John T. Reed’s blog about military matters

Copyright 2011 by John T. Reed 1. The Obama administration changes its story daily and there is no sign they will ever stop. 2. The comments section of my article on the White House celebration has grown into a big discussion of the bin Laden operation. I prefer it be here where it can be better organized and flow better. Method of killing bin Laden There seemed to be two basic ways to kill bin Laden: • bomb the house • SWAT-team style clearing Should have used bombs Obama chose the latter. Unless he had a lot more certainty about...

Copyright by John T. Reed In recent years, I have heard certain military personnel, usually Marines, bragging that they never leave a comrade behind—even a dead comrade. Let’s think about that. For one thing, I call it a “purported” policy because I am not sure it is the official policy of the Marines or any other unit. I even wonder if it is a Marine policy that has been proclaimed by Marine privates without consulting with the Commandant of the Marine Corps. If so, the Commandant has not been quick enough or loud enough at correcting the notion that the...

Copyright John T. Reed I graduated from U.S. Army Ranger School in Ranger Class 3 in 1968 (August-September). I was awarded the Ranger Tab on the airstrip at Eglin Air Force Base, FL. I add that because a number of my West Point classmates who initially flunked that class were later awarded the Ranger Tab by Pentagon fiat. My book that discusses ranger school is Succeeding. In it I talk about how you get through a challenge  like that and things I learned from it. The reason was our particular Ranger cadre (instructors) did not like West Pointers. As I...

Copyright 2008 by John T. Reed My West Point class of ’68 created a book of memories called Both Sides of the Wall: Reflections of the West Point Class of 1968. (The “Wall” is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial In DC.) They urged each of us to write at least one article. I was not going to, but they also said they needed someone in the class with expertise on book publishing. I said I had such expertise and next thing I knew I was working on getting the book formatted and printed. So I figured I would write an article...

Men die unnecessarily in military training. Why? Because the military is a bureaucracy and bureaucracies make otherwise normal people behave as if they were stupid or uncaring. More people die in the military bureaucracy than in other types of bureaucracies because the military has a macho self-image and their efforts to live up to that image often mean taking imprudent chances or being biased in favor of dealing with all difficulty or danger with toughness. In many cases, no amount of toughness could have saved the military personnel in question from injury or death. I hope that by calling attention...