Victory Rests with the Lord: God in the Vietnam War

J IM SCHMIDT is a retired US Army Special Forces lieutenant colonel with over twenty-six years of active military duty. Commissioned an infantry officer, Schmidt served a tour in Vietnam in 1966–67 as a rifle platoon leader and again in 1970–71 as an infantry company commander. The infantry company he commanded in Vietnam for six months killed or captured approximately sixty enemy soldiers without losing any of its own—a success only a few infantry companies achieved in Vietnam. After returning from Vietnam, Schmidt served in various Special Forces, Infantry, and Joint Special Operations positions. As chief of operations for Special Operations Command, Pacific and J-3 for United States Pacific Command’s on-call Joint Task Force for critical and sensitive contingency operations from 1987 to1990, he was not only instrumental in the development of Special Operation Forces concepts for regional contingencies and general war, but he was also instrumental in the planning and employment of combat forces during crisis response exercises and actual contingencies in the Pacific theater. Many of Schmidt’s concepts have become doctrine within United States Special Operations Command and have proven effective throughout the world. LTC Schmidt holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business from Southeast Missouri State College and an MBA from the University of Missouri. Jim and his wife, Joyce, live in Fort Collins, Colorado, and have two grown daughters, a grown son, and nine grandchildren.