Michael T. Ruane

Michael Ruane was born in the Bronx Borough of New York City in July 1942 and moved to Jersey City, New Jersey as a child. He attended Seton Hall University and graduated with a BA degree in accounting in 1963, as well as a commission as an Army Second Lieutenant from the university’s ROTC program. Ruane later attended Brookdale Community College and received a degree in computer science. He had two uncles in the Army as well as some cousins in other branches of service, which inspired him to join the Army. Ruane entered the service in November of 1963. He completed his Officer Basic Course as an Armor officer at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Ruane then was sent to the 1st Cavalry Division in Munsan, Korea for a year, a tour he recalled fondly.

On his return to the United States, Ruane was assigned to a B Company, 77th Armor Regiment with the 2nd Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Devens, Massachusetts as a platoon leader and then executive officer. During this time, he also got married. That summer, Ruane became the Company Commander of A Company. On September 15, 1965, the colors of the 2nd Brigade were transferred to Ft. Carson, CO and the 196th Light Infantry Brigade (LIB) was organized at Ft. Devens and Ruane became the Company Commander of A Company, 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment (A/3-21 IN). The Brigade received 5,000 new soldiers in late September and trained them for the next nine months prior to deployment to Viet Nam. On July 15, 1966, Ruane’s 24th birthday, he sailed out of Boston with the brigade on the USS Patch. They stopped briefly in California, and on August 14, docked in Vung Tau, Republic of Vietnam. Vung Tau was a safe space for soldiers to disembark, and was also an “in-country” rest and relaxation site.

After arriving in Vung Tau, Ruane and his company took air transport to Tay Ninh, west of Saigon and near the Cambodian border. On arrival, they cleared a space for their base camp in an area with a lot of fields filled with mounds filled with termites, snakes, scorpions, and other insects. Ruane recalled demolishing the termite mounds with C-4 explosives, and watching snakes and bugs flying everywhere as the mounds were blown up.

For the first month of their deployment, the men of the 196th Brigade patrolled around the base camp and surrounding area and climatized to the heat and humidity and learned about the terrain. After several months of leading A Company in combat operations, Ruane became the Battalion Air Operations Officer (S-3 (Air)). During this assignment, Ruane was promoted to Captain and branch transferred to the Infantry. After two months, Ruane was chosen to replace a Company Commander who was relieved for incompetence and he became the company commander of Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry (C/4-31) on January 6, 1967. It was here that Ruane met Gregory Kitchen, his company radiotelephone operator, who would become a close, lifelong friend.

During Ruane’s time in Tay Ninh with his new company, the 196th went on several large missions in War Zone C in the III Corps Tactical Zone, often in conjunction with the 1st and 25th Divisions. They included Operations Cedar Falls and Junction City. One of these missions was around Nui Ba Din, a large mountain in the middle of a flat landscape. The Army controlled the bottom and the top of the mountain, while the Viet Cong (VC) were deeply entrenched in caves and tunnels in the middle. C Company secured the base of the mountain for an Engineer unit. Shortly after that, the Company was airlifted to the middle of War Zone C to conduct Search and Destroy missions during Operation Junction City.

In late February 1967, C Company was involved in two actions which cost the Company 6 killed and 18 wounded. A large VC base camp was discovered along the Cambodian border and C Company was in combat on the 26th and 28th. The one on the 28th went on for several hours and C Company destroyed a VC hospital and bicycle repair facility. Because of the losses mentioned above and several more that were incurred, the Battalion CO told Ruane his battered company would be conducting platoon-sized ambushes until replacements could be assigned to the Company. During one night ambush, he got a call from his second Platoon Leader saying that he heard noises approaching his position from several direction. Ruane got C Company ready to move out to reinforce his platoon when he received a call saying, “Don’t worry; they were monkeys!” It appeared that a group of monkeys were moving through the jungle right near the 2nd platoon’s position.

In April 1967, General William Westmorland ordered the formation of a division sized Army task force to reinforce American Marines in the I Corps Tactical Zone. The 196th was selected to form a part of Task Force Oregon, which became operational on April 20, 1967, when troops from the 196th landed at Chu Lai Base Area in I Corps.

Ruane and his company flew from Tay Ninh to Chu Lai, then headed to a post on the South China Sea to relieve a company of Marines. The base was on a cliff and had a large area around it cleared to keep the Viet Cong at a good distance. The camp had the nickname “Paradise” because of its location overlooking the South China Sea. During Ruane’s time at the base, most operations were company, platoon, or squad-sized operations, differing from the large multi-battalion operations near Tay Ninh and in C Zone.

