STUFF ABOUT FRED IN LOCAL PAPER

Retired colonel takes group's helm
Chapel Hill Herald (Dec. 9, 2009)

CHAPEL HILL -- Chapel Hill resident and Vietnam combat veteran Fred Black, a retired U.S. Army colonel, was installed as president of the N.C. State Council of Chapters of the Military Officers Association of America on Saturday.

A past president of the state council's Orange-Chatham Chapter, Black is married to the former Sylvia M. Sloan of Durham. They have a daughter who is a labor relations specialist, and a son who is a major in the U.S. Army.

There are 19 chapters in the state council and more than 18,000 members in North Carolina. The association plays an active role in military personnel matters and especially proposed legislation affecting the career force, the retired community, and veterans of the uniformed services. Its purpose also has grown to include career transition assistance, improved member products, military benefits counseling, educational assistance to children of military families (to include enlisted) and strong involvement in military professionalism activities.

The state council serves to further the aims and legislative goals of the national organization and assist member chapters in effectively serving their members, their communities and the nation.

The Military Officers Association of America is open to active duty, National Guard, Reserve, retired and former commissioned officers and warrant officers of the seven uniformed services, the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. With a membership of about 370,000, it is the country's largest military officers' association.

Prior to his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1994, Black served as a professor of political science in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. A life member of the Military Officers Association of America, he currently works as an independent management consultant specializing in leadership and organizational evaluations and assessments for both corporations, public and nonprofit organizations.

Black is a Vietnam combat veteran and a distinguished military graduate of Howard University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and his commission as a second lieutenant of infantry in June 1968. He received his graduate training in political science and public policy and administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. Black is an honor graduate of both the Army's Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga., and the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He is also a graduate of the National War College in Washington, D.C., where he also served as a visiting professor of national security policy.

Black has served in a variety of infantry command and staff positions with airborne and light infantry units in the continental United States, Hawaii, the Republic of South Vietnam and the Republic of South Korea. He has earned the Combat Infantryman Badge, Senior Parachutist wings and the Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry. His other military awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Meritorious Service Medal with a 2nd oak leaf cluster, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal.