Cross & Crescent

In October 2003, Larry Twitchell (Michigan 1965) purchased what he thought at the time to be his retirement gift and 60th birthday present — a 2004 Jaguar Vanden Plas.

“I had just picked it up the day I got the phone call,” he says. “I didn’t have 30 miles on the darn thing.”

The phone call was a request from his boss to defer his military retirement and submit his name for consideration to become the senior military leader and U.S. Department of Defense representative in Saudi Arabia.

After asking for a few days to consider his options, Twitchell decided “oh what the heck.” His shiny new Jaguar would just have to sit in storage for a few more years.

He knew Saudi Arabia was a very interesting and very important place to serve his country for one last time, especially considering it was just two years after 9/11.

Born to Go Blue

Twitchell was raised about 25 miles from the University of Michigan in a little town called Romulus, Michigan.

Romulus is located about two miles north of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, which Twitchell attributes to his early love for flying.

He earned an academic scholarship to Michigan and began there in 1961 with the immediate goal of getting a degree so he could fly airplanes.

“Quite frankly I was just going to school to get a degree because I wanted to go fly airplanes,” he says. “And to do that in the military, you had to have a degree.”

After three years of college, Twitchell learned that the Michigan National Guard would let him enter pilot training school with only 60 college credits. He had already earned 90.

So not surprisingly, he jumped at the chance.

“I’ll go to pilot training and get finished with school when I get back, which I did 28 years later,” Twitchell says chuckling.

He attended pilot training at Webb Air Force Base, Texas, and received his wings in July 1967.

True Brotherhood

During his freshman year at Michigan, Twitchell and another buddy from his dormitory decided to check out fraternity rush. After meeting the members of the Lambda Chi house, he immediately knew it was where he wanted to be.

“I loved it,” he says. “I was completely irresponsible. I couldn’t understand why all those guys were studying so hard. They were a lot smarter than I was. I enjoyed the party life, the camaraderie, the brotherhood.”

That importance of true brotherhood was an invaluable experience that Twitchell took with him into the military. Michigan and Lambda Chi also taught him the importance of learning from his mistakes and making academics a top priority.

“I learned through failure that studying is as important as playing and building relationships,” he says. “That stuck with me the rest of my life — study hard, work hard, and then play hard.”

Twitchell worked very hard in pilot training school and finished near the top of his class in academics, flying, and officership.

Adventures in Saudi Arabia

When asked what it is like serving as a major general in Saudi Arabia, Twitchell describes a scene from the 1970 movie Patton.

In the movie, Karl Malden turns to George C. Scott who plays Patton and says, “We can’t be just generals any more. We’ve got to be diplomats and all that other stuff.” Patton replies, “Thank god I won’t live to see it.”

In addition to being a combat general, “Senior military leaders have to be diplomats as well as anything else,” he says.

When he arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2003, militant insurgents set off multiple bombs and the U.S. government ordered all dependents and non-critical personnel to leave the country.

This left Twitchell and the military as the go-between with the Saudi Arabian Royal Family.

Twitchell credits his experience around more senior generals with helping him learn how to play the important role of a Middle East diplomat. Ironically, he says that much of it can be traced back to his experiences as a teenager when he entered Michigan.

“It goes back to being a teenager at Michigan when I was a big mouth know it all,” he says. “I learned an important lesson (early on) — you can learn a lot by keeping your mouth shut and listen and learn from those around you.”

At the end of his successful two-year extension in Saudi Arabia, Twitchell was asked both personally and formally by the Saudi Arabian Royal Family if he would stay for a third year.

Although he was not eager to stay for a third year, his boss, Gen. John Abizaid, approved the extension but told Twitchell he would need a special waiver approved by Secretary of the Air Force because he now exceeded the mandatory retirement age of 62.

He got the waiver approved was approved by the Secretary of the Air Force

Retirement Ceremony

In November 2006, an official retirement ceremony was held for Twitchell at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.

In attendance were several of Twitchell’s fraternity brothers, including Bill Selmeier (1963), his Big Brother Frank Lude (1964), Bob Tobias (1965) and Ted Winkel (1966).

In addition to the fraternity brothers, 19 of the 44 men who graduated with Twitchell from his pilot training class also attended the ceremony.

During the ceremony, U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley remarked that Twitchell was both a personal friend and the “gold standard by which command officers are measured.”

Reflecting back on his career and his pilot training, Twitchell says: “It all goes back to if you’re going to do anything, do it well. Always strive for perfection. A fighter pilot is never perfect no matter how good he is, but always strives for perfection.”

At age 63, Twitchell says he is now more than ready to retire. He has had a tremendous 41-year military career as both an active and reserve officer. In addition, he also spent 28 of those years and retired as vice president of flight operations from a commercial airline.

“I’ve always said the old guys gotta get out and retire so that the young guys can get a chance to do some great things, too,” he says.

Life on the Ground

In addition to getting the Jaguar out of storage, Twitchell says he is also looking forward to doing a lot of traveling.

“In my 41-year career with the military, I’ve only taken one vacation with the family,” he says. “I’d like to travel around the country and see little things like the Grand Canyon. I’ve flown through and down into it, but have never seen it from the ground.”

He also plans to spend more time visiting Michigan and the members of the Lambda Chi chapter.

“I encourage guys who are interested in the military to look at it,” he says. “You can continue with the building of relationships with guys who have many of the same interests and qualities.”