LT. COLONEL JOSEPH L. (REN) ALLRED
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph L. (Ren) Allred was the professor of military science at Brigham Young University from August 1993–September 1995. He retired from active duty March 1996.He was commissioned in 1972 through the University of Utah's Army ROTC program. 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 U.S. Army Command and General Staff College and the U.S. Army War College. During more than twenty-three 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 U.S. 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.
Allred attended the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, as a lieutenant. While a student there, 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.
Allred has received numerous awards and decorations, including the Legion of Merit (two OLC), Defense Meritorious Service
Medal, Meritorious Service (two OLC), Army Commendation Medal (two OLC), Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal (OLC), Southwest Asia Service Medal, Army Service Ribbon, Army Superior Unit Award, Overseas Service Ribbon (four), 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 U.S. 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 U.S. 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 of the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command and U.S. Army Accessions Command.
Allred and his wife Kathleen Noble are the parents of eight children and live in Lindon, Utah.
