Colonel O.B. McCane

Colonel O.B. McCane was born on January 18, 1945 in Terrell, Arkansas. He graduated from Kentucky State University in 1968 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Upon his commission in the U.S. Army, he joined the Ordnance Branch and began a career specializing in the handling of nuclear weapons.

In 1986, he became the Director of Special Weapons at the Sierra Army Depot in Herlong, California. He spearheaded the establishment of a Mission Supply Support Activity to improve the sustainment of special weapons at the Depot, and led the development of the Special Weapons Information Management System, a special weapons management tool eventually adopted by the Defense Nuclear Agency for worldwide implementation.

Colonel McCane was assigned as the Commander of the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Plant (HWAAP) in Hawthorne, Nevada, in 1990. In the lead-up to Desert Storm, under his leadership, HWAAP safely and efficiently expanded capabilities and shipped 230,000 tons of ammunition to the warzone, which represented 22% of all tonnage shipped from CONUS in support of Desert Storm.

In 1993, Colonel McCane became an Assistant Chief of Staff in the 21st Theater Army Area Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany. While assigned, he supervised logistics planning for NATO operations in the former Yugoslavia and provided oversight and technical guidance during humanitarian efforts for ethnic minorities in isolated enclaves. In addition, he served as Co-Director of Exercise New Spirit 95, the first major Post-Cold War exercise involving military forces from NATO and the former Warsaw Pact countries.

Colonel McCane culminated his career in 1995 as chief of the Technical Inspection Division with the Department of the Army Inspector General Office.

Colonel O.B. McCane retired in 1998.