John T. Reed’s blog about military matters

It’s a lieutenant’s and captain’s war Copyright by John T. Reed The U.S. military branches have officers whose ranks range from lieutenant to four-star general. (“Ensign” to “admiral” in the Navy—they always have to be different—it’s a stepchild, sibling rivalry thing) But different ranks are like different size aircraft. The fact that we have generals does not mean that every military action should be run by a general, anymore than the fact that we have C-17s (huge Air Force planes) means we should use a C-17 for every military flight mission. C-17s just sit there silently when they are not...

Improvised explosive devices According to the 8/20/07 NewsWeek, four of five Americans who are killed in Iraq are now killed by Improvised Explosive Devices or IEDs—up from one in three a couple of years ago. They’re command-detonated mines I do not know why they call them IEDs. They are actually command-detonated mines. A command-detonated mine is one that is detonated by remote control by a person who is observing the kill zone. The other kind of mine is a contact mine which is detonated by stepping on it or driving over it or hitting a trip wire tied to it....

Copyright by John T. Reed In the winter of 2008/9, I read and reviewed the 2008 book In a Time of War by Bill Murphy, Jr. It follows a number of members of the West Point class of 2002, the first one to graduate after 9/11. ‘Go back and get it’ West Point ’02 grad lieutenant Drew Sloan had reported the explosion of an IED in the middle of nowhere in Afghanistan where he was in charge of a supply convoy. Five minutes later, after Sloan and his men had left the scene of the IED explosion, his battalion commander...

Copyright John T. Reed The death of former-NFL football player, Army Ranger specialist fourth-class Pat Tillman in Afghanistan by friendly fire and its aftermath teach a number of important lessons. (He was posthumously “promoted” to corporal. I put “promoted” in quotation marks because both a spec 4 and a corporal are E-4s. Corporal is a Korean War and earlier rank that was rarely seen in the Army when I was there. The rank was made most famous by Corporal Radar O’Reilly of the M*A*S*H* TV series. The second most famous corporal ever was Adolf Hitler who was a highly decorated...

Copyright John T. Reed I graduated from U.S. Army Airborne School in December, 1968. I was a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division in the summer of 1969 before I went to Vietnam. In July, 1966, I was in an artillery battalion of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, KY. At that time, I was a West Point cadet on what civilians would call an internship and had not yet attended jump school. Other details of my military service are at my military page. Hollywood has long depicted military matters inaccurately for dramatic effect. In recent years, as...