MINNEAPOLIS -- Retired Army Gen. John W. Vessey, who rose through the ranks in a 46-year military career to become chairman of the joint chiefs of staff and help oversee President Ronald Reagan's military buildup, has died. He was 94.
Vessey enlisted as a private in the Minnesota National Guard in 1939, fought in World War II and Vietnam, and was the nation's top military officer when he retired to his home state of Minnesota in 1985. He died Thursday evening, his daughter, Sarah Vessey, told The Associated Press. He was surrounded by family and died of natural causes, she said.
After being named chairman of the joint chiefs in 1982, Vessey helped oversee the military expansion that Reagan championed when he took office just over a year earlier.
"It was probably the greatest peacetime modernization of the American military establishment that ever took place," Vessey recalled in a 2004 interview. "We improved every facet of the armed forces, from the recruiting and retention, the selection of individuals, to the way they lived, but most importantly to the way they fought."
By the time Vessey retired in 1985, he said, NATO was strong once again, the United States had deployed Pershing II and cruise missiles in response to the deployment of Soviet SS20s, and negotiations with the Soviets to eliminate each side's intermediate-range missiles were just about complete.
Even in retirement, Vessey heard from presidents and the Pentagon looking for help.
Reagan sent Vessey back to Vietnam in 1987 to account for Americans missing in action and return any still alive.
Vessey was born in Minneapolis in 1922. He enlisted in the Minnesota National Guard at age 17, when the threat of Nazi Germany was looming over Europe. He fought in Northern Africa and Italy, where he received a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant at the battle of Anzio in 1944.
He married his wife, Avis, right after he shipped home. The couple had three children: Sarah, John III and David.
He made the Army his career, serving mostly in field artillery units stateside and abroad. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1971. He earned his fourth star in 1976 and was put in charge of U.S. and U.N. forces in South Korea.
In 1992, President George H.W. Bush awarded Vessey the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award.
A Section on 08/20/2016