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Copyright John T. Reed—The most recent articles are at the bottom of the list of links. My brief military biography is at the bottom of this page.

I am a West Point graduate Class of 1968. I also graduated from Army Ranger and paratrooper schools. The Ranger School recommended that I be brought back as an instructor (to my astonishment and dread—I hated the ordeal of Ranger School).

I was a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division. I was in several units in Vietnam. I vounteered for all of those as well as a number of things I did not get like a Long Range Reconnaisance Patrol unit in Vietnam (one of my West Point classmates with an identical resume arrived in Vietnam the day before me and got the LRRP slot I was sent to Vietnam to fill in D Company of the 75th Ranger Regiment), Special Forces (Green Berets—I volunteered for SF five times. While I was in Vietnam I was on orders to be transferred to the Fifth Special Forces Group, but the orders were changed for unknown reasons.) I also volunteered for Army Pathfinder School. Pathfinders are the guys who parachute in before the main body of paratroopers and set up beacons to guide the planes dropping the main body of troops later.

During cadet basic training, I qualified Expert, the highest rating, on the M-14 rifle. My military job specialty was radio officer. I was a communications platoon leader in a parachute infantry battalion and a heavy artillery battalion.

This resume was relatively standard for my West Point class. That is, most of them would have Ranger, parachute training, Vietnam, expert rifleman’s badge, and so forth.

So was my not getting into Pathfinders or Special Forces. They only need a relative few pathfinders in the Army. And the Pentagon told me they did not want to let West Point graduates into Special Forces because the top brass did not like Special Forces. (I understand they like it better now.)

Like most Vietnam vets, my time there was mostly boring and I had no siginficant involvement with the enemy. To state it in terms that Vietnam vets would use, I was never in a firefight. Like most vets, I was stationed at bases that were the targets of enemy rocket attacks.

My most exciting moment was driving through a North Vietnamese ambush near the Cambodian border. Why was I not killed? They held their fire. Why did they do that? Apparently to wait for a more lucrative target. I was a first lieutenant riding in a lone jeep with my platoon sergeant who was a sergeant first class. I presume the enemy flank lookout examined our rank insignia with binnoculars and radioed to the commander of the ambush that it was just a 1st Lt. and a Sgt. How do I know the ambush was there if they did not shoot? They did trigger the ambush against an American convoy that was behind me about five minutes. I did not know the convoy was behind me. If I had, I probably would have stopped to wait and join them. When we arrived at Loc Ninh about 15 minutes later, the fire base personnel there were astonished that we had survived the ambush. “What ambush?” we asked. How do I know the ambush was in place when we drove by? Because we were trained in ambushes at Ranger School and it takes longer than five minutes to set them up.

All of the above has caused me to have more than normal interest in the military. As I see things about the military on TV and in the other media, I have ideas that I think are worth tossing into the Internet blogosphere. So I added these pages to my Web site as a place to publish them. I was no war hero. I did get most of the best junior officer training the Army offers. And I was “there” with regard to an airborne division and Vietnam—two much-discussed military situations.

A visitor to these pages said in an email to me, “Like you, I would like to consult on the military.” I have no desire or qualifications to consult on the military. What do I know about the military that would qualify me to consult on it? I graduated from the above schools and spent four years as an Army officer including a tour in Vietnam. So did millions of other guys. All I am is a concerned citizen with a little bit more experience than the average person. My salient characteristic in military matters is my willingness to say what I think, ask questions, and make comments that almost all the other people with my military knowledge or more knowledge are, for some reason, afraid to make.

John T. Reed

Link to information about John T. Reed’s Succeeding book which, in part, relates lessons learned about succeeding in life from being in the military

John T. Reed military home page