1. Bing West is from the Massachusetts communities of Dorchester, Boston, Milton and Scituate.
12 Facts About Bing West
1. 2.
Bing West is a graduate of Georgetown University and Princeton University, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow.
3.
Bing West was an infantry officer in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War.
4.
Bing West led the mortar platoon of 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines.
5.
Bing West was a member of the Marine Force Reconnaissance team that initiated "Operation Stingray": small unit attacks behind enemy lines.
6.
Bing West authored a study at the RAND Corporation entitled "The Strike Teams: Tactical Performance and Strategic Potential".
7.
Bing West served as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs in the Ronald Reagan administration, and chaired the United States Security Commissions with El Salvador, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, South Korea, and Japan.
8.
Bing West embedded with dozens of platoons in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2012.
9.
Bing West's latest is The Last Platoon: A Novel of the Afghanistan War, Bombardier Press, 2020.
10.
Bing West believes American policymakers tried to do too much with too little in too short a time.
11.
Bing West's articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Review, and The Washington Post.
12.
Bing West is a recipient of the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Medal, the Marine Corps Heritage Award, the Goodpaster Prize for Military Scholarship, the Father Clyde E Leonard Award, the Free Press Award, the Marine Corps Correspondents' Distinguished Performance Award, the Veterans of Foreign Wars' National Media Award and the Marine Corps Russell Award for Leadership.