COL NEIL WILLIAMSON, III

10 July 1978-17 June 1981

“New TOW/Dragon Project Mgr. happy to be back at Redstone,”

The Redstone Rocket , 9 August 78, p. 17.

            “I’ve had a lot of interesting jobs in the Army, jobs with a lot of variety, and I’ve liked them all, but I’m particularly pleased to be back at Redstone,” said Col. Neil Williamson, III, MIRCOM’s new TOW-Dragon Project Manager.

            “I’m a generalist in an era of specialists, which means I’ve learned a little about a lot of things,” said Williamson of his Army career. He said he’s really looking forward to his new job with TOW and Dragon, mainstays in the Army’s anti-tank arsenal and in the armed forces of more than 20 countries throughout the world.

            In a previous Redstone assignment, starting in 1976, Williamson was Chief of MIRADCOM’s Advanced Systems Concepts Office.

            The 43-year-old Dumont, N.J., native comes here from Dover, N.J., where he commanded the Fire Control and Small Caliber Weapons Systems Laboratory at the Armament Research and Development Command. He succeeds Col. Arthur Goodall, who left to become Director of Systems Management at the Troop Support and Aviation Materiel Readiness Command in St. Louis, Mo.

            Williamson is a 1958 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and has a Master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. He is also a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Army Command and General Staff College.

            He has had a number of staff assignments at Army and Department of Defense levels. Among overseas assignments were approximately 25 months in Vietnam, first as senior advisor to the Vietnamese Army Ordnance School, starting in 1963, and as Executive Officer and later Commander of the 27^th Maintenance Battalion, 1^st Cavalry Division, in 1969-70.