Remembering "Brother Strangeface": The Storied Military Career of Al Edmonds - Soldier, Leader, and Humble Hero

 Military Biography of James Alfonso Edmonds, Major, US Army (Retired)

Hometown Hero from Sicily Island, Catahoula Parish, Louisiana

February 16th, 1958 - July 25th, 2022

by J.H. Edmonds, A Proud Son

James Alfonso Edmonds was born in Winnsboro, Louisiana in 1958 and grew up in Sicily Island, Louisiana. Al was commissioned into the United States Army in 1980 from Northeast Louisiana University as a second lieutenant and tactical intelligence officer. After completing Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course in Fort Huachuca, AZ, Lieutenant Al Edmonds served in the 2nd Armored Division in Fort Hood, Texas as an Intelligence Officer in the Division Tactical Command Post Support Element of the 522nd Military Intelligence Battalion, as the Assistant Intelligence Officer of 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, and finally as the Intelligence Officer of 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment. 

ROTC Advanced Camp, Fort Riley, KS - 1979.

ROTC Senior Picture - Northeast Louisiana University. Monroe, LA - 1980.

S2 of 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment in Fort Hood, TX - 1982.

Captain Al Edmonds was next assigned to Fort Polk, Louisiana where he served as the Intelligence Officer of 2nd Brigade, 5th Infantry Division and as the Commander of Bravo Company, 105th Military Intelligence Battalion. It was here that he served alongside his greatest mentor and a legendary soldier - Colonel (and later Brigadier General) Herbert J. Lloyd - who shaped his perspective on selfless service, courage, and leadership. 

Captain Al Edmonds while serving as the commander of Bravo Company, 105th Military Intelligence Battalion, 5th Infantry Division in Fort Polk, LA (1986 - 1988). 

Captain Edmonds then became the first military intelligence officer to complete a tour in the fabled unit known as the UN Command Security Force - Joint Security Area (or JSA) - the outfit of American soldiers and South Korean soldiers that patrol the Demilitarized Zone near Panmunjom, South Korea. He quickly earned a reputation as a man who could be relied upon in one of the most dangerous places on earth. The small group of officers at the DMZ outpost of Panmunjom were known as the Monastery of the Merry Mad Monks of the DMZ. Each was known by a nickname based on humorous or daring feats they had accomplished. Dad earned his first nickname on his first patrol into the DMZ. Intelligence officers weren’t supposed to go on patrols in case they were captured and interrogated, but as the officer responsible for planning the patrols, Al Edmonds insisted that he be allowed to tag along. So it happened that on this night patrol, something the size of a man jumped up at him and Al discharged his weapon into his attacker’s body - only to find out it was a rare variety of Korean stork that nested on the ground at night - earning him the name “Brother Birdman.” 

CPT Edmonds, S2 of the UN Security Force - Joint Security Area, before going on a patrol in the Korean Demilitarized Zone near Panmunjom, Republic of Korea (circa 1988 - 1990).

Al earned his second and enduring nickname in the Panmunjom truce village where American soldiers and South Korean soldiers stand guard every day and stare down their North Korean counterparts. The North Korean government issued a formal complaint through diplomatic channels against a certain Captain Edmonds who had made strange faces at a North Korean guard (insulting the diminutive size of the communist’s reproductive anatomy) and hurt that guard’s feelings - earning him the name “Brother Strangeface.” 

Al’s penchant for mischief came in handy as the Intelligence Officer of the JSA. His friend from the JSA, Colonel Mark Lisi, said that “Al was always in the North Koreans ass.” He was responsible for overseeing the emplacement of ground sensors throughout the southern side of the DMZ near Panmunjom to detect North Korean patrols and infiltrators. The North Korean guard force took issue with the suspected burial of sensors in the DMZ, so Al instructed JSA patrols to bury rocks in the ground to confuse the North Koreans, who invariably dug each rock up and inspected it for American trickery. 

