Biography of col.glover s. johns jr

  • Glover Johns, Class of 1931, was a proud Texan from Corpus Christi.
  • President John F. Kennedy sent in US infantry troops under the command of Col. Glover S. Johns Jr. Johns, a "peacock-proud Texan" in the words of writer Peter.
  • A collection of photographs featuring U. S. Army officer COL Glover S. Johns, Jr., Class of 1931.

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    WWII Vet Led US Forces into West Berlin as the vägg Rose Around Them

    On Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961, the world learned that spools of barbed wire had been stretched between East and West Berlin. In the weeks to komma, the wires would be replaced by cement blocks. At first, Western powers did nothing, but soon, President John F. Kennedy sent in U.S. infantry troops under the command of Col. Glover S. Johns Jr.

    Johns, a "peacock-proud Texan" in the words of writer Peter Wyden, was a decorated World War II veteran. His book, "The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo," chronicled his feats in that critical battle; his three Silver Stars and three Legions of Merit spoke for themselves. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke selected Johns to command the 1,500 soldiers of the 1st Battle Group, 8th Infantry Division from Helmstedt, at the border of East Germany, to West Berlin. David Hackworth, who once served under Johns, notes in the book, "About Face," that Kennedy personally selected Johns for the sensitive assignment

  • biography of col.glover s. johns jr

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    The Clay Pigeons of St. Lô

    September 28, 2023
    This was often a tough read. I picked this up in the first instance because while I had a general knowledge of the 29th Infantry Division's experiences on Omaha Beach and into Normandy, it was not a detailed knowledge. In the second instance, my Vietnam era service was in the National Guard, specifically, in the 1st Battalion, 115th Infantry Regiment - aka in previous incarnation as "the clay pigeons of St. Lo" - so though separated by a generation and multiple decades, I was reading about my guys so to speak. Glover S. Johns, Jr, was back then Major Johns, the battalion commander, and while he writes this in the third person, the book is his personal memoir from the time he replaced the battalion commander who had brought the 1st Battalion ashore until the battalion secured the town of St. Lo many hard days later. The story is told mostly in a matter of fact manner though not without emotion as he recounts the effect of casualties and l

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    David A. Gundersen

     

    In Colonel David Hackworth’s tome of a military memoir, he sums up the leadership philosophy of Colonel Glover S. Johns from a farewell speech in the winter of 1962. Hackworth’s memoir is pagan through and through, and not a book inom would recommend across the board. But his 25-year, 110-medal military career illustrates countless principles gleaned from a combat leader’s life.

    As a young soldier, Hackworth loved Colonel Johns. He recalls that “to hear in a single speech this great man’s basic philosophy of soldiering was like being let in on the secret ingredients of some magic formula.” On January 15, 1962, as Johns was being transferred, he gave a final speech in which he boiled down the leadership principles he had exemplified for his troops:

    • Strive to do small things well.
    • Be a doer and a self-starter — aggressiveness and initiative are two most admired qualities in a leader — but you must also put