regiment onto that Leyte beach in October 1944.

It is the print I saw on the barracks wall at Fort Gordon as a young man over 60 years ago. It is my favorite.

My print is signed by Newman, and it reminds me of him and the print I saw in the barracks at Fort Gordon.

I last saw Newman while I was en route to an assignment in South Korea in 1993. Unfortunately, he passed away before I could see him again.

The last event in my yearslong connection with Newman was to nominate him for the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Hall of Fame. Newman was inducted before I retired in 1997, joining other distinguished American soldiers. His photo and biography reside inside a display case at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College academic building. Honoring his memory, with the desire to encourage others to remember his outstanding contributions to the Army, was one of my last official acts on active duty.

Newman inspired and influenced generations of soldiers long into his retirement. His books remain tributes to his Army service, the great soldiers he served with and leadership excellence.

The three lessons Newman espoused that stayed with me during my career regarding physical fitness, leader humility and intellectual development are as applicable to military leaders today as they were in his generation. For these reasons, it is my sincere hope that Newman continues to be remembered and is never forgotten.

Lt. Col. Edwin Kennedy Jr., U.S. Army retired, was an infantryman who now works as a military historian. He is a graduate of the Israel Defense Forces’ Armored Corps Commander’s Course and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, where he taught in three different departments while on active duty and subsequently as a civilian faculty member.