John T. Reed’s military background

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 volunteered for all of those as well as a number of things I did not get like a Long Range Reconnaissance 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.

Reed holds a bachelors degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a master of business administration degree from Harvard Business School.