Fort Lewis Center Named For High-Ranking Commander In Gulf War

Retired Gen. Colin Powell helped dedicate a new personnel center here in the name of the late Lt. Gen. Calvin A.H. Waller, a two-time commander of this base south of Tacoma and second in command to Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf during the Persian Gulf War.

It is fitting, Powell said, that Waller’s name be given to the center, where arriving and departing soldiers will be able to deal efficiently with the paperwork and other details involved in every transfer or mobilization.

“Nothing could have been so appropriate, nothing so meaningful or welcome to Cal as this place - a place that serves soldiers and their families, a place that will be bustling every day with those youngsters Cal loved to take under his wing,” the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at Tuesday’s dedication ceremony.

Waller died in May 1996 at age 58 of a heart attack. He commanded Fort Lewis from August 1989 to November 1990 and from March to November 1991, when he retired.

Waller’s widow, Marion, his mother and two sons attended the dedication of the 100,000-square-foot Waller Hall.

Powell noted Waller’s accomplishments as a division commander in Germany during the last days of the Cold War and his service during the Persian Gulf War.

“Cal was the one Norm and I looked to to make sure all of the pieces were coming together on that desert floor as we built up the force from nothing to 540,000 troops,” Powell said. “It was Cal who watched the training, the logistics, … who inspired the troops.”

Waller Hall - the former Post Exchange building which underwent a $2 million renovation - centralizes 18 different base offices and agencies under one roof. It is expected to cut the average processing time for soldiers from two weeks to several days, manager Earl Davis said.