On another occasion, while overseeing the clearing of trees and vegetation obscuring the view of a North Korean watchtower, Korean People’s Army (KPA) soldiers approached the American and Republic of Korea (ROK) soldiers occupied with that work and demanded to know what they were doing. Captain Edmonds replied that the JSA soldiers were constructing a soccer field for use by both sides - one on which the Americans and South Koreans would conduct practice on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday; while the North Koreans could practice on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. The North Koreans lodged an official complaint with the United Nations Command that the days allotted for the North Koreans to practice soccer were unfair. Al was gently admonished for antagonizing the befuddled communists. 

Al ran VIP tours of Panmunjom that included numerous heads of state and ambassadors, Vice President Dan Quayle, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, country music legends Jerry Reed and Randy Travis, and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. 

Al Edmonds was instrumental in the defection of a Chinese intelligence officer in July 1989. Major Zuo Xiukai was assigned to the North Korean side of the DMZ as a “Joint Duty Officer” or “language officer”, but was actually an intelligence officer assigned there to collect information on American activity in the Korean peninsula. Major Zuo met with a Joint Duty Officer from United Nations Command and with Captain Edmonds on a regular basis in “cultural & language exchanges” that were thinly veiled Cold War intelligence collection opportunities for both sides. Major Zuo took great pride in China and its progress on the world stage, until June 1989 when the Chinese government massacred thousands of its own citizens, mainly young students, during protests in Tiananmen Square. Major Zuo’s views about China and North Korea had begun to change, and the Chinese major soon expressed his intent to defect across the Korean DMZ with his wife and seek political asylum in the US. 

When the Soviet-bloc media was occupied the following month with two South Koreans who had illegally traveled to North Korea and were now attempting to recross into South Korea through Panmunjom in a political stunt, Captain Edmonds and other members of the JSA and Special Operations Division-Korea assisted in the escape of this Chinese major and his wife and their successful bid for political asylum in the free world. Years later, Al was put on a plane and flown to a nondescript location where Major Zuo thanked him for saving his life and the life of his wife - neither of whom were ever discovered or captured by the Chinese government.  

CPT Al Edmonds, Intelligence Officer of the UN Security Force - Joint Security Area, in Panmunjom, Republic of Korea (circa 1988 - 1990).

When CPT Al Edmonds came home from Korea, he went back to Fort Huachuca, AZ to complete the Electronic Warfare Officers Course, and then reported to the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, TX. Only a few short months after arriving back in the US, Al was once again headed overseas to serve in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm during the Persian Gulf War. As the Deputy Intelligence Officer of the legendary 1st CAV, he served in the Division Tactical Command Post (DTAC), alongside or close behind the frontline brigades. 

His M113 armored vehicle was the first DTAC vehicle through the breach in the berm that separated Saudi Arabia and Iraq. He never forgot the sound of anti-personnel mines popping beneath his vehicle’s tracks. When 1st CAV conducted their famous deception operation in the Wadi al-Batin, Al Edmonds was providing intelligence to the frontline units that kept American soldiers alive and allowed for the complete destruction of the Hammurabi Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard. 

Somewhere in Iraq. Captain Al Edmonds, Deputy G2 of the 1st Cavalry Division - serving as the senior intelligence officer in the Division Tactical Command Post during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm in the Persian Gulf War (1991).

Al’s good friend Nigel Dunkley, a British Army officer attached to 1st CAV during the Persian Gulf War recalled an incident in which Al prevented an incident of fratricide, or friendly fire, and saved the lives of roughly 100 American soldiers. These are Nigel’s words:

“[Al], being an [intel] type, [was] closely focused on watching the Iraqis' behavior just before the ground war started - a couple of MTLBs [armored personnel carriers] would come right towards us and drop off some OP [observation post] party guys who would then pack up and withdraw at dawn. This happened a few nights - always the same behavior pattern until one night when they didn't come right forward but just sat there. [Al was] very quick to come over to my Ops map from [his intel] map and said convincingly [that he] thought they are not behaving like Iraqis and so therefore these vehicles must be something else. Of course the obvious conclusion would be they were [our] own forces but I . . . and a whole gaggle of others spent more than a couple of hours checking everything possible to see if they were indeed [our] own forces . . . Meanwhile [the colonel] in charge of [the division artillery] was climbing out of his red legged skin trying to get our permission to fire a full [artillery] mission on these vehicles - it would be an ideal opportunity to get his guns "blooded” . . . With [Al’s] dogged determination that in [his] professional opinion they might not be . . . the enemy, [the artillery colonel] was getting very angry as he knew that the Iraqis would withdraw any minute and the opportunity would be lost. I watched [General Tommy R.] Franks ask [Al] what [he thought] and through all the build up of tension [Al] kept [his nerve]. It was a long time later (or seemed so) [that] we heard from [1st Brigade] that it was a lost [mechanized infantry] company under a CPT Frankavilla . . .  [Brigadier General] Franks got both the really charming Captain and the not so [charming] colonel to come to the DTAC tent and to apologize and thank us for standing firm and not shooting up a bunch of [Bradley fighting vehicles].”

