Lonnie Barham

EAST PROVIDENCE — In a long military career, Col. Lonnie L. Barham has spied on Cold War enemies in the Navy’s Silent Service from aboard the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus.

A few years ago, as deputy commander at Fort Dix, N.J., he mobilized more than 70,000 soldiers, making sure they were well equipped for war.

This year, retiring from 42 years in the military, he was hired as the human resources director for the East Providence school district.

And, he says, there are similarities in the responsibilities of the two careers.

In East Providence, he maintains a safe work environment for teachers. The Warwick resident also interviews the children’s future educators.

Providing sufficient instructional supplies is difficult with a growing deficit and a recent lawsuit against the city for more school money. If only the school district had the $1.3 billion operating budget Barham had last year as the chief of emergency services for the United States Army.

“It’s a little strange not being called Colonel Barham anymore,” he said. “It’s just Lonnie Barham now. … But the job’s not so different. I tried to make things better for soldiers, and today I’m trying to make things better for the students.”

Yet a comparison isn’t what this story is about.

This story is about Barham’s full and unique military career that began in Arkansas when he enlisted after high school at age 18.

That career began in the Navy on the Nautilus in 1966. His first trip on the vessel was a classified mission north of the Arctic Circle. He was also on active duty aboard the submarine during the Vietnam War. And to this day, Barham can’t disclose any of those assignments. But he did say the submarine was submerged most of the time because even the briefest break of the surface could have revealed its location.

After six years in the Navy, an undergraduate degree at the University of New Haven and a stint as a Groton, Conn., police officer, Barham returned to the military, but not the Navy. He joined the Rhode Island Army National Guard and served for 30 years, from 1972 to 2002.

He was activated during the Gulf War as an operations officer for the 118th Military Police Battalion and served in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iraq with the another military police brigade in the early 1990s. The most frequent assignment was to keep main supply routes clear.

Yet during Desert Storm, a few weeks before a ground attack to free Kuwait, his unit was under the operational control of an infantry nicknamed the Big Red One. Barham’s MPs and others crossed into Iraq and led hundreds of tanks and combat divisions through eight miles.

A patrol on the last day of hostilities found Barham and his unit traveling the “Highway of Death” in Kuwait a few days after the United States bombed the highway while it was filled with fleeing Iraqi soldiers, according to a 2006 article from The Post in Fort Dix.

Barham said, for that article, the highway had “unbelievable carnage.” For his actions during this period, he was awarded the Bronze Star for “sustained outstanding performance during combat operations against a hostile force,” his biography read. The accolade accompanies numerous other service awards, such as three Meritorious Service medals and two Legion of Merit decorations.

He transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve in 2002 before going to Fort Dix in January 2003 as its deputy commander in charge of mobilization. The supervision of 70,000 troops for the Global War on Terrorism included training, equipping, deployment and redeployment.

A reassignment in July 2006 brought Barham to the Pentagon as the chief of emergency services for the Army. He oversaw 18,000 personnel over 100 army forts and installations around the world. Barham said he is happy with his life. He is married to Virginia G. Barham, also an army colonel, and the chief of staff for the Rhode Island National Guard. Barham has two adult children, and one is a specialist in the Arizona National Guard.

“Being a company commander in the best military [the Rhode Island National Guard] was the best job,” Barham said during those first few weeks back earlier this year, “but the best civilian job is this one. I’m very pleased I’m back and can’t wait to help the students and this city in any way I can.”

apina@projo.com