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Sunday, November 08, 2009
School Boss Has Wealth of Experience
By Charles D. Brunt
Journal Staff Writer
When Jerry Grizzle joined the National Guard in 1971, Vietnam was winding down, Richard Nixon was in the White House and terrorism seemed to lurk only in places far removed from Grizzle's native Oklahoma City.
Grizzle rose through the enlisted ranks as an infantryman until he was tabbed as officer material and eventually was named commander of the Oklahoma National Guard's 45th Infantry Brigade.
In civilian life, he received a doctorate in marketing from Oklahoma State University and was president and CEO of a diverse list of private businesses — Orbit Finer Foods, a food manufacturer; Skolniks commercial bakery; the CD Warehouse retail chain; and AMS Health Sciences, a marketer of health products. He also was vice president/treasurer of Sonic Industries, a national chain of drive-in restaurants.
Grizzle was deputy commander of the 45th Infantry Brigade when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was destroyed by a bomb on April 19, 1995, killing 168 people and injuring more than 650. Within an hour of the blast, more than 400 Guardsmen arrived at the site to provide security and assistance at what remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism by an American in the nation's history.
On May 3, 1999, Grizzle was on-site commander for National Guard relief efforts when a massive outbreak of 66 tornadoes raked across Oklahoma, killing 48 people and causing an estimated $1.1 billion in damage.
Given his experience in handling large-scale disasters, Grizzle was tapped as commander of the Department of Defense's Joint Task Force Civil Support immediately after 9/11. At the time, the administration was operating under the assumption that a second terrorist attack somewhere in America was imminent, he said.
"They knew my background so, when 9/11 happened, I immediately was brought up to Joint Forces Command," Grizzle said. "At that point, they had responsibility for the safety and security of the homeland United States."
During the next three years, Grizzle helped develop interagency response plans for major cities and events that could have been terrorist targets.
He helped develop response plans for: Super Bowl XXXVI, played at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans just five months after 9/11; the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City; the 2003 disintegration of Space Shuttle Columbia over Texas; the May 2004 dedication of the U.S. National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.; the state funeral of former President Ronald Reagan and the June 2004 G8 Summit at Sea Island, Ga.
"It was very interesting, very rewarding and very intense, particularly that first year after 9/11 when every little incident that occurred you figured could be a major attack," Grizzle said.
Grizzle, 56, retired from the Army in March 2005.
He officially became superintendent of New Mexico Military Institute on July 1 at an annual salary of $160,000.
Like all 770 of the institute's cadets, Grizzle and his wife, Shawn, a former high school biology teacher, live on campus. The Grizzles have two children and two grandchildren.
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