COL John "Jack" Jessup - Anybody heard of him?
 

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q...VjOTg4Yzc3NGY=

According to the article, he enlisted at age 16 (1943) during WWII, was a Navy "frogman," then got out, got a college education, then an OCS graduate, then a Ranger in Korea, then got a PhD while an ROTC commander, wrote "the manual" on military history long used "in all officer training," then SF, one of the first members of SFOD Delta, served in DS/DS at age 64? Retired after 30 years of SF service.

Quite a history, but Google shows only this obit piece and an entry from an fraternity roster from 1963. He does not appear in the Infantry OCS Hall of Fame, an automatic entry for any graduates who reach the rank of Colonel (O6).

The author of the article is a spinmaster lobbyist from a Alexandria, VA (Washington, DC) PR firm.

The COL has an impressive military history. As a Korean War Ranger and member of RICA I checked the Company rosters of all the Companies that fought in Korea. I did not find his name listed in any of the rosters.

I enlisted at age 15 Years myself, in the close of 1946. ;)

I cannot find anyone by the name of John E. Jessup ever receiving the DSC in Korea. Only one in WWII:

Jessup, Ernest D., U.S. Army - World War II

http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/02...ndex-DSCj.html


I sent an email to the SFA, if he was SF or "other" will shall soon know.

Team Sergeant

Maybe he's related to Marine COL Nathan R. Jessup (A Few Good Men).

Here's a pic at the memorial pages site - doesn't say DSC.

http://www.gunterfuneralhome.com/load_obit.asp?ID=895

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Thanks guys. Jessup is real, the hooah stuff is bogus.
 

Thanks guys. he was apparently quite the bullshitter around Georgetown and the military history crowd. It appears that young Mr. Carallo was taken in hook, line and sinker while a student at Georgetown.

Jessup is cited in a Georgetown web page as being:

Col. John Jessup, U.S. Army Ret. (G'64, Ph.D.'70) (former Commandant, G.U.R.O.T.C.)

Commandant? There is no such T.A.D. position. The senior member of the ROTC is the Professor of Military Science. Sounds like a faculty / honorary position.

http://www.tboyle.net/University/Canon_Lawe_Suit.html

So with a degree from Georgetown (University of Maryland?) in 1964, and a Ph.D. from 1970, he appears to have spent much of the Viet Nam era at Georgetown University.

Moreover, the book he supposedly wrote on military history contains the following preface (see page 10):

http://www.cgsc.army.mil/carl/downlo...ssup_intro.pdf

In which he recites that from 1971 until he retired in October 1974 he was with the Office of the Chief of Military History.

And finally, there is the rendering he gives of his Korean service at his retirement home in Florida.
Carefully read the paragraph on page five, and then pick up with his non-Ranger service in Korea:

http://www.moaastpetearea.com/Office...%2006%20OC.pdf

You would think that a historian would do a better job of writing at least plausible fiction.

When I was in ROTC in the early 60's our PMS was referred to as, the "Commanding Officer, Army ROTC" Department of Military Science.

I have only heard "Commandant of Cadets" at military academies.

May be wrong, have been in the past. :munchin

Anyone write Mark Corallo or National Review and tell them the truth?

info@corallocomstock.com

letters@nationalreview.com

This needs to be fixed, ASAP.

Team Sergeant

CSB:

I read his Platoon Leader article. Sounds pretty accurate for that period of the war. I went through Camp Drake and the same route to the Japanese troop carrier ship. I don't remember the voyage to Pusan being 36 hours. It seems like it was an overnight trip. (But I do have the CRS syndrome.) We slept on typical japanese mats ship board and I don't remember any food being served on board.

The ship was clean as most Japanese facilities usually are. I had no inter-action with the crew; however, the female crew member that knocked out the soldier sounded interesting! ;)

We were able to smell Pusan quite a few miles before we landed there. The replacement depot was a real mess! Most everybody was being sent to the 1st Cavalry division, 8th Cavalry Regiment as they had lost most of that Regiment at that time. I was lucky and went to the 25th ID and the 27th (Wolfhounds)

My CSR came to.: My Japanese troop carrier left from the US Navel base at Sasebo Japan. I made two trips on it both to Pusan. The first one to the repple depot and by train to the MSR and the 25th ID. The other back to Korea to Pusan after being wounded and air lifted to Japan.

Trip,

You probably took the trip over to Pusan with my Dad. He was in Japan with the 25th when they shipped over to Pusan. He was 17 in 1946 when he enlisted.

I was an unassigned replacement in the 'pipeline.' At Camp Drake I asked for assignment to the 25th ID because I had served with them in Japan on Occupation duty. No assignment! :(

I asked again at the repple depot in Pusan and was granted my wish. The train from the Pusan area to the MLR was something else. No seats, just two wooden slabs/platforms running the length of the car like a lower and upper berth. When it got dark they pulled the blinds, saying that local guerrillas like to take pot shots at the windows.

People got off the train at various stop fro the outskirts of Pusan to the MLR. They were usually met by a 2 1/2 ton and an NCO and driver.