On May 23, 1967, Ruane’s Company was involved in one the biggest firefights that C Company was ever involved in. Ruane’s 2nd Platoon was in a village on a Pacification mission two miles south of the Company Base Camp when they were attacked at 4:00am by over 200 soldiers of the VC’s 48th Sapper Battalion. Ruane and his 1st Platoon took thirty-five minutes to travel the two miles to reach the village, even after being shot at by their own helicopters!! Upon their arrival, the VC started pulling out of the village. When Ruane got to the 2nd Platoon position, he found a chaotic scene, with dud grenades littered on the ground like Easter eggs. The bullets had stopped flying but smoke hung over the ground and many VC and five soldiers lay inside the platoon position. The 2nd Platoon had been hit by heavy and light machine guns, and two 57mm recoilless rifles. Five out of nine platoon positions were destroyed by the VC but they did not overrun the platoon. Reports several days later said the VC had taken over 40 dead when they withdrew. After the fight was over, the Brigade Commander would not let C Company continue the pacification mission in that village. This made Ruane feel like all the time trying to build a rapport with the villagers was wasted.

On his return to the United States in July 1967, Captain Ruane was stationed at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. In July 1968, he left active duty and began work in the civilian community. From 1968 until 1972 he worked at Chase Manhattan Bank in NYC and left as an Assistant Treasurer. He then worked at Community State Bank in Linden, NJ as a Human Resources Assistant Vice President for several years until getting a Civil Service civilian job at Fort Monmouth as an Employee Relations Specialist.

Ruane joined the 50th Armored Division, New Jersey Army National Guard in early 1972 where he became a battalion maintenance officer, a tank company commander, and a headquarters company commander over the next five years. He commented that he was proud that he had over eight years of company command time, five in the National Guard and three in the Army. After his time in the National Guard, Ruane was promoted to Major and transferred to the Army Reserve’s 78th Division’s Maneuver Training Command (MTC). He was assigned to the Infantry Exercise Team which conducted command post and field training exercises for National Guard and Reserve units throughout the northeast. 

In 1985 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and assumed command of an Infantry One Station Unit Training Battalion which conducted training at Ft Dix, NJ and Ft Benning, GA. Upon promotion to Colonel in 1988, he returned to the MTC in command of the Combat Arms Training Team. One of the exercises he conducted was for the 187th Separate Infantry Brigade at Gagetown Canadian Forces Base in New Brunswick, Canada. It was the largest exercise ever conducted by the 78th Division. There were 5,000 reservists taking part in this weeklong training, and Ruane had over 100 Observer/Controllers involved. He recalled it fondly, saying; “It worked out exceptionally well; it was a great time and one of the best exercises we ever ran.” 

In early 1991, he became commander of the 5th Lanes Training Brigade of the 78th. This was a one-of-a-kind unit with a high visibility mission organized to train Reserve and National Guard units in the lessons learned from Desert Storm. The Brigade conducted this “Lanes” training at Ft. Drum, NY, Ft. Dix, NJ and Ft. A.P. Hill, VA in the spring and early summer of 1993. The success of the mission is evidenced by the fact that various iterations of “Lanes” training is still being conducted by the Army today. In July 1993 the Brigade was deactivated and Ruane retired after 30 years of service.

In 2000, Ruane retired from the Civil Service and formed a Counterterrorism and Emergency Management consulting firm with his wife, a trained Weapons of Mass Destruction Trainer. The firm became a sub-contractor of the Fort Monmouth Garrison from 2001 until the Fort’s closure in 2011. 

Also in 2000, he joined the Board of Trustees at the InfoAge Science and History Museum, located at the former Camp Evans. In 2005, Ruane became the Chairman of the InfoAge Board of Trustees. At the time of his interview, he was still very much active with InfoAge and enjoying the rich history of the site. 

Ruane also touched on the importance of the Veterans Administration (VA) for veterans, as well as the comfort that veterans’ groups bring when dealing with hard memories. After Fort Monmouth closed, he became the Executive Director for the Monmouth County Division on Aging, Disabilities and Veterans Services. While there, Ruane oversaw the county veteran’s services office and realized just how necessary and helpful it was for veterans.

Additional Resources:

• NJVVMF VetChat: Michael Ruane
• InfoAge Science and History Museum Profile 
• Patch.com Article 
• Michael Ruane Story by Joseph Bilby