Cleo W. Robinson, Jr. is a 1963 graduate of Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri (BS in Ed) and a 1975 graduate of the University of Southern California, Los Angles, California (MA in IR). Cleo is a retired Department of Defense Special Agent and a United States Army, Military Intelligence Officer who served two tours of duty in Vietnam. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his wife Diane of forty-four years; their daughter, Courtney, resides with her family in Spring, Texas.

“I was born in Ionia, Missouri, a very small town that has all but disappeared from the map. I grew up in Springfield, Missouri, where I graduated from Central High School (1958) and Missouri State University (1963, BS in Ed).  

My father was a self-employed carpenter and I worked with him during summer vacations from age thirteen through college with the exception of the time I spent in Sanderson, Texas.

For nine months following high school I lived in Sanderson, Texas and resided with my sister and her family. My sister’s husband was a Border Patrol officer and I became friends with his fellow officers and many residents of the community.

While in Sanderson I worked part-time at the local Texaco station and for six months I worked for the Texas Highway Department as a common laborer. (I was the only blonde, blue-eyed employee as the rest of the crew was made up of Mexicans). It was an interesting and very important part in my life.

I returned to Springfield to enter college. Upon graduation I was commissioned a 2 nd Lt. in the US Army Military Intelligence. Prior to reporting for active duty, I married Carol Diane Harrer, of Pleasant Hill, Missouri on September 1963; we both moved to Fort Benning, Georgia where I entered active duty on September 28, 1963.

For the next fourteen plus years, I was in the Army assigned to Fort Benning, Georgia, Fort Holabird, Maryland (3 times), Kansas City, Missouri (3 times), Vietnam (twice) and Stuttgart, Germany. While in the army I obtained a Masters Degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California.

Upon leaving the army in 1978 as a Major, I obtained employment with the Defense Security Service. I was assigned to Lansing, Michigan and Omaha, Nebraska. I retired from the Defense Security Service in January 2004 and remained in Omaha. My wife and I have a daughter, Courtney Lyn who resides with her husband David and our granddaughter Hannah in Spring, Texas.

My hobbies include hunting, fishing, cowboy action shooting, leather working, writing cowboy poetry and western life in general. ”

Cleo W. Robinson, Jr.