Of course my trip was in 1951 where the COL's was in 1950. The trip to the MLR was short in 1950 at the Nakdong River on the outskirts of Pusan. My unit was North of Seoul a little longer train ride.

Thucydides sings the blues / A Tale of Two Jessups [?]
 

Unfortunately, there are other examples of military historians exaggerating wildly their autobiographies and their works. The most notorious example remains Basil Liddell Hart but there was also S.L.A. Marshall, and, recently, Stephen Ambrose.*

In Col. Jessup's case, I am hoping that, somehow, the facts substantiate the sea stories. (These events cast into doubt the reliability of scholarship on important topics.) It is possible that the man used his knowledge of other men's achievements to embellish his own personal history. It is worth noting that in a 1978 article for Military Affairs (now The Journal of Military History), Jessup's biography, attached, was much less complicated.

I find it interesting how Mr. Corallo frequently expresses ambivalence in his article. At times, it seems that a part of him is grappling with his understanding of his mentor's past. In his piece, Corallo demonstrates four patterns.

1. He refers to examples of others being in disbelief of Jessup's achievements or others perhaps looking the other way.
2. He refers to a secret knowledge of Jessup's experiences in the field.
3. His discussion of Jessup's academic career is surprisingly vague: we learn nothing of the ideas Jessup contributed to the practice of history or the people whom he influenced.
4. He juxtaposes Jessup's career with the exploits of fictional characters.

[1.] Jessup's achievements as a member of the American armed services.
[2.] Secret knowledge of COL. Jessup's career.

[3.] Corallo's discussion of Jessup's scholarship is remarkably vague.

IMHO, it is unlikely that the following event took place.

In the 1970s, academic history was a profession in turmoil. For example, debates over the Cold War--its causes and consequences-- were exceedingly contentious. The only places where historians did not go after each other were in the parking structures of hotels hosting academic conferences. Are we to believe that Jessup was not exposed to this dynamic when he defended his dissertation?

While dissertations in history are supposed to represent the cutting edge of knowledge in a field, they are situated in a broader historiographical debate that has been framed by existing works. At the very least, his examiners could have vetted his understanding of that debate and how his dissertation advanced the discussion of that issue.* *

In fact, as stated in the forward for A Guide to the Study and Use of Military History, COL Jessup played a more limited role in getting that project to press than Corallo suggests. That role--centering around the conception and organization of the guide and enlisting the help of its contributors--was in and of itself a substantial achievement, it is not his guide.

The metaphor is revealing.

FWIW, my cursory search on COL. Jessup's published works indicates that he focused on reviewing scholarly works in several languages, encyclopedias, bibliographies, and a chronology. In his review of The Encyclopedia of the American Military, (1994) ed. John E. Jessup, LTC David Mets (USAF), retired, bends over backwards to say good things about the difficulties of putting together such a project, the merits of some of the essays, but then offers a conclusion that speaks poorly of the editor.***

[4.] Jessup as a larger than life figure compared to icons in mass popular culture.

Unfortunately, it seems that COL Jessup did not share this confidence in the American people.
________________________________________________
* References available upon request.
** I know of an accomplished historian who will listen thoughtfully to presentations and then phrase a devastatingly simple question: "So what?" Another historian lays a cunning trap that frequently leaves scholars snared: "Where are the women?" (Political and methodological differences aside, these questions are great gauges of one's intellectual--if not situational--awareness.)
**David R. Mets, review of Encyclopedia of the American Military, 3 vols, ed. John E. Jessup, The Journal of Military History, 58:4 (Oct., 1994), 736-739. In an exceptionally subtle way, Mets basically questions the editor's professional competence. Mets softens the blow by pointing some of the criticisms towards the editorial staff of the work's publisher.

Dad went over at the onset in 1950 with the 25th. He loved occupation duty in Japan and in fact after his 12 month tour in Korea, he asked to be reassigned to Japan, but, he had been overseas since 1947 so they shipped him back to the States. My Dad was from upstate New York and was used to cold weather, but, he told me that he never was more cold than his time in Korea.

Sounds like your Dad and I have some things in common. I arrived in Japan for Occupation duty in June of 1947. I had enlisted for the 1st Cavalry Division and was assigned to A Troop, 5th Cavalry Regiment at Camp Drake. I was injured at the training area at Mt Fugi and spent some time in the 49th General Hosp. in Tokyo. I was reassigned to the Signal Company at the 25th ID in Osaka, Japan I stayed there until Oct 1949. Yes, I also loved Japan and almost married a Japanese girl who was really an American. She finally got her citizenship back. Due to family problems on both sides we never married. :( She was a great gal though!

My wife now is retired from NWA and we have made many trips to Japan both before and after her retirement. I still love Japan. (Although it took the war in Korea to really convince me.)

Korea; however, was another story. I had many bad memories from there and of course I must agree it is the coldest place in the world to me. I shudder when I see pictures of the winter war there. I have been back just once to the Pusan area for one day on a cruise and did visit the UN cemetery there. It was really different from the Pusan I remembered.

Trip,

PM in-bound. From your info, it wouldn't surprise me if you may have known him.