Alvin Ash

Alvin Wilson Ash was born July 30, 1921, in New York City. He attended Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, where he became an Eagle Scout and ROTC Cadet Lieutenant Colonel, graduating in 1939. He enrolled at the University of Illinois in the ROTC program and enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1940. He attended the preparatory school at Fort Sheridan hoping for a West Point appointment, and in 1943 received that appointment. He graduated from West Point in 1946.

After graduation, Ash was assigned to the Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and then sent on a first tour of duty to Yokohama, Japan, where he served as a second lieutenant of artillery and came to know Prince and Princess Mikasa personally. He subsequently attended parachute jump school at Fort Benning and was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division. In 1951, he jumped behind Communist lines with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team as Public Information Officer during the Korean War, managing embedded correspondents and controlling published messaging; his unit was among the first to jump into North Korea.¹

After Korea, Ash served in the 504th Field Artillery Battalion in the Panama Canal Zone, as Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics at Louisiana State University, and following Air Ground Operations School was stationed at Fort Bragg for Special Warfare School training. He attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and Civil Affairs School, then deployed to Vietnam in 1962, where he was attached to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon's Special Warfare Branch and received a Medal of Commendation for Meritorious Service. After Vietnam, he was stationed at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, assigned to the Advanced Tactics Projects (Intelligence Division). In December 1964, Ash retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after 24 years of service.

Role in PROMIS Development

In civilian life, Ash worked as a programmer and systems analyst at Computer Usage Company, one of the early commercial computer services firms, and through that work helped develop PROMIS for the DC U.S. Attorney's Office. He subsequently worked at the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration in the Department of Justice, and in that capacity sat on the advisory board for INSLAW. He was a close personal friend of Bill Hamilton.

Ash married his first wife Kay Smith Sexton after returning from Korea; they had two children. After her death, he married Elfie Hornung Lucarelli in 1967; they had a daughter. Alvin Wilson Ash died July 7, 2019, at age 97, at Westminster Canterbury of the Blue Ridge in Charlottesville, Virginia.