Lieutenant General
Harold F. Hardin

Lieutenant General Harold F. Hardin was born in Kansas City, Missouri on October 14, 1927, was enlisted from 1945 to 1946, and graduated from Loyola University in Los Angeles in 1951.

During his 31-year career, he made an indelible mark on the United States Army by representing the Ordnance Corps to the Army-in-the-Field. While serving in such responsible positions as Commanding General, Tank Automotive Readiness Command and Deputy Commander of the Materiel and Readiness Command (DARCOM), he became known as the champion of Materiel Readiness.

As Battalion Commander of the 801st Maintenance Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, his highly successful maintenance program materially aided the Division in preparation for Combat in Vietnam. As Commanding General, TARCOM and Deputy Commanding General, DARCOM, his continued liaison with the Army-in-the-Field assured the success of innumerable Army Programs which ranged from the fielding of new equipment, to staffing for Organizational Maintenance.

He was appointed as the Army’s first Executive Director for Conventional Ammunition in 1981 and then as the Army’s first Director for Test, Measurement, and Diagnostic Euipment in 1982. Throughout his distinguished career, he was identified as an Ordnance officer willing to expend the effort to get to the root of a problem.

As a battalion commander, he was unafraid to push a component problem back to the designer, and as a lieutenant general, he was equally willing to spend hours in motor pools worldwide to ensure this critical link was functioning adequately.

Through countless visits to the Army-in-the-Field, he ensured the efforts of the wholesale community and the U.S. Army remained coordinated in maintaining the Army equal to the task of defending the Nation. He retired in 1982. Because of his outstanding contributions to the Army, he is known as “Mr. Ordnance.”