MARC POWE

1939 - 2020

POWE Marc Bracken Powe COL., U.S. Army (Ret.) December 15, 1939 - August 2, 2020 On August 2, 2020, the nation lost Army Intelligence Officer Colonel (retired) Marc B. Powe. Powe was born in Dallas, Texas, on December 15, 1939. He attended Texas A&M University, earning his bachelor's degree in history in 1961 and his Master's at Kansas State University in 1974. Powe's military education included extensive anti-terrorism training, progressive military education, concluding with the US Army War College, Joint Attaché training, specializing in Counterintelligence and Human Intelligence training, and hostage negotiating management and crisis management through New Scotland Yard. He was also proficient in Russian, German, Vietnamese, Arabic, and French. Powe served in the U.S. Army for nearly 30 years as a Military Intelligence officer with two tours in Vietnam. While flying in a Mohawk recon aircraft, as a combat aerial observer, both he and his pilot were hit and injured by antiaircraft fire from the Viet Cong that shattered the canopy. Powe earned an Air Medal w/ V device and a Purple Heart. He served multiple tours as a military attaché stationed in our embassies in Moscow, Baghdad, and Tunisia. For the Moscow tour, he served as the first-ever operations officer for the largest U.S. Defense Attaché Office (DAO) in the world and was awarded the Soldier's Medal while protecting sensitive intel during a fire at the U.S. Embassy. Powe was also the first Defense Attaché (DATT) to serve in the newly re-opened Baghdad Embassy. By November of 1979, following drastic strategic surprises, i.e., the seizure of the US Embassy in Tehran, rioters burning US Embassy Islamabad, seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca by Islamic radicals, Powe was selected by the Army to prepare an analysis and a pioneering course of action plan for our intelligence community and the Department of Defense, including the Army's Delta Force and Joint Special Operations Command. In 1988, Powe led the U.S.'s clandestine extraction of a much sought-after intact, airworthy Russian Hind-25 attack helicopter after intense negotiations with the Chadians. Powe would simply remark, "I arranged for a series of C-5 flights to provide lift of the Soviet material as I released funds to the Chadians." It was also during that time that Powe "acquired" a Chinese anti-ship missile at the behest of the US Navy. As an accredited Attaché with diplomatic immunity, he was arrested for aggressive observation of secret illegal Russian deliveries of arms equipment to Iraq through Kuwait in 1988. Powe dismissed the incident as routine, but it was reported as "The Powe Affair" in US News and Reports. In 1990, during the Gulf War, he received a "private" award but also received his second DCI Exceptional Intelligence Collector award. In 1992, Powe retired from the Army and became the first-ever Field Security Manager for UNICEF, traveling throughout the African continent, but would return to the Office of Secretary of Defense for African Affairs at the Pentagon where he was working when flight #77 hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A personally and professionally highlight for Powe was his time with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) with the mission to defeat the IED attacks and the growing effect of ISIS/Al Qaeda/Taliban threats. Powe was a primary planner in the Office of the Secretary of Defense for the post combat operations for the Iraqi war protracted armed conflict that began in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition that overthrew Saddam Hussein and was one of the first civilian cadre in country post combat and worked to repair the Iraqi police and Army as a province advisor. Powe had a long history and association with the Defense Intelligence Agency but, perhaps his greatest legacy is his influence on the field of Army Intelligence. Following the publication of a book he co-authored with Col. E.E. Wilson, Evolution of American Military Intelligence, which remains the foundation of military intelligence history, countless Army Intelligence officers have stated it was the catalyst to their careers and patriotism. Today, Powe's works and research reside with the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Center of Excellence historical archive and are known as "the Powe Collection." For his military service, Colonel Powe was awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal w/ 1OLC, Legion of Merit, Soldier's Medal, Bronze Star Medal w/ 2OLC, Purple Heart, Defense Meritorious Service Medal w/ 2OLC, Meritorious Service Medal w/ 2OLC, Air Medal (4), Air Medal w/ V Device, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star, Vietnam Service Medal (5), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (3), Vietnam Campaign Medal, and Army Staff Identification Badge. From the Intelligence community, he received the Director of Central Intelligence Exceptional Collector Award in 1986 and 1990. He was also recognized with the UNICEF Staff Award for Outstanding Performance in Emergency Operations. He was a Department of Defense Attaché Hall of Fame inductee and received the Department of Defense Exceptional Civilian Service Award. He was an outstanding soldier, superb intelligence collector and reporter, best summed up by a former colleague from the Pentagon that Marc B. Powe was "the best of us ... a Shadow Warrior who served this nation." Colonel Powe will be interred at the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia with full honors in 2021. Due to COVID-19, the family respectfully postponed his funeral so that his peers, friends, and family might all attend. For more information about this remarkable man, you may contact Alexandra Powe Allred at redburn4@gmail.com Colonel Powe will be interred at the Arlington Cemetery in Virginia with full honors in 2021. Due to COVID-19, the family respectfully postponed his funeral so that his peers, friends, and family might all attend. For more information about this remarkable man, you may contact Alexandra Powe Allred at redburn4@gmail.com