Monty Lutz: CID, the Army’s Real Life Version of NCIS

By Kathi Volpi, Honor Flight Chicago Veteran Interview Volunteer

Monty Lutz saw his first U.S. Military Police on the family’s 100-acre sugar beet farm located in the San Luis Valley of Colorado in the late 1940’s. There were 48 POW camps in Colorado at the time and the POWs could earn $1/day to spend in the camp canteen by working on their family farm – weeding, thinning and harvesting the sugar beets. Monty’s mom even made them lunch. Winters were tough in Alamosa, CO. When Monty’s dad had enough of the -30 degree weather, he put the farm up for auction and moved to Oregon. 

After graduating from high school in 1955, Monty joined the Army under the Buddy Program with three of his friends. The program allowed a recruit and up to five friends to enlist and train in the Army together. They thought the Military Police program sounded like fun because they didn’t want to go into the infantry; and Monty would get seasick, so the Navy was out. They all joined, then all went in different directions, never serving together. Monty says “it was kinda disappointing.” 

Monty’s siblings served, as well. His sister was a nurse in WWII while one brother was an Air Force Sergeant in the Philippines. Another brother was an Army Sergeant in Korea – the 25th Infantry Division. Two other brothers had passed at an early age due to cancer.

Monty spent three years at Fort Bliss, TX as part of a Military Police unit, guarding guided missiles and providing security and traffic control. After he finished his enlistment, he went back to Oregon but decided he didn’t like picking pears, so he returned to the Army. At that time, if you returned to the military within 60 days, you could come back with the same rank – he was a Sergeant. He enlisted for four more years and ended up staying another 17 years.

When you enlisted in the Army for four years, you got your choice of base assignments and Monty wanted to be close to his Oregon hometown, so he chose the 6th Army, the west coast area.. He ended up in Yuma, AZ, still 1100 miles from home. Yuma was a test station for all hot weather gear. He was there a year and then had orders to go to Germany. Monty had married just after his first enlistment and also had a daughter by this time, so he was glad his wife and daughter could join him there.

Monty was part of the Military Police that were to provide escort, security and traffic control for the 43rd Armored Division. The Berlin Wall was going up and General Abrahams was the General Commander. As part of his security detail, Monty had to ensure safety for the General and his family. They would practice evacuations and were supposed to move all the dependents to France if the Russians came. The first time or two they practiced the evacuations, there was true chaos. The Germans would see the Americans moving and would panic and block the roads. 

While stationed in Germany, Monty compiled a complete set of Elvis Presley records, every one of the LPs recorded. Elvis was in the 3rd Army, and in Germany at the same time. His quarters were 10 miles from where Monty was living. Elvis would come by the MP station and had signed all of Monty’s records!

His next assignment was a real “hardship tour” in Hawaii with the 23rd Infantry Division. As part of the move, the Army contracted a civilian company named Mayflower that packed everything up. They packed the dishes, the food – everything but a pet. Unfortunately, not one of the Elvis records made it to Hawaii. This was the only disappointment they had with their 18 moves in 20 years.

In Hawaii, Monty served four years as part of the Armed Service Police living near Pearl Harbor. He was part of a Joint Services Military Police Unit that included the Air Force, Army and Navy. They were under one command and worked with the Honolulu Police Department on joint patrols. Monty estimates that on any given night there would be 20K-30K service men and women in downtown Honolulu. 85-100 military police were in charge of patrolling, closing down the bars at midnight, and running people out. They put the drunk ones in a holding area but there would be 50-75 in the holding tank at one time resulting in Marines fighting the Navy, fighting the Army, fighting the Air Force.

In early 1965, Monty moved to Fort  Carson, Colorado after being accepted into the Army CID (Criminal Investigation Division) school. This was followed by a 6-week course at Fort Gordon, GA. After graduation, he applied to become an Army Warrant Officer; he received his commission and became a CID agent. He spent a year at Fort Carson, transferred to Fort. Leonard Wood, MO and then received his orders for Vietnam in November of 1966.

Army CID agents wore civilian clothes and drove unmarked vehicles. They investigated homicides, larceny of government equipment, GI suicides, attended autopsies, did crime scene processing, gathered evidence and worked on all non-combat related crimes, even working cases where GIs had shot water buffaloes. They conducted interrogation interviews and testified in the military court in Saigon and Long Binh. Monty worked out of Quinn Yan, just north of Cam Ranh Bay. The GI’s would come into town at night, and they had to check their rifles at the police station. CID’s job was to go around and make sure nobody was carrying weapons,with the exception of hand grenades which they could keep. When the GI’s returned for their rifles, if they were drunk and disorderly, they were locked up until they sobered up or somebody from command picked them up.

Monty was in Vietnam for a year and didn’t like being separated from his family, and of course, the dangers were very real. As part of his assignment he flew on any aircraft available to get where he was needed for an investigation. He had a South Vietnamese interpreter assigned to him, who worked part time for the Viet Cong. The interpreter would provide information to Monty who passed the information to military intelligence and the infantry.

Monty doesn’t have fond memories of Saigon – too much bureaucracy. All their cases had to be reviewed and had to be typewritten. He had a little Oliver typewriter for all his reports and statements. Sometimes his reports got bounced back because the paper had smudges or were soiled or had a misspelled word. He was working out of a tent in the field and was surprised by the lack of understanding. While in Vietnam, Monty had applied to work in the crime lab, to be a ballistics expert. He was accepted and after leaving Vietnam, went back to Fort. Gordon for a two-year training course in forensic identification. Monty was part of the team that did all the ballistic training, firearm and tool mark identification plus assessments of various shootings conducted by all branches of the service. Monty stayed with the crime lab until his retirement from the military in 1975, leaving as a Chief Warrant Officer.

Monty went on to work at the Department of Justice in Milwaukee in the state crime lab, focusing on ballistics until he retired in 1990. During his time in Wisconsin, Monty testified on over 1,000 cases. When the assassinations of JFK and MLK, Jr. were reopened, Monty did testing on the firearms and ballistics, testifying at the House Select Committee hearings, and even appearing in the movie “On Trial: Lee Harvey Oswald.” 

Monty, we thank you for your many dedicated years of service to your country. Enjoy your well-deserved Honor Flight!