Col. George Beverly “Bev” Garrett graduated from UTA and received a commission in the U.S. Army in 1967. He says his experience with the Sam Houston Rifles drill team (Jodies) taught him many of the values and skills necessary for a successful military career. He served in Vietnam and Thailand and continued his military service in both the Army Reserve and Army National Guard. While stationed in Hawaii, Col. Garrett was on both active and non-active status. He joined the Honolulu Police Department, where he patrolled the beaches of Waikiki, and later was a training officer in Micronesia. Then married with a young son (and later a daughter), the family returned to Hawaii where he took a full-time job with the Hawaii Army National Guard. After 14 years, he transferred to the Army Reserve, heading up homeland security efforts for Hawaii. While serving on active duty as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army, Garrett became a highly decorated combat leader, receiving the Special Forces Tab, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Airborne Badge and the Bronze Star with three Oak Leaf Clusters. But he is most proud of raising two infants as a single father after their mother’s untimely death.

Lt. Col. (ret.) John A. Langford attended Arlington State College (now UTA) during the 1952-53 school year. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1956 with a bachelor’s degree in history and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force. In 1963, he was assigned as a navigator aboard C-130s and flew out of Rhine Main AFB, Germany, until 1966. Upon returning to the United States, he taught aerospace studies at Louisiana State University as an assistant professor until 1969. He was later stationed in Thailand and flew 180 combat missions over Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam as a weapons system operator aboard the F-4 Phantoms. Col. Langford retired from the Air Force in 1981. His military decorations include the Meritorious Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf Clusters, Air Medal with 13 Oak Leaf Clusters and the Air Force Commendation Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster. He received a law degree from George Mason University and practiced law in the District of Columbia and Maryland from 1985-92. He then established his own firm, Langford and Associates, and worked there until his retirement in 1998. Col. Langford’s wife, Marie, is deceased. He has four children and four grandchildren.

Col. (ret.) George C. McDowell graduated from North Texas Agricultural College (now UTA) in 1932. During the Depression and with no money to attend a senior college, he elected to attend a third year. It proved to be a fortuitous decision, as in 1933 he won a competitive appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated in 1937 as a second lieutenant in the field artillery. During World War II, he participated in air and Army operations in North Africa and Italy. Upon receiving an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1948 and transferring to the Air Force, he spent the next seven years in the Pentagon and at Wright Patterson AFB. Among his awards and decorations are the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Commendation Medal and Air Force Commendation Medal. In 1961, he left the Air Force and entered the real estate business in Houston. Over the years, Clark McDowell & Kic, Inc., Realtors, now under the control of his sons and others, has become the foremost residential property management firm in the city. Col. McDowell and his wife, Rae, have two children, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.