Blacks Celebrate Veterans Day: Admiral J. Paul Reason, U.S. Navy
By Conway Jones Joseph Paul Reason graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1965. He retired as a U.S. Navy Admiral, the first Black American officer to become a four-star admiral in the United States Navy. Reason’s middle-class upbringing in northeast Washington, D.C., emphasized intellectual development, education, and being culturally well-rounded. Reason