John T. Reed’s blog about military matters

Copyright John T. Reed ‘Family values,’ yes; results, no The U.S. military is very conservative with regard to religion, “family values,” patriotism, the defense budget, veterans benefits, and all that. But when it comes to how they live their lives and do their jobs, they are radical leftist liberals. How so? They work for the government. They live in government housing the size of which is determined by their rank and family size. They and their dependents get 100% bottomless pit, no co-pay medical care from cradle to grave. In many assignments, they also get all their food free. They...

Copyright by John T. Reed  The book The Gamble by Tom Ricks is about the conception, selling, planning, and execution of the so-called “Surge” and related aspects of American military tactics in Iraq in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Basically, The Surge, which actually involved much more than just increasing the number of troops in Iraq, worked tactically. In my military Web pages, I have criticized the following, among other things: • lack of moral courage in the U.S. military officers corps • lack of military expertise in the U.S. military officer corps • the way in which generals are chosen...

The U.S. military hasn’t won a war since 1945 Current U.S. military personnel are very proud. Their leaders’ uniforms are covered with medals. They talk a great game. They have all sorts of “elite” units. But what does it all mean? Not much. They haven’t won a war since 1945. Desert Storm? Some would say they won Desert Storm, the war to evict Iraq from Kuwait. True, we won, but it hardly seems like a war. It lasted 100 hours. The enemy apparently spent most of their time in the war trying to surrender. They surrendered to U.S. troops, members...

Copyright 2008 by John T. Reed I recently received an email from a young West Point graduate who had gotten out of the Army and was working at a household name big U.S. corporation. He was flummoxed by his inability to use his West Point and Army leadership training and experience in his work. He complained that the organization was predominantly women and they seemed to have a coffee klatch network that actually ran everything. The official organization chart seemed not to be the way things were really done. He was asking me what leadership style or approach to use....

Interesting article at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/us/despite-concussions-boxing-is-still-required-for-military-cadets.html?_r=0. It is about freshman mandatory boxing at West Point. Teddy Roosevelt started it at West Point President Theodore Roosevelt made boxing mandatory at West Point. Also horseback riding and swordsmanship. They got rid of the horses and swordsmanship in the 1940s I think. But we had to do the boxing when I was there. I thought it was super for instilling the idea that in war you either hit or get hit and hitting is better. Football also does that, but although they have intramural football at West Point, it is not mandatory. It was mandatory that...