A Tribute to

MAJ Jean-Luc Nash, USA (Ret)

Dec 30, 1951-Mar 12, 2016

Edited by MG (Ret.) David Morris

Jean-Luc Marcel Nash entered eternal life of a Special Forces warrior on March 12, 2016 after an exciting and adventurous life that began with his birth in Nancy, France on December 30, 1951. Jean-Luc came to the United States with his parents at 5 years of age.

He spent his childhood in Virginia until receiving his congressional appointment to USMA while attending the West Point prep school at Fort Belvoir, VA. Of special note is that Jean-Luc was selected to attend the highly competitive and demanding Ranger School while a USMA cadet. This experience began his career path as a Special Forces warrior. 

Subsequent assignments to the Republic of Korea; Fort Bragg, NC; and Germany led to his selection to attend the advanced school at Fort Benning, GA. This is where he met his wife of 33 years, Alexandrine (AKA Michele) Philip. She was an intern in Research Development working at the School Brigade, at Fort Benning, Georgia. She also had a French background, and Jean-Luc needed help translating and filling out some official French government documents. That initial meeting and mutual attraction, as well as a common bond of a French heritage, cemented what became a 33 year marriage. 

The purpose of these French documents provided a unique insight into one of the more classic adventures of his career. Jean-Luc had recently been stationed in Germany as a Special Forces officer and was selected to join a parachute training exercise with the French army. At the French border checkpoint, the customs officer noticed that Jean-Luc’s passport listed Nancy, France as his place of birth. Therefore, he checked the list of French draft dodgers in his Rolodex and, ironically, Jean-Luc’s name was on it, despite having left the country as a child. He was immediately arrested for draft dodging and taken to a French jail while still in his U.S. Special Forces uniform. Jean-Luc was allowed to call the U.S. Embassy to clarify the situation, but still spent one night in a French jail awaiting completion of diplomatic procedures. He liked to joke that he was the first West Point graduate arrested for draft dodging.

Jean-Luc and Michele married in December 1982, while he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as a Battalion S-3 and she was pursuing her PhD as an US Army Civilian Employee intern selectee. Jean-Luc’s journey also included being an 82nd Airborne Company Commander and was part of combat operations in Grenada, known as Operation Urgent Fury. He was awarded the Bronze Star for valor for saving the lives of two soldiers while under heavy fire. 

His next duty assignment was to attend the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA, where he also attended the Defense Language Institute to learn Arabic and complete requirements for a master’s degree. This training led to his selection to attend the Sudanese Senior Service School in Khartoum and a follow-on assignment with the Sudanese Army as an advisor, due his fluency in Arabic and French. 

After another assignment at Fort Bragg as a PSYOP Company Commander he completed several Special Forces operational missions during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield as well as a tour of duty in Kuwait as a personal bodyguard for the Emir of Kuwait. Upon his return to the CONUS he was selected to attend U.S. Defense Attaché training by the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC and the high-risk personnel training course at Quantico, VA.

The Army also allowed his wife Michele to attend this training because of the high-risk assignment. Her background, teaching Psychological Warfare classes at Fort Bragg, complimented their assignment together to Africa. 

His next assignment was to Chad as the Defense Attaché because of his fluency in French and Arabic and Special Forces background. They returned to Washington, DC, after completing a 3 year tour, and he retired as a major in 1997 at Fort Meade, MD. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his exemplary military service at his formal retirement ceremony. He was immediately hired as a security consultant by Exxon-Mobile and returned to Africa on assignments, remaining employed there as a contractor until his wife Michele retired from Civil Service.

They purchased a home in Cantonment, FL after retirement in 2004. He died of a heart attack working out in the home basement gym in March 2016.

A book has been written and was published in 2018 by his stepdaughter Brigitte Cutshall about the positive impact Jean-Luc made upon those with whom he interacted: family, friends, and community. Titled Expecting the Good: Inspiration from a Badass with a Big Heart (the title was chosen because one of his grandsons liked to call him “badass grandpa”), the book is available at the West Point Cadet Book Store.

Rest in peace Jean-Luc: devoted husband, proud American, warrior, grandfather, and friend. You represented the epitome of the Special Forces motto,

De Oppresso Liber.