Lt. Gen. Weinstein Retires (30 SEP 1989)

Photo By Lori Stewart | Lt. Gen. Weinstein with wife Pauline. Mrs. Weinstein passed away 6 August 2023; General Weinstein died 24 May 2007.  

UNITED STATES

09.22.2023

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian

30 SEPTEMBER 1989
On 30 September 1989, Lt. Gen. Sidney Thomas “Tom” Weinstein retired from active duty with thirty-three years of service. At the time of his retirement, he was wrapping up a four-year assignment as the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence (DCSINT).

Weinstein was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant upon graduation from the U.S. Military Academy in 1956. During his 33-year Army career, he served in a variety of intelligence, counterintelligence, and security positions in the Continental U.S., Europe, Vietnam, and Latin America. He commanded at the battalion and group level and was deputy commanding general for support at the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command. From 1982-1985, he commanded the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and School (USAICS) at Fort Huachuca, where he oversaw doctrinal, instructional, and materiel improvements related to the new Combat Electronic Warfare Intelligence (CEWI) reorganization of Army intelligence. [See "This Week in MI History" #55 27 August 1982]
On 16 August 1985, General Weinstein became the Army’s senior intelligence officer, the DCSINT on the Army Staff. It was not his dream job; he would have rather stayed at Fort Huachuca, even retired to stay close to the soldiers both he and his wife, Pauline, loved to be around. Yet, Army Chief of Staff Gen. John Wickham chose him for the position, so Weinstein reasoned, “I should be grateful enough, dedicated enough to go do it.” He remained in the DCSINT position for forty-nine months, the second longest serving DCSINT in the Army’s history.

The transformation of Army intelligence into the CEWI concept had been near and dear to Weinstein since he had commanded the 525th MI Brigade in 1977-1979. There, he created the operational and organizational design of what later emerged as the CEWI structure at division and corps. Consequently, as he entered the DCSINT position, his primary goal was to complete the revolutionary changes he had influenced at the 525th and then formalized while commanding USAICS. This required MI influence across the Army Staff, particularly in the office of the deputy chief of staff for operations (DCSOPS), something that had been problematic in previous years. While the DCSOPS had primary responsibility for deception, operational security, and electronic warfare, intelligence personnel were the practitioners of those functions. The DCSINT had to have input into the evolution of those functions.

Fortunately for Weinstein, the series of officers serving in the DCSOPS during his tenure in the Pentagon included Lt. Gen. Carl W. Vuono, who had been the Combined Arms Center commander and his boss when Weinstein commanded USAICS, and Lt. Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, a West Point classmate and one of Weinstein’s closest friends. Together, they ensured the DCSINT had at least equal influence over what the evolving intelligence force looked like. To guide that effort, Weinstein oversaw the development of the Army Intelligence Master Plan, a single overarching strategy for investing effort and money into MI force developments for the next twenty years. [See "This Week in MI History" #106 September 1986]

While DCSINT, General Weinstein also paid special attention to improving intelligence support to special operations and low intensity conflict, and he oversaw the development of a personnel management system that aligned the military’s civilian intelligence personnel with those of the national-level intelligence agencies. After four years in the job, however, he knew it was time to turn the reins over to the next intelligence leader. He recalled, “Yes, I was good at my job, but I wasn’t indispensable.”

In addition to his legendary penchant for taking care of people—“because that is where my heart is”—General Weinstein is best known for developing the intelligence doctrine, techniques, and procedures for the battlefield of the late twentieth century. He referred to himself as the “living bridge between old MI and new MI.” The MI Corps remembers him as the “Father of Modern Military Intelligence.”

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• Date Taken: 09.22.2023
• Date Posted: 09.22.2023 17:02
• Story ID: 454135
• Location: US