Past Professors/Faculty of Military Science

LTC Joseph L. (Ren) Allred, USA, Retired, was the Professor of Military Science, BYU, from August 1993 to September 1995. He retired from active duty in March of 1996.

He was commissioned in 1972, through the University of Utah's Army ROTC program in the Field Artillery. He holds both a bachelor's degree in Recreation Administration and a master's degree in Mass communications and Journalism from the University of Utah.

He is a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College and the US Army War College. During more than 23 years of active service, he served in a variety of command assignments, from battery command to commanding an Artillery Group, in the Republic of Turkey, during Operation Provide Comfort, where he was instrumental in closing the U.S. Army installations as part of the SALT II treaty. He also served in both NATO and US Army staff assignments as a general staff officer and Public Affairs Officer. He was the chief of the Army's Media Relations Branch, at the Pentagon, during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He completed the Army's Public Affairs Officer and Senior Public Affairs Officer Courses, and Advanced Public Affairs Training, as well as the NATO Information Officer's Course.

As a lieutenant he attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where he studied the Turkish language. He subsequently spent more than nine years of his military career on assignments in Turkey and the Balkan region. He was the Army's liaison in Istanbul during the Iranian Hostage crisis of 1980.

Colonel Allred has received numerous awards and decorations, including the Legion of Merit (w/2OLC), Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service (2/OLC), Army Commendation Medal (2/OLC), Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal (w/OLC), Southwest Asia Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Superior Unit Award, Overseas Service Ribbon ("4" numeral) and Army General Staff Identification Badge.

After his retirement from active duty, he became the Director of Public Affairs for MPRI, an Alexandria, Virginia, defense contractor, and spent two years in Bosnia-Herzegovina with the US State Department's Military Stabilization Program.

He is currently a public communication consultant specializing in government communications, media relations, and crisis communications. He has worked on contracts for both the US State Department and Department of Defense in Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Republics. He has also provided Strategic Planning and Strategic Communications services to the commanders, US Army Training and Doctrine Command and US Army Accessions Command.

Colonel Allred and his wife, Kathleen Noble, are the parents of eight children and live in Lindon, Utah.