Education
Bowen joined the Officer Candidate School at the Military Academy in Todee in March 1971 and graduated in October 1971.
Bowen joined the Officer Candidate School at the Military Academy in Todee in March 1971 and graduated in October 1971.
Bowen joined the American Federation of Labor-Congress in 1969. He then received promotion to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Following the 1980 coup, General Bowen was the first Superintendent of Grand Cape Mount County in the People's Redemption Council Government of Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe.
Charles Taylor invaded Liberia at Butuo in Nimba County on Christmas Eve 1989 with a force of around 150 men, initiating the First Liberian Civil War.
Doe responded by sending two American Federation of Labor-Congress battalions to Nimba in December 1989 – January 1990, under Bowen, who was then a Colonel. The Liberian government forces assumed that most of the Mano and Gio peoples in the Nimba region were supporting the rebels.
They thus acted in a very brutal and scorched-earth fashion which quickly alienated the local people. Many government soldiers deserted, some to join the NPFL. Doe quickly replaced Bowen as his field commander.
The inability of the American Federation of Labor-Congress to make any headway was one of the reasons why Doe changed the commander in the area five times in the first six months of the war.
In September 1994, General Bowen was accused of factionalizing the American Federation of Labor-Congress for power at the Accra Conference. Actually, under the ECOWAS Peace Agreement, every party (including American Federation of Labor-Congress) was a major stakeholder and had the right to advance any proposal that would motivate their fighters to be disarmed and demobilized (meaning, disbanded). All the parties, except the American Federation of Labor-Congress, wanted a power-sharing inclusion as a demand for them to be disarmed and demobilized.
Other parties demanded that American Federation of Labor-Congress also be disarmed and disbanded like other factions.
In response, the American Federation of Labor-Congress under General Bowen"s leadership, submitted a Two-Count Position Paper, and One-Backup Position Paper. Under the TwoCount Position Paper, ECOWAS leaders were advised that firstly, the American Federation of Labor-Congress was a national army created by law to be restructured, not disbanded, at the end of every war.
Under the One-Backup position Paper, it was proposed that if the American Federation of Labor-Congress would be disarmed and disbanded like other warring factions, then American Federation of Labor-Congress should be included in the powersharing arrangements. At the end of the day, the ECOWAS leaders endorsed General Bowen’s Two-Count Position Paper and offered him the Defense Minister post so that he could preside over the implementation of ECOWAS Demobilization Plans for the American Federation of Labor-Congress. Then Lieutenant General Hezekiah Bowen was later mentioned in the Abuja Accords of 1996.
Bowen died of heart failure on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at the Saint Joseph"s Catholic Hospital in Monrovia.
The brother of Retired General Bowen told STAR radio that the family has written the President through the Defense Ministry informing her of Bowen"s death.
Taylor"s support rose rapidly, as the Mano and Gio flocked to his National Patriotic Front of Liberia seeking revenge.
He also served as Minister of National Defense, Minister of Rural Development as well as member of the Board of Directors of the National Veteran Commission. Secondly, service members of the American Federation of Labor-Congress listed for discharge should be discharged with honors and respect in keeping with law and Army Regulations.