John T. Reed’s blog about military matters

The pirate rescue story has been misreported.The basic facts are four Somali pirates got onto the U.S. flagged container ship Maersk-Alabama which contained food relief for Kenya. The crew resisted the pirates by locking doors and by stabbing one in the hand with an ice pick. The captain persuaded the pirates to leave the ship in one of its lifeboats by offering himself as a hostage.The pirates wanted to capture both the ship and the captain and take them to Somalia to get ransom. But the lifeboat did not have enough fuel and they ended up at sea adrift and...

“There’s been some thinking about our tanks. They’re not great in urban environments. They’re too imposing. They scare civilians.” Then, as calmly as he could, [Charlie Company Commander, 1/34 Armor Captain Pat] Chavez told them they would be going to Iraq without their tanks.From page 99 of the 2008 book In a Time of War by Bill Murphy, Jr. Wherever it says tank, substitute Humvee Among the subordinates he was speaking to was Lieutenant Todd Bryant, West Point Class of 2002. He had chosen armor for his branch at West Point. At West Point, your ability to get the branch...

Copyright John T. Reed Need for demons Political groups need demons. Each has its own demonology. A chemical which has at times been called Agent Orange has long been a demon of the political groups who could fairly be described as anti-war, anti-corporation, and anti-chemical.Those folks, and even most people who are not in those groups, “know” that Agent Orange is a poison that has hurt hundreds of thousands if not millions of people.No, it hasn’t. It never hurt anyone.How could that be? It is an herbicide. People are not herbs.But everybody says...Not everybody, just political activists and ignorant laypersons.I...

A number of people have brought to my attention a recent pillow fight at West Point to get my thoughts on it. Because I am almost the only West Pointer who criticizes the military and the Academy, I have become a sort of clearinghouse. I also play a similar role with regard to the real estate investment information business which has far more than its share of really bad guys. 213 years of tradition unmarked by progress West Point was created in 1802 by President Thomas Jefferson at the behest of former general and president George Washington. Cadets and graduates...

After graduating from West Point, I did a tour in Vietnam. We lost. It was the first time America ever lost a war.  Could we have won? Yeah. Our invasion of Cambodia, which happened while I was there and involved my battalion, was extremely effective. I never heard another shot fired for the rest of my tour after it. Before, I heard incoming and outgoing fire regularly. We also should have invaded North Vietnam. The Russians and Chinese admitted after the Cold War that they were bluffing about our invading Vietnam starting World War III. World War I What about...