ABOUT

I am a Cold War & Vietnam veteran and a military historian. I began reading military history because I met many American soldiers in the Philippines during World War II and because I became fascinated with General Douglas MacArthur. My WW II experience and my reading led me to want to be a soldier and led me to West Point. At West Point, surrounded by the history and the presence of so many military leaders, I absorbed the basics of military life and training. In my last year, I took the capstone academic course, The History of the Military Art, which exposed me to the campaigns and generalship of the Great Captains of the past: Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, Gustavus Adolphus, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon - to the early American generals: Washington, Scott, Grant, Lee, Jackson and Sherman - and to the important generals of the recent past: Joffre & Foch, Hindenburg & Ludendorff, Pershing, Marshall, MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton. Military history became a vital substitute for war experience. Its study has not been an academic exercise. It has been a professional development opportunity.

I remain fascinated and often overwhelmed by the challenges soldiers and commanders face and how they reacted to them and gained success. Similarly, I hope to fascinate those who watch my presentations and help them to understand how tough and desperate wars are, how the commanders and the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who fought them succeeded and failed, why they did so, and why in the end there really is no good substitute for victory.

Please join me. I bring to my programs the eye of a tactician, the soul of a soldier, and the joy of a story teller.

John Bradley