Title: Retired Colonel
Company: United States Army
Location: Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States
Frank Cohn, retired United States Army Colonel, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Military for dedication, achievements, and leadership in military leadership and intelligence.
Mr. Cohn celebrates a 35-year career in the United States Army, retiring in 1978 at the rank of Colonel heavily decorated for his service. Born in Germany, Mr. Cohn escaped during the rise of the Nazi regime and immigrated to the United States, where he was drafted into the Army in 1943 after being turned away from volunteering. During World War II, he served on an intelligence team whose assignments largely targeted spies and suspected war criminals. During the Battle of the Bulge, his team’s focus was on intercepting German spies who had made their way into American military units, and while occupying Germany, their work shifted to locating and detaining war criminals and finding documents to support their prosecution during the Nuremberg Trials. He received an honorable discharge from active duty in 1946 and remained in the United States Army Reserves until 1963, when he became eligible for an Army commission after graduating from Michigan State University with a Master’s degree in police administration.
In recognition of his exemplary service on behalf of the United States and its allies, Mr. Cohn is decorated with a Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, and a Meritorious Service Medal in addition to decorations from the governments of France, Germany, Korea, Vietnam, and Russia. When he retired from the United States Army in 1978, he accepted a position as a human resources manager and Director of Graduate Housing at the University of Maryland, who hired him based on his extensive personnel management experience from the military. Mr. Cohn retired from the University of Maryland in 1992. In his retirement, he has written two unpublished autobiographies about his escape from Germany and experiences during and after World War II, which are housed in the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he is a volunteer. Mr. Cohn considers his military service to be a payback to the United States for saving his life when he fled Germany, remarking that “to this day, he considers himself indebted.” He treasures his marriage of 72 years to his wife Paula, a former counselor and teacher whom he met in high school, and is the parent of one daughter, a travel industry executive. Mr. Cohn emphasizes that more than anything in his life, he hopes to be known and remembered as a good citizen with a dedication to service.
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