Past Professors/Faculty of Military Science

LTC John T. Kallunki was born in 1936 in Portland, Oregon. He graduated from Bell High School in Bell, California, in 1954 and attended California State Polytechnic College at San Luis Obispo, where he majored in Agricultural Journalism and was active in student government and on student publications. He worked for a series of newspapers to include THE LOS ANGELES EXAMINER and THE LOS ANGELES TIMES and was editor of the BUENA PARK PONY EXPRESS, a weekly newspaper in Orange County, California, in 1961 when he was informed that he would be drafted.

He entered the Army as a private at Fort Ord, California, where he was assigned to the Public Information Office following basic training. He worked as assistant editor of the post newspaper. In 1963 he attended Infantry Officers Candidate School and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry. His first assignment as an officer was with the 1st Psychological Warfare Battalion at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While there he participated in field training exercises in California, Arizona, Alaska, and South Carolina. He also participated in military assistance activities during the Selma to Montgomery March and the US Intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965. LTC Kallunki was then assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group in the MeKong Delta of Viet Nam where he served as executive officer and later as detachment commander of a special forces operational A detachment. Upon his return from Viet Nam, he commanded a basic combat training unit at Fort Ord, California, and later was an assistant to the Chief of Staff of that installation. Following attendance at the Infantry Officers Advanced Course at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1968, LTC Kallunki returned to Viet Nam as Assistant Public Information Officer for the 1st Calvary Division (Airmobile). Upon his return to the US in 1969, he completed his work for a Bachelor's degree in journalism at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and was assigned as Assistant Professor of Military Science at Brigham Young University where he taught the MS III class. While at BYU, he completed work for and was awarded the Master of Arts Degree in Communications (Public Relations and Journalism). Upon departure from BYU, he was assigned to the US Army Chief of Staff and then Public Affairs Officer. He was then assigned as Adjutant (S-1) to the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in South Korea. He then was assigned as a Public Affairs Officer on the staff of the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces Europe in Belgium where he served until October 1980.

His final assignment in the army was as Professor of Military Science at Brigham Young University where he endeared himself to cadets, ROTC Staff and university administrators with his personal concern for each cadet, professionalism, integrity, good humor, faith and spiritual discernment. Following army retirement in 1983, he was employed at BYU in the College of Student Life and held various positions until June of 1994 when he left his position as Assistant Dean of Students to serve as President of the Ivory Coast Abidjan Mission in West Africa. After serving 2 ½ years, President Kallunki was diagnosed with kidney cancer and passed away in August of 1997.