Governor Bert T. Combs. (Credit: Abbie Rowe)
Lore of the Corps
Coming Full Circle
Governor Bert Combs’s Journey from Fort Knox to Kentucky Leadership and
Back
By Mr. Brandon Borgemenke
On a sunny May afternoon in 1960, Governor Bert T. Combs stood on the
grounds of Fort Knox, dedicating a new grave marker for Abraham
Lincoln’s grandmother, Bathsheba Lincoln.1
This moment, bridging Kentucky’s past and present, also served as a
poignant reminder of Combs’s own journey; from a young Army judge
advocate (JA) to the Commonwealth’s highest office, Combs gravitated
back to this familiar military installation as governor years after his
formative service in the Nation’s oldest law firm. Combs’s story is one
of coming full circle, a journey that began and ended with service, both
in and out of uniform, animated by the desire to be a force for justice.
Bert Thomas Combs was born in 1911 in Manchester, Kentucky, tucked away
in the lush mountains of eastern Kentucky.2
Academic excellence and a strong work ethic marked his early life. In
high school, Combs and his sister rode their pony, lovingly named
“Turkey,” to school, allowing him to graze in the woods near the
school.3
Combs worked his way through college, first at Cumberland College and
then at the University of Kentucky Law School, where he graduated second
in his class in 1937.4
This legal education would prove invaluable in his future military and
political careers.
When World War II erupted, Combs answered the Nation’s call. Leaving his
Prestonsburg law practice in September 1942, he enlisted in the U.S.
Army as a private.5
The events at Pearl Harbor prompted Combs’s desire to contribute to the
war effort and moved him to join the Service.6
Combs matriculated into the Army through the Volunteer Officer Candidate
program.7
Initiated in 1942, the program allowed men who had previously been
deferred from military service to apply for officer training.8
Under this scheme, candidates like Combs could enter basic training with
the opportunity to attend Officer Candidate School and retain the option
to return to civilian life if not selected or commissioned.9
After completing his basic training at Aberdeen Proving Ground,
Maryland, Combs attended Officer Candidate School in 1943 at the Judge
Advocate General’s School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for training to become
a JA.10
Graduating as a second lieutenant in three months’ time, Combs was
assigned to Fort Knox, his first-choice duty station.11
At Fort Knox, Combs served as the staff judge advocate, which allowed
him to drive to Lexington every weekend to visit his wife, Mabel, and
newborn daughter, Lois.12
By early 1945, then-First Lieutenant Combs served in the South Pacific
on General Douglas MacArthur’s staff in the War Crimes Department.13
Rising to chief of the investigating section, Combs assisted in the
investigation and prosecution of Japanese war criminals.14
This role allowed him to apply his legal expertise to complex
international legal issues, an experience that would later prove
valuable in his political career. His exemplary service earned him the
Bronze Star and the Philippine Medal of Merit.15
Combs was promoted to captain in the fall of 1945.16
As a JA, Combs honed his legal skills by working in military justice
assignments to operational law assignments.
His journey from Army private to JA captain, from wartime legal
investigator to peacetime governor, exemplifies how military legal
service can prepare individuals for future challenges in civilian
government.
Upon his discharge in 1946, Combs decided to return home to
Kentucky.17
This homecoming set the stage for his rapid ascent in Kentucky’s legal
and political spheres. He resumed his law practice in Prestonsburg,
served as city attorney and Commonwealth’s attorney, and, in 1951,
filled a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals (then the state’s
highest court).18
In each of these roles, Combs drew upon his JAG Corps experience and
applied the discipline, attention to detail, and legal acumen he
developed during his military service.
Combs’s gubernatorial ambitions emerged in 1955, though his initial bid
was unsuccessful.19
Undeterred, he ran again in 1959 and emerged victorious.20
As governor from 1959 to 1963, Combs left an indelible mark on Kentucky
by championing education, conservation, and infrastructure
improvements.21
His approach to governance was notably influenced by his legal
background and JAG Corps experience, particularly in his emphasis on the
rule of law and equitable application of justice.