. . . Nigel said it was “Al's crowning moment and he is so modest he didn't even seem to realize what a significant impact he had just had.” 

Captain Al Edmonds (standing on the tank, second from left) with the soldiers and officers of the 1st CAV DTAC G2 section after the ceasefire in 1991. 

Captain Al Edmonds came home with a Bronze Star, was promoted to Major, and shortly thereafter returned to the Middle East as the Intelligence Officer for 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in Kuwait during Operation Intrinsic Action & Operation Southern Watch - where his unit prevented Saddam Hussein from attempting another invasion of Kuwait. After his second deployment, Major Al Edmonds closed out his army career as an advisor to National Guard & Reserve units in Fort Sheridan, Illinois and as an instructional technologist at the Command & General Staff College in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. 

After his retirement in 1997, Al Edmonds worked as a defense contractor for Cubic and then as a computer technician for the Johnson County Library in Leavenworth, KS. He permanently retired to Sicily Island, LA, enjoyed a peaceful existence with his family and his beloved dogs, and passed away in July 2022. He is mourned and remembered by his wife (Candy) and her daughters and their families, his son (Jay) and daughter-in-law (Alex) [who both also served in the US Army], and his two step-granddaughters (Sadie & Sarah). 

Captain Al Edmonds (center) with fellow officers of the DTAC, after 1st CAV’s deception operation in the Battle of the Wadi al-Batin. 

Captain Al Edmonds flying over the carnage of the “Highway of Death” after the ceasefire and the end of Operation Desert Storm (1991). 

Al making the best out of a Christmas away from home during Operation Desert Shield in Saudi Arabia (December 1990).

Assignment History - James Alfonso Edmonds, Major, US Army (Retired)

1980: Commissioned into the United States Army in 1980 as a Second Lieutenant and Tactical Intelligence Officer (Northeast Louisiana University, Monroe, LA)

1980-1981: Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course (Fort Huachuca, AZ)

1981: Tactical Intelligence Officer, Division Tactical Command Post Support Element, 522nd Military Intelligence Battalion, 2nd Armored Division (Fort Hood, TX)

1981-1982: Assistant Intelligence Officer of 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Armored Division (Fort Hood, TX)

1982-1984: Intelligence Officer of 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 2nd Armored Division (Fort Hood, TX)

1984-1985: Military Intelligence Officer Advanced Course in Fort Huachuca, AZ

1985-1986: Intelligence Officer of 2nd Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Fort Polk, LA); including two rotations to the National Training Center

1986-1988: Commander of Bravo Company, 105th Military Intelligence Battalion, 5th Infantry Division (Fort Polk, LA); including two rotations to the National Training Center; awarded the Meritorious Service Medal

1988-1990: Intelligence Officer of the United Nations Command Security Force - Joint Security Area (Panmunjom, South Korea)

1990: Electronic Warfare Officers Course

1990-1991: Deputy Intelligence Officer of the 1st Cavalry Division in Saudi Arabia & Iraq during Operation Desert Shield & Operation Desert Storm (Awarded the Bronze Star) 

1991-1992: G2 Operations Officer, 1st Cavalry Division (Fort Hood, TX)

1992-1994: Intelligence Officer of 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in Kuwait during Operation Intrinsic Action & Operation Southern Watch [and one rotation to the National Training Center]

1994-1995: Military Intelligence Team Chief, Readiness Group Sheridan (Fort Sheridan, Illinois)  [Advisor to National Guard & Reserve units]

1995-1997: Instructional Technologist, Command & General Staff College (Ft. Leavenworth, KS)