Adolf “Dolf” Carlson was born in New Britain, CT on October 15, 1947 to Clifton and Jennette Carlson. His parents, father an infantryman and mother an Army nurse, met while deploying to Africa early in World War II. His grandfather and namesake, Adolf, immigrated from Sweden around 1900 and started an insurance business. Dolf reported that his neighborhood was richly diverse with people of varied European ancestry, igniting his interest in history, language, culture, and international relations. True to the times, his family was very patriotic, and service was an expectation. Dolf entered West Point in 1965, and his only sister, Linda, served in the Women’s Army Corps.
At West Point Dolf was a serious and diligent student, graduating in the top 10 percent of the class. Initially quiet and introverted, he became progressively more animated. By cow year he was a barracks master story teller with a quirky smile and a twinkle in his eye. He loved an audience. Understandably, many of his tales centered on his family and culturally rich hometown. Judo was his extracurricular and athletic focus, competing all four years and serving as the club’s vice president as a firstie. Commissioned in the Infantry, Dolf completed airborne, Ranger, the Infantry basic course and an obligatory short assignment in the 5th Mech. at Fort Carson, CO before deploying to Vietnam.
He served for 18 months in the 1st Cavalry Division, culminating with company command. Awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart and numerous other awards, Dolf’s experiences leading soldiers in combat were transformational. He wrote some years later reflecting on the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam: “I suppose the whole effort [for the United States] was in vain. But for me the Vietnam experience was not in vain. When I went to Vietnam, I was not a very good or dedicated officer. That experience caused me to rededicate myself to my profession. I would spend the rest of my 30-year career endeavoring to be worthy…and to deserve the privilege of commanding young American men…”.
His service thereafter was dedicated to excellence. During two assignments in the Berlin Brigade he became an expert in urban warfare or “combat in the cities” and had articles published in Infantry Magazine on that and many other topical subjects. His expertise earned him an instructor assignment at the Infantry School. He later returned to Fort Benning, GA to command the battalion responsible for the Infantry Officer Basic Course. His exceptional contributions resulted in his receiving the National Infantry Association’s highest award, the Order of St. Maurice.
Dolf earned a master’s in international relations from Boston University. His scholarly achievements and experiences, especially in European affairs, made him a natural for key planning assignments on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in NATO’s Headquarters Allied Forces Central Europe in the Netherlands. Selected as the Army War College Fellow at Queen’s College, Canada, he completed his career in uniform as the Chair of the U.S. Army War College Distance Education Department. He worked tirelessly to modernize the corresponding studies program and to secure master’s degree accreditation for the course in conjunction with the resident course. He continued to study and write. He lectured and taught history and authored a book and monographs for the Strategic Studies Institute on various U.S. and European military history topics. He participated in an Army War College staff visit to the Bulgarian War College to help them modernize their curriculum and programs. His lecture “How a Military Works in a Democracy” was a harbinger of future contributions.
Dolf retired from the Army but not from academia or service to our nation. He worked briefly as commandant of a military high school and was for several years a provost for Aspen University, a distance education school. He was hired by a defense contractor to further U.S. efforts advising and assisting the defense ministries of our allies and friends as he had done in Bulgaria. Ukraine, Lithuania, Romania, Azerbaijan, Zaire, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Georgia were among the nations that Dolf worked so hard to support in their efforts to modernize and democratize their armed forces. In May 2013 he died of an apparent heart attack while serving in Tbilisi, Georgia. The Georgian Minister of Defense presided over a special memorial service for Dolf, illustrating the enormous respect Dolf had garnered from his international counterparts.
Dolf was fortunate to have been married to three special women. Initially, he wed Kathryn George (later Major General Kathryn Frost, Adjutant General of the U.S. Army). Subsequently, he was blessed with three children with his second wife, Amanda Etherington: Megan, Danielle, and Clifton. Finally, by the time of his passing, he and his widow Marina were raising two children of their own, Oskar and Karolina. He loved his kids. His fervent desire for his children was that they have the kind of intellectual curiosity, compassion, and call to serve a cause greater than themselves that motivated him.
To those who knew him, Colonel Adolf Carlson was a serious, no-nonsense soldier and a dedicated professional. He simply wanted to serve his country to the very best of his ability. He succeeded admirably. Much of that was accomplished by teaching soldiers to become leaders and making our country and our allies better equipped to achieve our mutual security goals. Bob Brace, USMA ’68, Dean of the Army War College, said of Dolf: “I considered him a friend and colleague of the very kind I would most like to have by my side in combat…totally competent, trustworthy, and genuinely caring without coddling.” Rest in peace, you good and faithful servant.
— Family and Classmates