[2][3] Robert Lewis "Sam" Wetzel, of Clarksburg, West Virginia, graduated from high school in 1948 and was planning to study engineering at Purdue University.

In 1961, Captain Wetzel was the aide of Major General William Westmoreland, then Superintendent of the United States Military Academy.

[2] Lieutenant Colonel Wetzel was deployed to South Vietnam in 1968 as the commander of the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment (United States), the "Polar Bears".

[2] After an enemy bullet nicked him on the forehead, he declined a Purple Heart, judging the wound too insignificant to mention, despite the fact that it left him with a permanent scar.

During this year together, Haig, Wetzel and the rest of the staff crafted what became the West's strategic response - deployment in western Europe of the Pershing II missiles, which could hit Moscow in the event of war, allowing only minutes for the Soviets to react.

During the next four years domestic political battles began in NATO countries as to whether the Pershing II missiles would actually be deployed.

Immediately upon his arrival, it became Wetzel's job to receive and deploy the Pershing II missiles in the midst of anti-war demonstrations all over Europe.

Today, Cold War historians (relying on the candid confessions of defeated Russian leaders) credit the deployment of the Pershing II missiles as one of three key factors that broke the Soviets' back and ended the Cold War (the other two being the Reagan defense build-up and SDI specifically).