John T. Reed’s blog about military matters

Two combat poems I found and linked to a poem about World War II combat in Normandy. It is Carentan O Carentan. I have not reproduced it here because I believe it is copyrighted. You can read it at the aforementioned link. A father of a member of the West Point Class of 2004 sent me the poem below. It is astonishingly wise about the reality and feelings men have in combat.  WAR By: Robbie Seidel Grade 5                                                                          Emmitsburg Elementary School                                                                 The sound of the chopper, the feel of the land I left my home as a boy, but now...

Copyright John T. Reed The U.S. military has a bunch of medals for physical courage, but they have never had even a single medal for moral courage. Why not? The military is an organization and all organization executives everywhere hate moral courage. Moral courage is a willingness to risk things other than your life or limb to stand up for a principle. What things? Your next promotion or assignment or job Your pension and other retirement benefits Within the military, getting a bad efficiency report that you suspect may handicap you in getting a civilian job after you leave the...

Why I created these Web pages on military issues by John T. Reed Copyright John T. Reed Boyhood dream Going to West Point was my boyhood dream. I achieved it and graduated, but I was profoundly disappointed with the U.S. Army officer corps which I found to be a hidebound, inept, Kafkaesque bureaucracy populated almost entirely by either take-care-of-number-one careerists, drones who were just hanging around for their generous retirement benefits, and guys, like me, who counted the days until we could get out. The ideals of West Point When I entered the United States Military Academy, I was an...

Sassamanbook.html Copyright by John T. Reed Nate Sassaman was the quarterback of the Army football team and led them to their first-ever bowl victory (it was the first bowl Army was allowed to play in). He graduated from West Point in 1985 and was a battalion commander in Iraq in 2003 and 2004. He retired from the Army after 20 years as a result of an Article 15—roughly the equivalent of a serious traffic ticket to which you plead guilty. A couple of his soldiers decided to jerk two Iraqis around by throwing them into a two- or three-foot deep...

Tillman cover-up general promoted Copyright by John T. Reed I ripped General Stanley McChrystal up one side and down the other in recent years for his lying and covering up the Pat Tillman friendly-fire death in two articles at my Web site. • Lessons to be learned from Pat Tillman’s death • The Army gets away with whitewashing Pat Tillman’s death The main guy in the cover-up—a guy whom the Army’s own inquiry recommended be disciplined—got promoted to the highest rank in the U.S. military—four-star general—and promoted to head of Afghanistan, arguably the most sought-after job in the entire U.S....