“Thomas Jefferson told me, ‘Don’t ever say I can’t.’ So I never did. I said, ‘I’ll try.’ As long as you try, you can’t fail.” Those wise words are how Col. Paul Reeves has always chosen to live his life.

Paul Reeves was born and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He was a young scholar and finished Henry Ford trade school at the age of 15. At the age of 17 years of age he made the decision to join the Army.

“As a young man, my two older brothers were in the service and I wanted to join. I was too young. As soon as I was old enough, I joined,” Reeves said.

He completed basic training at Ft. Knox, Ky. While at basic, he met a special young lady named Louise.

“When I was at basic training and a friend on mine asked me to go to the dance with him. He was going with my wife’s cousin. We got to the dance and he introduced me to his girlfriend and to my future wife. While we were dancing, she asked me how old I was. I told her to guess and she said 19. I said, ‘Close enough!’ I was only 17. She was 19. She didn’t find out how old I was until we got married. She’s probably drop me,” he said.

Soon after, he was shipped to Korea with the 13th Engineer Combat Battalion.

“The interesting thing to me, the first time I went over there, the vehicles they had were run by steam. They would stop in the middle of the road, open the trunk and fill a pot-bellied stove or whatever they had in there, with charcoal. Then, they would travel on,” he said.

Reeves served in Korea and Japan from 1947-1949 before returning home to Michigan where his father put him to work on the dock at Ford Motor Company.

“My brother, just younger than I am, was killed in 1950. One of the first troops in the war. I was a civilian then. He got killed and I re-enlisted,” Reeves said.

Reeves’ brother, Richard, was killed during the North Korean attack on Sangju after his battalion found themselves unknowingly without support and flanked by North Korean troops. The North Korean troops attacked resulting in the loss of 37 men.

After re-enlisting, Reeves, now 20, was quickly promoted to First Sergeant– the youngest in the US Army. He was also sent back to Ft. Knox where he rekindled his romance with Louise and a short time later, Feb. 1951, the two were married.

In 1952, Reeves was once again deployed to Korea and assigned as the battalion operations sergeant major. When he returned from Korea the second time, Reeves received his battlefield commission and served as the battalion operations officer.

The Korean War is often referred to as the Forgotten War and that once bothered Reeves but that has changed over time.

“The reason being, I belong to a Korean Veterans organization and all Koreans thank us to death today. They can not thank us enough. I went to a banquet in Washington last October to dedicate the Korean War Memorial. They had a huge banquet for us and the ambassador came and a dozen generals. They all wanted their picture with us. To them, we are heroes because they have their freedom,” Reeves said.

After coming home from Korea, Reeves had assignments in many places including Hawaii and Germany. Reeves and his family, which now included three young sons, were hoping for to be assigned to somewhere closer to Louise’s family in Kentucky. Finally, after standing firm on this request, Reeves was assigned to Montgomery.

In 1965 Reeves was deployed to Vietnam. He was promoted to Major and took over as a maintenance officer. After Vietnam, he was sent back to Montgomery for a short time before returning to Vietnam for the second time.

“I was an engineer and logistics advisor,” Reeves said. “I got promoted there to Lt. Colonel and they asked me where I wanted to go. I asked for Montgomery again so they offered me New Mexico, West Virginia, or New York. I told them, ‘No, I want Montgomery.’”

After going back and forth, Reeves was ultimately stationed in New York and became the staff engineer for the Air Defense Command. Finally, in 1972, Reeves retired from the Army and in 1974,he was offered a job in Athens.

The job that brought the Reeves family to Athens was short lived and Paul soon turned to teaching. He served as a JROTC instructor at Athens High School from 1977-1980. During his tenure, the JROTC program at Athens High School excelled. 14 of his students received 4-year scholarships including two appointments to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

In 1980, Reeves moved from the classroom to the courtroom as he became the bailiff at the Limestone County Courthouse. He served as the bailiff for 33 years and was highly thought of by the judges he served.

In 2007, Judge Bob Baker told the Athens News Courier, “Col. Reeves is an integral part of the court process in Limestone County. He is extremely professional and is a delight to work with. We could not conduct jury trials without his assistance. He sees to it that the juries are all well attended and he assists greatly. In the flow of the cases in this county.”

Today, Reeves is retired and spends time attending various veterans events. He travelled to Washington D.C. when the Korean War Memorial was dedicated in 2022. It was on this trip, that Reeves experienced an unforgettable surprise.

“I was honored to place a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which, to me, was the greatest honor I ever had. Myself and a World War II veteran, he had a brother killed in Korea too,” Reeves said. “It was amazing.”