Rienzi Biography - Fondazione Provvidenti

FONDATION PROVVIDENTI FOUNDATION

FONDAZIONE PROVVIDENTI

ABOUT US • ABOUT PROVVIDENTI • CALENDAR OF EVENTS • MADONNA DELLA LIBERA

AUTOBIOGRAPHIES • PERSONAL EXPERIENCES • LAWS • CONTACT

GENERAL THOMAS MATTHEW RIENZI

PICTURES OF THE GENERAL'S VISIT TO PROVVIDENTI (Summer '06)

PICTURES FROM THE GENERAL'S VISIT TO BROSSARD CITY HALL

PICTURES FROM THE GENERAL'S VISIT TO THE LEONARDO DA VINCI CENTRE

PICTURES FROM THE LUNCHEON HELD FOR THE GENERAL

The following biography was provided by Louis Arata (Laratajr@att.net)

General Rienzi was born in 1919 in Philadelphia. He graduated from the
United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in May 1942 when
this nation was at war with the axis powers in Europe and the Far East. Upon
graduation, he attended the Army Signal School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey,
and commanded a platoon at Camp Wood in Fort Monmouth.

During the war, General Rienzi served in command positions with the 96th
Signal Battalion in China, Burma, and India. He returned to the United
States in 1945 and completed the Command and General Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, followed by a tour as an instructor at the Signal
School in Fort Monmouth.

In 1948, General Rienzi received his Master's Degree in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Illinois and was assigned to the Armed
Forces Special Weapons Project at Sandia Base, New Mexico. For the next four
years, he worked with the atomic weapons planning and implementation program,
participating in over 40 detonations.

In 1952, he was ordered to Department of the Army, War Plans Division in
Washington, D.C. This assignment was followed by a three-year tour as troop
leader and instructor with the Tactical Department, United States Military
Academy, West Point, New York.

After completing the Army War College in 1957, he took command of the 51st
Signal Battalion in Korea, where he served as the First Corps Signal
Officer. He then left Korea and spent three years in Joint Planning and Army
Logistics at the Senior United States Headquarters in Hawaii.

From 1961 to 1963, General Rienzi was Signal Officer for Eighteenth Airborne
Corps, the only airborne corps in the western world, at Fort Bragg, North
Carolina. This was followed by assignment as Executive Officer to the Chief
Signal Officer and Chief of Communications-Electronics, United States Army,
from 1963 to 1965.

In March 1965 General Rienzi became a Program Manager at the United States
Army Materiel Command as Chief of the Combat Surveillance Office and Manager
of all combat surveillance, target acquisition, and night vision equipment
in the Army.

In May 1966 he was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned as Commanding
General and Commandant of the United States Army Signal Center and School,
Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, the largest United States Army School. During
this period, General Rienzi also received a Master of Arts Degree in
International Affairs from George Washington University and a certificate in
Business Management from Pittsburgh University.

In September 1968, General Rienzi became the Deputy Commanding General of
the First Signal Brigade in Vietnam. He subsequently became its Commanding
General in February 1969 while also serving as the Deputy Chief of Staff for
Communications and Electronics in Vietnam. The First Signal Brigade
consisted of 23,000 soldiers in Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos. In June 1970 he
assumed command of the United States Army Strategic Communications Command - Pacific, consisting of over 30,000 personnel in the Pacific Ocean area. He served concurrently as the Assistant Chief of Staff, Communications -
Electronics, United States Army Pacific, at Fort Shafter, Hawaii.

In June 1972, he became the Director of Telecommunications and Command and
Control, Department of the Army, as planner, programmer, and policy maker
for all of the United States Army's Command and Control and Communications
Systems.

He was promoted to Lieutenant General in August 1977 and assumed duties as
Deputy Director General, Chief of Staff, and Chief Engineer of the NATO
Integrated Communications System Management Agency in Brussels, Belgium.

He was an Army parachutist, an Army General Staff Officer, an electronics
engineer and has authored a book on "Communications in Vietnam."

General Rienzi was married to the late Claire Moore of Long Branch, New
Jersey. They have two children, their daughter Claire (Sherri Bulkley) and
their late son Tom. He is a grandparent to three children and great-grandparent to four.

While in the military, General Rienzi studied at Catholic seminaries in
Washington, D.C. and Louvain, Belgium in order to become an ordained Deacon
of his Catholic faith. In April 1979, Terrence Cardinal Cooke ordained him
in Heidleberg, Germany.

After retiring from active duty in July 1979, General Rienzi returned to the
Hawaiian Islands to serve the Catholic Diocese of Hawaii. He served in
parish ministries including the hospital ministry at Tripler Army Medical
Center for thirteen years.

In addition, he served for many years as Chairman of the Army's Retirement Council of Hawaii, and now is State Recruiter for the United States Military Academy, and Commander of the Hawaii Basha (Chapter) of the China, Burma, India veterans.

General Rienzi was presented the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics
Association International Meritorious Service Award. He is a life member and
an active member of the Hawaii chapter of this organization. He is a member
of the Pearl Harbor Rotary Club, and the Outrigger Canoe Club. As a Knight
of the Holy Sepulchre, he participates in their worldwide activities. He has
been awarded the Medical Corps Award of Merit for his pastoral work as a
Catholic Deacon for the hospital staff. As a Signal Corps veteran, General
Rienzi has been inducted as a Distinguished Member of the Signal Regiment.