Ken was born in Jersey City, New Jersey and was the oldest of four children having three sisters.
He joined the Army’s 82nd airborne March 1956 and went through military police school with the 82nd MPs.
Ken weighed barely 130 pounds just making the minimum required weight for jump school.
Ken's active service with the military police was short-lived after on his first duty around a rough bar area of Fayetteville close to Fort Bragg he was king hit with a blindside punch from a fleeing offender.
He returned to camp and requested an immediate transfer to the infantry and two days later was with the 505th Infantry Battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division. He spent nine months with the 505th Airborne before being transferred to Korea getting the only jump slot in the Seventh Infantry Division.
After serving 11 months in Korea he reenlisted and went to Japan with the 549th Airborne Arial Delivery Company, the only Airborne Company in Japan.
Ken spent three years in Japan before returning to Fort Bragg and undertaking the gruelling Special Forces qualification course late 1959.
On successfully completing the Special Forces qualification course he was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces group as the heavy weapons Sgt on an A-Team.
His first tour of Vietnam begun in December 1962 on a TDY with the 1st Special Forces group and on his return to Fort Bragg in December 1963 was assigned to the 3rd Special Forces group.
He returned to Vietnam again in 1964 sitting with Mike Force Eagle flight.
Eagle flight was the only airborne unit involved with operations in regards to the Montagnards.
He returned to Fort Bragg in 1966 to the 6th Special Forces group and was assigned to the Gabriel Demonstration team and for the next year was part of parachute and static demonstrations all over the United States acting as ambassadors for the Special Forces.
He then went to the language school ( DLI) Monterey California and spent the next year learning Farsi.
He was next assigned to the 10th Special Forces group Fort Deven’s Massachusetts as team Sgt of the SADM Detachment the abbreviation for Special Atomic Demolition Munitions.
Ken retired from active service 1970 at the rank of Master Sgt.
Ken's introduction to hand-to-hand combat begun in basic training and then was continued with a basic 20 hour course when he was undergoing training with the military police.
His involvement in close quarters combat training continued in Japan where he also studied Judo at the Kodokan achieving his First Dan black belt in only one year.
He entered in two tournaments in Japan the first when he was a brown belt and the second as a black belt winning both against the odds as the Japanese were not that in favour of non-Japanese winning such tournaments.
In the third special forces group he instructed hand-to-hand combat to an A company and while serving in Mike Force Vietnam Ken, Truman Foy and Jim Fiquette were sent to The 25 Infantry Division to instruct hand-to-hand combat for 10 days.
While with the SADM detachment he began teaching his team hand-to-hand combat and when other teams heard and made requests for this training he also trained them.
In recent years he has become involved in hand-to-hand combat training again in Southeast Asia with other former US serviceman and the Thai military.
Ken was also an instructor for a 5 day course in Baton Tactics and Techniques for the Malaysian Police.
He has instructed the Royal Thai Police and Thai Special Forces at Lopburi and is a member of the Force Protection Detachment at the US Embassy Bangkok.
The hand-to-hand combat program that Ken instructed included the bayonet course, knife fighting and knife disarming, the baton and riot stick and unarmed combat skills.
The sentry elimination course of instruction he delivered included observation, planning and the execution phase.
The program also included armed and unarmed prisoner snatches and gagging and tying as well as prisoner handling skills.
In the unarmed combat package Ken instructed low stamping kicks chokes immobilization and clenched fist and open hand strikes. The medical implications aspect of the hand-to-hand combat course included content that he had learned at Fort Deven’s on soft bodily targets to achieve compliance or neutralization.
Ken explains Mike Force was nicknamed the Special Forces Marines as they were a reactionary force asked to go where the action already had started and perceived themselves as likely cannon fodder. They would be sent when camps were under attack or such attacks were imminent. If the camp was under attack and they could not get in they would be employed as a diversionary force.
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The movie The Green Berets starring John Wayne was about Mike Force Eagle flight one of the most famous of all A teams in Vietnam.
Ken's detachment A219 was stationed at Pleiku and there are only three of the original Mike Force team members alive today.
Ken’s preferred weapons in Vietnam were the Uzi and the M 79 with his favourite handgun being the Walther PPK and he carried the Randall Special Forces hollow handgrip survival knife.
John Wayne came to visit the Mike Force in Vietnam to do research for the movie Green Berets.
Ken's call sign was Snake and he recalls an incident immediately after returning from an operation where they had to do a lot of running and hard yards.
John Wayne said Snake you did a lot of running when you're out there today.
Ken was in no mood for such comments and gave him the look and replied Yeah! John Wayne replied it would have been different if he was out there and that the VC would never have even got close to him. Ken sharply replied how so in a pissed off tone.
John Wayne replied the VC would never get close to him because it would be hard for them to run in the soft shit he would have left behind.
This really broke the tension in the air with some good and needed humour.
Another such situation Ken recalled for me was when he was part of a composite team of six black and six white operators that were chosen for a mission in Africa simply because they were a composite team even though they had very little experience working together a situation that created some definite tensions.
The team Sgt happen to be Kens team Sgt and as they were getting ready to land Ken asked his team Sgt what he would do if when they landed and the tailgate went down there was a bunch of big black warriors with very long spears waiting for them?
He immediately reached over grabbed Ken and begun yelling “I've got one I've got one”.
Another great tension breaker an indication of how humour can be very positive.
Ken has had his fare share of injuries over 14 years of Special Forces service and has 13 inches of titanium in his spine and eight screws holding him upright as well as a missing right index finger. He now lives in Thailand and is a director of Ranger training group which operates out of Lopburi.
His Ranger training group provide training in survival, ranger tactics, close quarters combat and Special Forces guerrilla tactics. Ken is very clear to point out there are two very separate aspects of the training he provides one being for civilians and the second for military elite forces.
His fellow director in the Ranger training group is the highly respected former Thai special forces commander General Chanit. Ken founded the Special Forces Association Chapter 3 Thailand and was president for two consecutive terms and is still an active member as well as being an active member of the Special Operations Association. I asked Ken to tell me of those who had influenced him in his military career and those he held in high regard and he replied M/Sgt John Fryer and two of his Mike force buddies in Truman Foy and Frank Quinn. Frank Quinn was the first prisoner of war to escape in Vietnam.
Ken can remember having three Australian soldiers on temporary duties with Mike Force in Vietnam.
Two of Ken’s hobbies were a result of his military training one being parachuting and the second scuba diving.
He attended Special Forces Scuba school and he later operated a dive business for seven years in California.
He has never stopped parachute jumping since 1955 and his entire military career was on jump status.
He also owned two classic customized cars a 57 Chev and a 71 Chev pickup that were both top award winners of the time.
Ken's interest in close quarters combat begun in 1955 when he joined the military and has continued right through his life including now where he works with the Thai Special Forces and his Ranger group business as well as the Todd group delivering CQC and CQB courses of instruction.
I recently worked with Ken on a course in Southeast Asia and can tell you he is a man of considerable experience and expertise. He has a great sense of humour but does not take kindly to fools or stand for bad behaviour and when it's time to get down to business he is deadly serious and the epitome of a true irregular force professional.
He has a wealth of knowledge and experience and is prepared to share it with those that are responsible committed and eligible to receive the specific type of training.
Ken has worked for and continues to work for several government agencies.
