DVIDS – News – U.S. Army human resources icon ends nearly five-decade career

FORT BRAGG, NC – When E. Eric “Rick” Porter raised his right hand for the first time in December 1978, he expected the Army to shape only a few years of his life. Instead, the institution carried him through nearly every major era of modern military history.

Over the next 47 years, from the final decade of the Cold War, through the post 9/11 wars, and into the evolving days of today’s force, Porter never once stepped away from serving Soldiers. He spent 32 years in uniform, retiring as a brigadier general in the U.S. Army Forces Command G-1 in 2011. Without skipping a beat, he transitioned directly into the Senior Executive Service (SES) and continued the same mission without a break in service.

At his retirement ceremony Dec. 1, 2025, senior leaders reflected on the impact of that continuity.

“You’re the person who ran this formation,” said U.S. Army General Andrew P. Poppas at Porter’s retirement ceremony, who also recently retired as the FORSCOM Commander after more than three-and-half years. “You mentored the Soldiers and the leaders throughout it, building an incredible institution off of your back, both in uniform and as an SES.”

Porter served under Poppas for more than three years, while Poppas was the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command before he too retired a few days later.

Porter is closing a chapter that spans almost half a century, a career defined not by the positions he held, but by the teams he built, the leaders he developed, and the readiness of the force he fought to maintain.

He did not set out to become a general officer or a senior executive. His father, Ernest “Ernie” Porter, an infantry command sergeant major, spent 30 years in the Army and served in Berlin when the wall was built. Porter remembers the tension of those years, the alerts, the seriousness, but not the particulars of his father’s work.

“He was a great father figure; a role model,” Porter said, “but when he came home, he never talked about work, all we could see were the results of his successes.”

Preluding his Army career, Porter attended Presbyterian College in South Carolina where he played football and majored in business management. Like many of his teammates, he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps. By his sophomore year, he had to decide whether or not to sign a contract with the Army. The economy was uncertain, and alumni returning to campus described long job searches, stacks of unanswered resumes and discouraging prospects for business majors. For Porter, the message was clear.

“I thought, well, maybe I’ll just join the Army and then I’ll build my resume with the Adjutant General Corps, and I’ll go back to Germany,” he said.

The Army delivered everything he asked for: a commission in the AG Corps and an assignment to Germany, where his father and family still served.  His plan was simple: three years of service, then a transition to the business world.

Leaving active duty from overseas proved challenging, Porter said. So he decided to stay in the Army a bit longer and head back to the United States where the transition into the civilian world would be easier.  When it came time for his next assignment, Porter asked to move to the Southeast to pursue civilian opportunities. His branch manager, a former boss from Germany, had a different vision.

“He said, ‘if you go to the Southeast, you’re going to the 82nd Airborne Division with Airborne School enroute,’” Porter recalled with a smile.

That assignment changed the trajectory of his career.

“It was the tour in the 82nd where it just changed everything about me,” he said. “It was such a professional group of people; a cohesive team.”

The officers he served with stayed connected as they rose through the ranks. Some became general officers and Army senior leaders. Opportunities kept appearing for Porter. Assignments grew more appealing, and by the time he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel, he stopped considering the thought of leaving.

“There comes a time where you quit asking for things, and somebody else is asking for you,” he said. “By then, I figured I might as well stay.”

A theme runs through Porter’s military and civilian service: he leads like a coach. Growing up, he played multiple sports and once imagined becoming a football coach in South Carolina, like his older brother who won state championships. The Army, Porter said, became the closest approximation of that dream.

“Forming the team, motivating the team, winning as a team, that was what I wanted to do,” he said. “The Army was the closest thing I could get to being a football coach.”

He describes his leadership style as focused on pushing, challenging, and helping people reach their potential. Inside the FORSCOM G-1 directorate, that translated into clear metrics and a culture where success is visible.

“I think it’s important for a team to know when you’re winning or you’re not winning,” he said.

His transition from uniform to SES did not change his approach. Experience softened some edges, he said, but the expectations remained.

Porter’s outlook on the future force is deeply optimistic.

“I really believe the Army has the best leadership in the military within the Department of War,” he said. “And I really believe that FORSCOM has the best talent within the Army.”

He praises the four-star command group and the directorates that he works with daily. He is equally proud of the civilians who have joined the team under his tenure.

“That gives me a lot of confidence that Western Hemisphere Command is in good hands,” Porter said.

What he will miss most, Porter said, are the relationships, especially the privilege of growing and developing leaders.

“I think one of our top missions in the Army is growing and developing leaders,” he said. “When you’ve been around as long as I have, you can see that growth happening.”

The connections he built across Human Resources Command, the Army G-1, and previous commands have become vital lifelines, especially when FORSCOM needed rapid solutions at the four-star level.

“We don’t get easy decisions to make at FORSCOM,” he said. “If it was easy, it would already be handled at a lower level. When it comes to a four-star command, they’re looking for something unusual, an exception to policy, typically.”

Porter’s retirement plans still revolve around the service. He and his family are moving to Columbia, South Carolina, near Fort Jackson, home of the Army’s Adjutant General School. He hopes to coach and mentor AG students there and continue working with his alma mater’s ROTC program.

Most importantly, he plans to spend more time with his family, especially with his wife Sally, his son’s Brandon and Cam, and his grandchildren, and finally travel after years of putting off trips.

“It was hard for me to travel in this job because I really couldn’t,” he said. “I haven’t taken any kind of overseas leave trip in the 15 years that I’ve been here.”

Europe is at the top of the list, including places in Germany and Italy that shaped his early life and early career.

For Soldiers just starting out, Porter’s advice is simple and direct: compete, master your craft, and seek out the best units.

“Master the fundamentals, because it’s the fundamentals that allow you to get the wins,” he said. “And, do your best to serve with the best.”

If he could start again, he said, he might try to collect division patches from across the Army’s formations. Not for the patches themselves, but for the leaders they represent.

“You’re serving under the best leaders the Army has,” he said. “And they’re the ones who teach you to become the best leader you can be.”

Porter credits his father’s advice for his final leadership lesson.

“He told me, ‘Tell them what you want, but don’t tell them how to do it, because you’ll be surprised at what comes back to you.’”

It’s a lesson he passed down through generations of Soldiers, civilian professionals, and young leaders who grew under his guidance. As he steps away from the headquarters he served for so many years, he reminisces on the teams he built, the people he served with, and the mission they carried together.

After nearly five decades, Porter now turns from the Soldiers who make the Army strong toward the family who quietly strengthened him through every chapter. Retirement, he said, is an opportunity not to step away from service, but to finally give his time to the people who sacrificed alongside him. With new freedom to travel, reconnect, and watch his grandchildren grow, Porter said he is ready for the next chapter, one defined not by missions or milestones, but by the family who carried him through them.