BRIGADIER GENERAL JON A. REYNOLDS

Brigadier General Jon A. Reynolds is assistant deputy director for attaches, Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C. He is responsible for directing 96 U.S. defense attache offices worldwide.

General Reynolds was born in 1937, in Philadelphia and graduated from Lower Merion Senior High School, Ardmore, Pa., in 1955. He received a bachelor's degree in engineering from Trinity College in 1959. The general attended graduate school through the Air Force Institute of Technology and received a master's degree in 1975 and a doctorate in 1980, both in military history, from Duke University. The general completed Squadron Officer School in 1963, Air War College in 1978 and National War College in 1980.

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and entered active duty in December 1959. From January 1960 to January 1961 he attended primary pilot training at Malden Air Force Base, Mo., and basic pilot training at Craig Air Force Base, Ala. He then was assigned to advanced flight training in F-100s at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., and Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. In January 1962 he transferred to the 429th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., as an F-100 pilot.

In March 1963 General Reynolds was assigned as an air liaison officer and forward air controller with the 22nd Infantry Division, Army of the Republic of Vietnam. He returned to the United States in February 1964 and was assigned to the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., where he flew F-105s. During 1964 and 1965, as a member of the 334th and 335th tactical fighter squadrons at Seymour Johnson, he participated in squadron deployments to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey; Yokota Air Base, Japan; Osan Air Base, South Korea; and Takhli Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand. On Nov. 28, 1965, while flying a mission near Yen Bai, North Vietnam, he was shot down, captured and interned as a prisoner of war.

Upon repatriation on Feb. 12, 1973, General Reynolds undertook graduate study through the Air Force Institute of Technology. From July 1975 to June 1979 he served at the U.S. Air Force Academy as a history department member and directed the world and area studies, and military history programs. He then was assigned as a politico-military affairs officer in the Western Hemisphere Division, Directorate of Plans, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington D.C. In July 1980 he became a National War College faculty member. In June 1981 General Reynolds returned to Air Force headquarters as chief of the Western Hemisphere Division, Directorate of Plans. During this tour, he served as a delegate to the Inter-American Defense Board and was a member of the Canada-United States Permanent Joint Board on Defense and the Canada-United States Military Cooperation Committee.

From March 1982 to March 1984 he attended Defense Intelligence School and studied Chinese (Mandarin) through the State Department's Foreign Service Institute. He was air attache and then defense/air attache to the People's Republic of China from April 1984 to January 1988. During the time he was senior U.S. military representative there, he simultaneously served as head of the U.S. security assistance effort in Beijing. General Reynolds was responsible for managing almost $1 billion in security assistance programs and was the first westerner to fly People's Liberation Army Air Force fighter aircraft. He became military assistant to the secretary of the Air Force in February 1988. He assumed his present position in August 1989.

The general is a command pilot. His military awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal with "V" device and oak leaf cluster, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with six oak leaf clusters, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal and the Medal of Merit of Santos Dumont from Brazil.

He was promoted to brigadier general Oct. 1, 1986, with same date of rank.

(Current as of April 2022)