Tommy franks educational school

Retired Gen. Tommy Franks’ first shot at college was a clean miss. Fresh out of Midland’s Robert E. Lee High School, he headed to The University of Texas at Austin in 1963.

“I had absolutely no sense of any responsibility to study anything,” Franks told UTA Magazine in 2002.

“My grades were so abysmal for the two years I was there that I simply left and joined the Army.”

His second college try went better.

He planned to leave the Army after returning from Vietnam and getting married in 1969.

Then one of his bosses asked if he’d like to go back to college as part of the Army’s Boot Strap Degree Completion Program.

Tommy franks educational school in baton rouge

It sounded like a good idea.

“The question was where to go. I had friends who had graduated from Arlington, so I said, ‘Hey, I’d like to go to UTA.’ ”

By the time he arrived in 1970, Franks’ study habits had improved.

He earned a 3.83 grade-point average in 90