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Vessey, John W., Jr. (1922–2016)

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John W. Vessey Jr.

John W. Vessey Jr., ca. 1983. Public domain.

From his teenage enlistment in the Minnesota National Guard through his retirement as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff forty-six years later, John W. Vessey Jr. served his country through several wars and many peacetime assignments. After retiring from the Army, he was appointed as envoy to Vietnam to resolve issues about missing American military personnel.

Vessey, the oldest of six children, was born in Minneapolis on June 29, 1922. His family then lived in Lakeville, Minnesota. His father, a World War I veteran, was a railroad station agent. In 1936, he moved with his family to Minneapolis; he graduated from Minneapolis’s Roosevelt High School in 1940.

Lying about his age, Vessey enlisted at sixteen in the Minnesota National Guard in 1939. (The minimum age for enlistment was eighteen.) He joined the guard’s Thirty-fourth “Red Bull” Infantry Division as a motorcycle rider. In February 1941, the Thirty-fourth Division was mobilized for active duty.

During World War II, Vessey fought with the Thirty-fourth Division in North Africa and Italy. When the Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, he was training for the expected invasion of Japan. By the end of the war, he had been promoted to second lieutenant.

On July 18, 1945, Vessey married Mavis Claire Funk, whom he had met in high school. They had three children; their marriage continued until her death in 2015.

After World War II, Vessey moved from the national guard to the regular army, where he spent the remainder of his military career. Between World War II and the Vietnam War, he was, among other things, a student at artillery and command schools, a battery officer, and an artillery instructor. He also held several command and liaison positions in Europe and Korea.

During the Vietnam War, Vessey served as commander and chief of staff of an armored division in Europe, as an artillery unit’s executive officer in Vietnam, as commanding general of the support command in Thailand, and as coordinator of operations in support of the war in Laos.

From 1976 until 1979, Vessey was commander in chief of the United Nations Command in Korea. In 1978, he also was appointed commander in chief of the US–Republic of Korea Combined Forces Command. He received his general’s fourth star in 1976.

In 1979, Vessey was appointed Army Vice Chief of Staff in Washington, DC. He planned to retire on his sixtieth birthday in 1982, but President Reagan persuaded him to become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. As chairman, Vessey strengthened the role of the joint chiefs as the primary military advisors to the president and the secretary of defense. Modernizing the armed forces in the post-Vietnam era was an important project during his tenure.

In October 1983, Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger gave Vessey command of the US invasion of the Caribbean nation of Grenada in response to a coup that endangered American students there. Another significant event that unfolded while Vessey was chief was the October 23, 1983, bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in which 241 American military personnel were killed. Vessey and the other joint chiefs had advised against stationing US troops in Lebanon because they feared entanglement with the other powers involved there.

On September 30, 1985, Vessey retired from the army. As of that time, he had served longer than anyone else on active duty then in the army. He and his wife left Washington, planning to spend their retirement years at their lake home near Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota. However, in 1987, President Reagan appointed him presidential envoy to Vietnam for POW and MIA affairs. Vessey served Presidents Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton in that role and finally retired in 1993.

As envoy, Vessey went to Vietnam six times to meet with Vietnamese officials about American military personnel who were still missing at the end of the Vietnam War. He established a procedure for American representatives to search for remains. Vessey also helped arrange for former South Vietnamese military and political officials and the children of American servicemen (and the children’s mothers) to come to the United States.

Vessey died on August 18, 2016, at his home in North Oaks, Minnesota.

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Bickett, Spenser. “A Life Lived Fully and Faithfully.” Brainerd Dispatch, September 1, 2016.
http://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/4106508-life-lived-fully-and-faithfully

Brown, Curt. “Minnesota History: General Cut His Teeth in Minneapolis.” Minneapolis Star Tribune, January 1, 2017.
http://www.startribune.com/four-star-general-john-william-vessey-jr-cut-teeth-at-minneapolis-armory/409031265

Halloran, Richard. “A Commanding Voice for the Military.” New York Times, July 15, 1984.
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/15/magazine/a-commanding-voice-for-the-military.html

——— . “Man in the News; Reagan Choice for Nation’s Top Military Post.” New York Times, March 5, 1982.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/05/us/man-in-the-news-reagan-choice-for-nation-s-top-military-post.html

Kayser, Zach. “Minnesota Native and Former Chairman of Joint Chiefs John Vessey Dies.” Brainerd Dispatch, August 19, 2016.
http://www.brainerddispatch.com/news/4098203-minnesota-native-and-former-chairman-joint-chiefs-john-vessey-dies

McFadden, Robert D. “Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., Who Was Chairman of Joint Chiefs, Dies at 94.” New York Times, August 19, 2016.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/19/us/john-w-vessey-jr-who-was-chairman-of-joint-chiefs-dies-at-94.html

Saylor, Thomas. Leadership and Lessons Learned: The Life and Career of Gen. John W. Vessey Jr. St. Paul: Concordia University, undated.

Vessey Jr., John W, the Joint History Office, and the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Selected Works of General John W. Vessey, Jr., USA, Tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 22 June 1982–30 September 1985. Washington, DC: Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2008.
https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/gpo59553/vessey_speeches.pdf

Weisman, Steven. “General Named New Chairman of Joint Chiefs.” New York Times, March 5, 1982.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/03/05/us/general-named-new-chairman-of-joint-chiefs.html

Related Images

John W. Vessey Jr.
John W. Vessey Jr.
Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
John W. Vessey Jr. with Martin E. Dempsey
John W. Vessey Jr. with Martin E. Dempsey
John W. Vessey Jr. with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush
John W. Vessey Jr. with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush
Funeral procession for the Unknown Serviceman of the Vietnam Era
Funeral procession for the Unknown Serviceman of the Vietnam Era

Turning Point

In June 1982, Gen. Vessey accepts his appointment as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and postpones his retirement.

Chronology

1922

John W. Vessey Jr. is born in Minneapolis on June 29.

1939

Lying about his age, Vessey enlists in the Minnesota National Guard in May, at age sixteen.

1940

Vessey graduates from Roosevelt High School in Minneapolis.

1941

In February, Vessey’s National Guard division is called to active duty and begins intensive training. After the United States entered World War II, the division was sent to north Africa.

1944

On May 6, Vessey receives a battlefield commission of second lieutenant during the fighting in Italy.

1945

Avis Funk and Vessey are married on July 18. They had met in high school.

1966

Vessey begins his Vietnam War service as executive officer of the Twenty-fifth Infantry Division of Artillery.

1971

Vessey is promoted to brigadier general (one star) on April 1.

1974

Vessey is promoted to major general (two stars) on August 1.

1975

Vessey is promoted to lieutenant general (three stars) on September 1.

1976

Vessey is promoted to general (four stars) on November 1.

1982

Vessey is appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on June 18.

1985

On September 30, Vessey retires from the Army.

1987

President Reagan appoints Vessey his envoy to Vietnam for POW-MIA Affairs. Vessey makes the first of six trips to Hanoi seeking to account for American servicemembers who are listed as prisoners of war or missing in action.

1992

President George H. W. Bush awards Vessey the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest US civilian award, for his service on POW-MIA issues.

2016

John Vessey dies at his home in North Oaks, Minnesota, on August 18.