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President Bush gave Col. Howie Cohen ’79 a taste of his humor during a trip to China last year.
Cohen, then commander of the White House Communications Agency, was working out in the fitness facility of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying.
“I had my cell phone, identification and credentials, and a towel with me,” Cohen recalls. “Since there was nowhere to place them on the treadmill, I placed these items on a workout bench immediately behind me. When I completed my run, I went to a small room off of the main room to do some stretching.”
Several minutes later, Cohen heard President Bush in the gym with his Secret Service detail. Wanting to give the president his space, Cohen continued to stretch.
Then he heard, “Cohen! Hey, Cohen!”
“Recognizing the president’s voice, I immediately jumped up from stretching and walked over to him,” Cohen says. “He had my cell phone, my towel, and my credentials in his hand. When he saw me, he said, with that typical George W. Bush smile on his face, ‘Hey, Cohen, you have a call,’ and handed me my phone, towel, and credentials. Very embarrassed that the President of the United States was answering the phone for his senior military communicator, I sincerely thanked him for the items and took them from him.”
The phone, however, hadn’t rung. President Bush, who wanted to use the bench to work out, was joking.
“Whether you like him or not, President Bush has a great sense of humor,” says Cohen, who lives in Woodbridge, Va. “I just did not expect to be the brunt of one of his jokes.”
While there were times of levity, the job carried with it a great deal of responsibility. The White House Communications Agency provides communication systems that enable the president and his staff to lead the nation efficiently. The agency provides worldwide audio-visual, voice, and data communications support for the president, vice president, presidential emissaries, White House staff, Secret Service, and others as directed by the White House Military Office. WHCA supports the president at the White House and in the Washington metropolitan area. In addition, it deploys teams worldwide to support presidential travel missions.
During his three years with the agency — including the final two as commander — Cohen got a glimpse of, and had a hand in, the workings of the government and the coordination among it, the military, and the public. There were times of rapid tempo, such as the 2004 presidential campaign, when, he says the travel pace and subsequent work detail was “crazy.” And, still yet, there were more tumultuous times.
In 2005, Cohen accompanied President Bush to the G-8 Summit talks with the world’s leading industrial nations in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was on the floor of the Gleneagles Hotel, where the parley was being held, when the news broke that terrorists had set off bombs in London.
“As the news aired, the activity became furious,” Cohen recalls. “Senior White House staff officials had to conduct security [briefings] with key personnel throughout the world, so we had to help set all that up. I watched the flurry of activity between the National Security Council staff and the White House staff to make sure the right people had the right information and access to the right kinds of communication systems to share information, and ultimately make decisions. Being a part of that process was fascinating.”
He left his post as commander of the agency this year, and is retiring from the military after what will be a career of nearly 27 years. His military service included assignments as battalion commander of the 112th Signal Battalion, communications squadron commander for the Army’s Office of Military Support, and commander of the 35th Signal Brigade. Among the awards and decorations Cohen received are the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement, the Army Achievement Medal, and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award.
Before becoming White House Communications Agency commander, Cohen served as a deputy commander for slightly less than a year.
“I was initially hired to be the deputy commander with the potential to fleet up to commander, and it just so happens that it worked out that way,” Cohen says.
His distinguished military career includes assignments as battalion commander of the 112th Signal Battalion, communications squadron commander for the Army’s Office of Military Support, and commander of the 35th Signal Brigade. Cohen has also earned myriad awards and decorations. Among them are the Legion of Merit, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Achievement, the Army Achievement Medal and the Joint Meritorious Unit Award.
Cohen says he owes a good measure of his success to his experience at Lafayette, where he was an English major and ROTC cadet. Cohen also played baseball on a partial scholarship while at Lafayette and was a brother in Phi Gamma Delta.
“Sports have always had an influence on me because they teach life lessons, such as the value of camaraderie, teamwork and discipline,” he says. “I learned those lessons as a young kid playing sports, and baseball eventually helped me get to Lafayette, where I found them again playing baseball and in the fraternity. I try to find camaraderie, teamwork, and discipline in everything I do. Eventually, I found them in the Army as well.”
Cohen appreciated the size of Lafayette, where, he says, the school was small enough that students don’t get lost, and neither the campus nor the class sizes overwhelm them.
“You get to know a lot of people. That offers a very diverse experience, and ultimately, that’s what led me to go into the military,” he notes.
He also cites the academics and faculty which gave him a well-rounded educational foundation. At Lafayette, Cohen began the teaching certification process. Although he didn’t finish, the time he spent in the program had a significant impact on him.
“The instructors were really focused on helping us prepare to be teachers,” he says. “They were focused on teaching us what we needed to do to make sure we could help mold and mentor students. I thought that was really neat. The thing that I have always been passionate about, and the thing that I think I’ve enjoyed the most about the military, is not necessarily my personal success, but helping others to achieve success. I found that same value in the staff at Lafayette. They were there to make us the best teachers we could be and to enable us to make a positive impact on young kids.”
As he gets ready to close the curtains on his military career, Cohen is not sure what his next act will be. But he does know that he would like to reconnect with the important people of his past. Recently, Cohen took a trip back to his hometown of Union, N.J., where he had an informal reunion with some of his friends from his youth.
“It was a very enjoyable high school reunion with guys and gals that I hadn’t seen for 20 or 25 years and it was a blast sharing and reliving some of the stories again,” he says. “And I know that if I reconnected with some of my fraternity brothers or guys I played ball with when I was at Lafayette, I’d get the exact same feeling. I want to take the opportunity to reacquaint myself with some of my classmates and friends.”
Cohen hopes to become more active with his alma mater. To begin this reacquaintance process, he plans to attend a D.C. Alumni Chapter event in the future.
“Lafayette was such an important time in my life,” he notes. “It’s funny, by the time I retire, I will have been in the Army a little more than 27 years and, sometimes, if I’m not careful, I forget that there was life—really important experiences and people—before the military.”
Col. Howie Cohen ’79 (center) served the president as commander of the White House Communications Agency.