Western Hills, UT Arlington grad makes history as first Black four-star Marine general

A graduate of Fort Worth Western Hills High School and UT Arlington is the first Black four-star general in Marine Corps history.

The Senate voted Monday to approve Lt. Gen. Michael Langley as the new commander of the U.S. Africa Command. The position puts the Shreveport native in charge of the approximately 6,000 U.S. troops in Africa and gives him his fourth star.

Langley replaces retiring Army Gen. Stephen Townsend. His promotion makes him the 74th four-star general in the U.S. Marine Corps since its founding in 1775.

Langley graduated from UTA in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was a four-year track letterman and graduate assistant coach.

His former coach and teammates paint a picture of a man who was highly disciplined, serious about his studies and whose character spoke louder than his accomplishments.

Former track coach Harold Perkins, who recruited Langley in 1980 to run the 400-meter hurdles, said Langley never missed a workout.

“I had hundreds of kids over the years,” Perkins said. “It’s hard to remember everything about every one of them, but he stood out in a lot of areas.”

Perkins said Langley was a good hurdler who made points for the team, but he never achieved all-American. His strength was in his example.

“During that time we had some really, really good athletes,” Perkins said. “And we had the national champion long jumper, we had the top mile relay team in the nation ... and he was a contributor to that. Not necessarily by doing, but by helping and encouraging and pushing others, you know, and setting an example of what a winner needs to do to be successful.”

Langley came to Perkins his last year at UTA and asked if he could be a graduate assistant coach. That job was often filled by students who were planning to go into coaching, but Perkins said in Langley’s case he didn’t hesitate.

“He was a leader and you knew he was going to be there,” Perkins said.

Bill Boyd, Langley’s former roommate and a student coach for the track team, said Langley was a “good teammate.”

“We had a record-setting mile relay and Mike wasn’t quite fast enough to be on there,” Boyd said. “But he was very supportive of those guys, and friendly with those guys. He was not a guy to sit in the corner and pout, he was there to cheer others on.”

Boyd said he’s not surprised by how far Langley has gone.

“He was a very disciplined college student,” Boyd said. “Where a lot of us might sleep in, Mike never slept in. [He was] driven.”

Boyd also remembers Langley’s sense of humor. For entertainment the two would watch “Love Connection,” a 1980s television dating game show.

“Mike and I watched that show and we laughed and we’d guess,” Boyd said. “We’d order Domino’s pizza. It was a typical 1980s type evening, you know. We didn’t have the internet or Facebook or any of the dating apps so we were just hanging out at Maverick Village at UTA.”

Robert Howard recalled that Langley was competitive but soft spoken with “a big old smile.”

“It’s one of those deals where did you have any idea that he was going to be a, you know, a four star general? No.” Howard said. “But is it a surprise that he’s successful in whatever he was doing? No, not at all.”

John Sauerhage, the current track coach at UTA and a former teammate of Langley, described him as dedicated, punctual and someone who took his commitment to the team seriously.

“I’m staring at an empty stadium, you know, thinking about the times when all these guys were here,” Sauerhage said. ... [I’m] just proud that our track team produced someone like Langley. We were lucky to have him.”