Obituary of Colonel John K. Brier

John K. Brier, who earned two Bronze stars while commanding a top-secret tank company during the Battle of the Bulge, two more during the Korean War and multiple other honors during World War II, the Korean War and Vietnam, died on May 3. He was 94 and was recovering from pneumonia at an assisted living facility in Westfield, NJ. In June 1943, as a newly commissioned second lieutenant fresh from three years at West Point, the future Colonel Brier was assigned as a platoon leader in the 738th Medium Tank Battalion (special), one of several companies whose tanks were equipped with coastal defense lights and a series of colored filters and shutters to blind and dazzle opposing troops. The British design had been modified by the U.S. Army, which equipped several companies that trained secretly for a year in the Arizona desert. When the unit arrived in Europe in 1944, the extreme secrecy meant that none of the senior generals knew anything about the system's capabilities or how to use them. After the unit arrived in Europe, Lieutenant Brier was promoted to commander of Company B. Though his company participated in many engagements, it was only at the battle to capture the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River in March 1945, that the company's tanks were used as intended, lighting up the bridge for U.S. forces while dazzling and distracting the defenders. As a separate, special unit, the 738th -- especially Company B -- was routinely attached to different infantry and armor divisions depending on the demands of war, often split up into platoons and two-tank units. It was during the Battle of the Bulge, while he was leading such a two-tank unit, that Lieutenant Brier's tank ran into a German unit. He was blown out of his tank when a small rocket known as a panzerfaust hit the turret. Temporarily blinded and with his clothes shredded and singed, he was pulled back into the tank by his assistant driver. He later said that his two tanks shot up everything in sight and carried on. His actions during the Battle of the Bulge earned him his first Bronze Star with Valor medal He received a second Bronze Star for meritorious service for his overall actions as company commander. After Germany surrendered, he was sent back to the United States for reassignment. He returned to Europe in 1946, as an aide to Lieut. Gen. Keyes, the U.S. High Commissioner on the Allied Council for Austria. General Keyes acted as his wedding photographer in 1947 when he married Virginia Trice of Medicine Lodge, KS, who was a Red Cross club director in Austria. He saw combat in Korea as a major with a tank battalion and as a General Staff officer with the 45th Infantry Division, the Thunderbirds. He earned another Bronze Star with Valor for heroism while attached to the 245th Tank Battalion and still another Bronze Star for meritorious service in his nightly visits to the main line of resistance while serving as the division's assistant operations officer. While on the faculty at the Army War College at Carlisle, PA, in the early 1960s, Colonel Brier ran a program in which civilian business leaders were brought in for a week or two throughout the course to help train rising officers. During one session a State Department official visiting for the day was expounding on the requirements of his job. "We don't have time to sit around like those folks at The New York Times," Colonel Brier quoted him as saying. Unknown to the State Department official, the publisher of The Times, Arthur O. Sulzberger, Sr., was one of the civilians attending the course and sitting in the audience. From 1968 to 1969 Colonel Brier was the senior advisor to Lieut. Gen. Vinh Loc in Viet Nam. For his service in Viet Nam, Colonel Brier was awarded the Legion of Merit and two Vietnamese decorations. When he retired from active duty in the Regular Army, in September 1970, Colonel Brier was the Executive Officer in the office of the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations in the Pentagon. After his retirement from the military in 1970, Colonel Brier moved to Tampa, FL, where he became national account manager for a division of the Lykes Pasco Packing company, an orange juice and citrus processing company. He retired after several years as the company's treasurer, a promotion he said he received when the company chairman realized he was the brother of the Army Air Corps colonel with whom the chairman had worked during World War II, choosing bombing targets in Germany. Col. Brier was born Jan. 21, 1921 at Camp Stephen Little, a small army post outside Nogales, AZ, to then-First Lieut. William Wallace Brier and Vera Klotz Brier, an English teacher. He was the second of three children. With his father being transferred often in the years between the wars, Colonel Brier lived a peripatetic life. The family lived in Fort Benning, GA (twice); Fort Riley, KS; Schofield Barracks, Territory of Hawaii; Jefferson Barrack, Illinois; Quincy, Illinois; Manila, Philippines; and Fort McClellan, AL. Because his father, a doughboy graduate of the Cavalry School, taught equitation, John and his older brother Bill learned to ride before they wore shoes anywhere but Sunday School. In 1938 in Manila, he won the "jumpers touch and out" trophy for the Philippine Department, beating out two of the Cavalry's top riders. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the Alabama National Guard in an attempt to win an appointment to West Point. When that failed, he switched to the Columbia Prep School (Puhl's) in Washington, DC, winning a Presidential appointment in 1940. Colonel Brier graduated from West Point a year early, in June 1943, part of one of the classes whose studies were accelerated to meet World War II's demand for officers. When asked later what was cut from the schedule that his brother, a 1941 USMA graduate, followed, Colonel Brier paused, then said: "Dances. And time off." Colonel Brier's West Point degree was in engineering. He also earned a master's degree in international relations from a combined program at the Army War College and George Washington University and was finishing a bachelor's degree in finance at the University of South Florida when he dropped out because of his promotion to treasurer at Lykes Pasco. During his military career, he earned a Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters; a Bronze Star with valor and three oak leaf clusters; the Army Commendation medal with one oak leaf cluster; the American Defense Service Medal; the American Campaign Service Medal; the European Theater of Operations Campaign Service Medal with three battle stars; the United Nations Korean Service medal; the Republic of Viet Nam Distinguished Service medal; the Republic of Viet Nam Training Service Medal (First Class); the Republic of Viet Nam War Service Medal; the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation with oak leaf cluster; the Army General Staff badge; the World War II Victory medal; the Army of Occupation medal with "Germany" bar; the National Defense Service medal with oak leaf cluster; the Korean Theater Service Medal with three battle stars; and the Viet Nam Theater Service Medal with four battle stars. Colonel Brier's wife died in 2011 after 63 years of marriage. He is survived by four children, James T. Brier of Wilmington, NC, Julia Brier Marr of Mineral Point, WI, Steven E. Brier of Maplewood, NJ, Tandy Lewis Brier of Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; his sister, Ann Brier Whitesel of Carlisle, PA; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A service for Colonel Brier will be held in Maplewood, NJ. He will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery alongside his wife. Donations may be made in his name to the West Point Association of Graduates, The mailing address is: Gift Operations / West Point AOG 698 Mills Road West Point, NY 10996 In memory of Col. J.K. Brier / Long Gray Line Fund.