A life of service: Logan's journey from soldier to mentor
Tad Elliott
Mike Logan, who has received the Order of the Long Leaf Pine among many other honors over the course of his career, gives God the credit for his many accomplishments.
Mike and Jeannie Logan pose for a portrait in 2003.
While studying criminal justice at Western Piedmont Community College, a friend told Mike Logan that a girl wanted to meet him, but he needed money to buy lunch before introducing them. After dating for several years, Jeannie Chambers of Morganton and Mike Logan were married in 1980.
Mike grew up in Old Fort and was bussed to an all-Black school in Marion during segregation until he was in the fifth grade, when he integrated into a previously all-White school in Old Fort.
“In the sixth grade, one of my teachers, a Mrs. Lola London, saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. She told me, ‘Mike, you are going to be somebody.’ She said I was going into law enforcement or the military. She knew me better than I did,” Mike said.
In high school, Mike played wide receiver on the football team and was captain of the track team. He joined the Army after graduating in 1972. Following basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., he went to Bad Hersfeld, Germany, as part of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, known as the Blackhorse Regiment.
Bad Hersfeld was close to the border of East Germany and was of strategic importance in defending Europe during the Cold War from a Russian armored invasion through the nearby Fulda Gap.
In 1973, President Nixon placed U.S. nuclear bombers on high alert during the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East. “Everything we had, all the armored vehicles, went to the East-West German border,” he said. “It came close to being World War III.”
In 1974, Mike was discharged and enrolled at WPCC. Two years later, he joined the Army Reserves and was assigned to the 391st Engineer Company in Asheville, which was part of the 1st Combat Engineer Battalion. The 391st was attached to the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg.
After two years in the reserves, Mike joined the National Guard, Co. D of the 2nd Battalion Mechanized Infantry, 120th Division, based in Marion.
The 120th was deployed in 1979 in what became known as the Greensboro Massacre. A demonstration advertised as a “Death to the Klan” march resulted in a shootout between the Communist Workers Party, the Ku Klux Klan and the National Socialist Party of America, in which five people were killed. “We practiced for things like that,” Mike said.
While in the National Guard, Mike worked in the McDowell County Prison Camp. He was assigned to a road crew of felon inmates in McDowell County, then had his own crew in Burke County. “There were a lot of dirt roads in Burke County back then,” he said. “We cut right-of-way for everything from South Mountains to Jonas Ridge so the roads could be paved. I treated my men with respect. I didn’t have any problems.”
Later, Mike became an instructor and training coordinator for the prison system in Western North Carolina. Meanwhile, he was attending Gardner-Webb College and also playing semi-pro football in Asheville. In addition, he was a sworn reserve deputy and a member of the SWAT team in the Burke County Sheriff’s Office. “I was going 1,000 miles an hour,” he said.
About this time, Mike and Jeannie were married. Jeannie retired from the Burke County Public Library after 39 years of service. Their daughter, Amanda, recently retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant after 22 years of active duty.
Jeannie grew up on West Concord Street in Morganton and attended the segregated Mountain View Elementary School on Bouchelle Street until the third grade, when the city schools were integrated and she attended Forest Hill Elementary.
Her mother, Willette Chambers, was one of the Seven Mothers, also known as the West Concord Mothers, who as a group used their quiet inner strength to challenge the Morganton City School Board to push forward integration, beginning in 1961.
Mike stayed in the National Guard from 1977 until 1986, then went back to the Army Reserves a second time, becoming a drill instructor in the 108th Training Command in Hickory. In 2001, he transitioned to the Individual Ready Reserve.
“When 9/11 went down, I wanted to be part of it,” Mike said. Four years later, at the age of 52, he was recalled to active duty and assigned to the support team in the 3rd Group, Special Forces, Green Beret Command Center at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. “When I was a boy, I wanted to be a Green Beret. I’m proud that I got to serve with the Green Berets,” he said.
“The worst time in my life was when I was home on leave with my family and I got a call that my buddies were injured. I couldn’t get a flight to be with them. It took two or three weeks before I could return to Afghanistan,” he said, looking down at the floor. “It was the worst time in my life.”
Mike served in the military for 33 years, in the N.C. prison system for 36 years, and also served as a reserve deputy in Burke County for 15 years.
Mike has taught Tae Kwon Do at the Caldwell Recreation Center for many years. “It’s not just kicking and punching,” he said. “It teaches us to be a champion of freedom and justice and to build a more peaceful world.” Among the tenets of Tae Kwon Do are Perseverance and Indomitable Spirit. “I tell my students, ‘I will never give up, even when faced with insurmountable odds. The most difficult goals can be achieved with indomitable spirit.’”
Mike also volunteers in the Critical Mentorship program at Freedom High School that shows teenage boys how to be young men by example.
In 2013, Mike Logan was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the state’s highest civilian honor, by then-Governor Pat McCrory, for extraordinary service and lifelong contributions to the communities and state of North Carolina.
“It was a full life,” he said. “It’s not about my accomplishments. It’s what God has done in my life and what I can do for others.”
Tad Elliott is a Navy veteran and hospice volunteer. Send comments and suggestions to tadelliott@gmail.com.
