Thomas Rienzi

After graduating from Fort Monmouth’s Signal Center and School he was assigned to the China-Burma-India Campaign. From there he was transferred to command a company in the 96th Signal Battalion of the 96th Infantry Division. In 1945 he attended the Command and General Staff College, then taught at the Signal School in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey.[2]

Rienzi returned from World War II to his hometown and married Clare Moore in 1946. They would later have two children, Thomas Rienzi, Jr. and daughter Sherri. He received his master's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois in 1948.[3] Assigned to the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Sandia Base, New Mexico, he trained atomic weapons technicians, planning and implementing over 40 test detonations. He then served as a tactical instructor at West Point in 1955. He became commander of the 51st Signal Battalion in Korea in 1957. After this, he was assigned to the Joint Planning and Army Logistics at the Senior United States Headquarters at Honolulu, Hawaii.[3] From 1961 to 1963, Rienzi was appointed Signal Officer for Eighteenth Airborne Corps. His next assignment from 1963 to 1965 was as Executive Officer to the Chief Signal Officer and Chief of Communications-Electronics, United States Army.[3]

In May 1966, Rienzi was promoted to brigadier general and assigned as Commanding General and Commandant of the United States Army Signal Center and School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the largest United States Army school. During his assignment at Fort Monmouth he received a master of arts degree in international affairs from George Washington University and a certificate in business management from Pittsburgh University.[3] In 1968, after the Tet Offensive, Rienzi was promoted to major general and given the command of the 23,000 soldiers of the 1st Signal Brigade.[1][4] During this time the Army implemented new generations of electronically-secured voice communications systems, and Rienzi and his staff oversaw its integration and implementation. This integration was complicated by implementing the program of Vietnamization of duties and resources.[5]