Robert H. Reed

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Robert Harvey Reed (October 10, 1929 – December 24, 2017) was a United States Air Force General and the chief of staff of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). He was born in Elkhorn City, Kentucky, and finished Warfield High School in Warfield, Kentucky. He started pilot training in 1952 and flew several fighter aircraft during his career, including the F-89D, F-101B, F-4 Phantom II, and F-106 Delta Dart. Reed earned a BA in international relations from Syracuse University in 1959 and an MA in public administration from George Washington University in 1965. He held many important roles, including staff work at Air Command and Staff College, and he commanded the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach. He served in Vietnam, logging 305 combat hours in the F-4 Phantom II. In the 1980s he led the Air Defense Weapons Center at Tyndall and was deputy chief of staff for operations at Tactical Air Command, then assistant vice chief of staff and the U.S. representative to the United Nations Military Staff Committee. In 1986 he was named chief of staff of SHAPE and was promoted to full General on July 1, 1986. Reed retired in 1988 and died in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in 2017 at age 88.