Reed Bonadonna was born in Brooklyn, grew up on Long Island, attended Virginia Military Institute, and served for many years as an infantry officer and field historian in the Marine Corps. "Served This Soldiering Through" is a published version of his Boston University English doctoral dissertation. In "Soldiers and Civilization" he argues that the profession of arms has made a significant and mostly unacknowledged contribution to the development of civilization in the west that goes beyond war fighting. The military profession is in essence a branch of the humanities, concerned with an intersection of language, narrative, and values. Not only have soldiers had a role in the development of civilization, they must also have a part in its survival, one that will perhaps require them and the societies that they serve to engage in a redefinition of military professionalism and of civil-military relations that draws on the past but is directed towards the future of all humanity. In "How to Think Like an Officer," Bonadonna devotes sections to learning and reading to think, obstacles to clear thought, and the officer as organizer, warfighter, and visionary. Bonadonna has spoken at a number of venues, to include the Naval War College, the Army War College, and the Air Force Command and Staff College.
