John Solomon
John Knapp Solomon
John K. Solomon was born at Ft. Bliss, Tex. into an Army family. He graduated from West Point in 1961. John's field artillery expertise drove many of his early assignments: 105 Howitzer command at Ft. Sill ('6-6); a tour as an operations officer in the America! Division and in a howitzer battalion in Viet Nam ('68-'69); and later, Crailsheim, Germany for battalion command of a Lance Missile System ('74-'76).
In 1968 he received a Master's degree in mathematics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. He returned to West Point twice after graduation-first, to teach cadets, as an assistant professor of mathematics ('69-'72); later, as tactical officer for the Second Regiment ('77-'80).
In between, there were assignments to the U.S-.Marine Corps Command and Staff College at Quantico ('73), and the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle ('77) as well as three assignments to the Pentagon, including RDJTF, Joint Chiefs of Staff. He returned to Italy ('82-'85) as G-3 Headquarters SETAF, Italy.
He retired as a full colonel in 1986 after 26 years in the military. He spoke often of the ideals of the Long Gray Line that guided his life: Duty. Honor. Country.
In "retirement" John turned again to mathematics, and for a decade taught math at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a magnet school in Alexandria, Va. After that he coordinated the school's highly regarded mentorship program for five years, sending students to places such as NASA and NIH. He also served as executive producer of the West Point Alumni Glee Club in the Washington, D.C. area.
He died of Parkinson's disease in 2020, an illness attributed to his time in Vietnam.
John usually got your best from you-the definition of a leader.