During his tenure as governor, Combs’s journey came full circle,
bringing him back to Fort Knox. The 1960 dedication of Bathsheba
Lincoln’s grave marker was more than a historical commemoration; it
symbolically linked Combs’s civilian leadership to his military and
legal roots.22
Standing on the grounds upon which he once served as a young staff judge
advocate, now as the Commonwealth’s highest-ranking official, Combs
embodied the ideal of the citizen-Soldier turned public servant. This
event at Fort Knox encapsulated the essence of Combs’s remarkable
journey. From a young man leaving home to serve his country as a
military lawyer to a seasoned leader returning to honor the past and
shape the future, Combs’s life traced a path of service that continually
brought him back to his Kentucky roots and legal foundations.
Combs’s story resonates with JAs who parlay their military legal
experience into public leadership roles. His journey from Army private
to JA captain, from wartime legal investigator to peacetime governor,
exemplifies how military legal service can prepare individuals for
future challenges in civilian government.
Bert T. Combs passed away in 1991 at the age of eighty, leaving behind a
legacy of service both in and out of uniform.23
Yet, his story did not end there. In a fitting tribute, part of the
Mountain Parkway—a highway system he championed as governor—was renamed
the Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway.24
This highway, like Combs’s own journey, connects the rural Eastern
Kentucky of his youth with the broader world he came to serve, much as
his JAG Corps experience connected his local legal knowledge with a
global perspective.
Today, as JAs continue to mill about the offices, fields, and forests at
Fort Knox, they unknowingly follow in the footsteps of a man who began
his own journey of service on those very grounds. Bert Combs’s life
serves as an inspiring example for military lawyers and all Service
members of how one can translate military legal experience into
meaningful civilian leadership, and how the call to serve can bring us
full circle, back to where we began. TAL
Mr. Borgemenke is a 3L at Indiana University Maurer School of Law in
Bloomington, Indiana. He served as a 2024 summer legal intern at Fort
Knox, Kentucky.
Notes
1. Lincolniana Notes, 53
J. Ill. State Hist. Soc’y 183,
188-89 (1960).
2. Ky. Hist. Soc’y,
Governor Bert T. Combs, 58
Reg. Ky. Hist. Soc’y 2, 3 (1960).
3.
Bert Combs The Politician: An Oral History
10 (George W. Robinson ed., 1991).
4. Ky. Hist. Soc’y, supra note 2,
at 3.
5. Id. at 3-4.
6.
Bert Combs The Politician, supra note 3, at 19.
7. Id.
8. William R. Keast,
The Procurement and Branch Distribution of Officers,
Army Ground Forces Study No. 6
(Historical Section - Army Ground Forces, Sept. 1, 1945),
https://history.army.mil/books/agf/AGF006/ch06.htm
9. Id.
10.
Bert Combs The Politician, supra note 3, at 19.
11. Id. at 19-20.
12. JAGS Alumni Notes,
The Judge Advoc. J., Mar. 1945,
at 58.
13. Ky. Hist. Soc’y, supra note 2,
at 3-4.
14. Id.
15. Id. at 4.
16. List of Promotions,
The Judge Advoc. J., Fall-Winter
1945, at 43.
17. Ky. Hist. Soc’y, supra note 2,
at 4.
18. Id.
19. Id.
20. Id.
21.
Bert Combs Dies at 80; Ex-Kentucky Governor, Wash. Post, Dec. 5, 1991, at
D11.
22. Lincolniana Notes,
supra note 1, at 188-89.
23. Wash. Post,
supra note 21.
24.
Bert T. Combs Mountain Parkway,
Ky. Tourism,
https://www.kentuckytourism.com/parkways/bert-t-combs-mountain-parkway
(last visited Jan. 15, 2025).