Profiles of Valor: GEN Burwell Baxter 'B.B.' Bell

“Always do what is right. The harder right is always better than the easier wrong.”
Two decades and many service assignments after earning his Ranger Tab, B.B. deployed as Executive Officer for GEN “Stormin’ Norman” Schwarzkopf during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He then served as Chief of Staff, USAREUR Forward Headquarters, during Operation Joint Endeavor in the Balkans.

In 1995, as a Brigadier General (one star), he was Assistant Division Commander in both the 3rd and 1st Infantry Divisions. He would then serve as Chief of Staff of V Corps and subsequently Chief of Staff, United States Army, Europe and Seventh United States Army. He is a veteran of the combat theaters of both Iraq and Afghanistan. As a Major General (two star), he commanded the United States Army Armor Center and Fort Knox. As Lieutenant General (three star) he commanded the Army’s III Corps at Fort Hood, Texas.

As a General (four star), he commanded the U.S. Army, Europe and 7th Army, and NATO’s Land Component Command in Germany. He then became commander of U.S. Forces, Korea, and the United Nations Command before his retirement.

Along the way, he completed a graduate degree from the University of Southern California and additional professional courses at the Army Command and General Staff College and the National War College.

That is the quick list of his considerable accomplishments and commands as an active-duty soldier.

From conversations and interviews in recent years, come some of his key career observations and insights.

Of his most rewarding assignment: “Commander of 2 Squadron, 9 Cavalry Regiment. This unit, which was the reconnaissance unit for the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division, had a history and lineage dating back to the Buffalo Soldiers. Buffalo Soldiers were the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments organized just after the Civil War with all black soldiers. Their service in the American West and the Spanish-American War was stunning, and thus, to be a part of one of these units was an incredible honor and privilege.”

His most challenging assignment: He says that was with “GEN Schwarzkopf for nearly three years,” during which “he served as the Commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversaw U.S. military operations in the Middle East and Southwest Asia.”

His most interesting assignment: “[That] was as the Four-Star Allied Commander of all military (South Korean and U.S.) in South Korea in the defense of South Korea. This included leading and commanding over a million men and women in uniform with the mission of deterring an attack from North Korea and, should deterrence fail, counterattacking North Korea by land, sea, and air to defeat their armed forces and remove the government in Pyongyang.”