Raised a Soldier’s Son: The Wild and Harrowing Journey to Manhood and Military Careers of a Pair of Army Brats Raised Around the World in the

Freed Lowrey and his brother Mark come from a long line of Army brats -- the colloquial term for children who grew up in an active military family. As such, they moved across the globe, packing and repacking every few years and, in the process, being exposed to a variety of cultures, customs, and languages, in addition to living within the unique environment of military base life. In Raised A Soldier’s Son, Lowrey traces the military heritage of his predecessors before focusing on his upbringing in the 1940s-50s from installations stateside to the Far East, causing mischief and mayhem from Japan to Germany, and other places in between. Both brothers would attend, and graduate, from the prestigious United States Military Academy at West Point before becoming career Soldiers themselves and raising their own family of Army brats. This is a wonderful reflection on the adventures of childhood, and how two brothers grew up to be just like their father, true Soldiers.

Freed Lowrey graduated from West Point in 1967 and was commissioned in the Infantry. He spent the next twenty-three years on active duty, with combat assignments in Vietnam and troop and staff assignments at various posts in the Continental United States, as well as Alaska and Germany, and exchange assignments in Australia and Finland. After retiring from active duty, he spent seven years teaching Junior ROTC in Hampton, Virginia. Freed hung up his military uniform for good in the summer of 1997 and returned to West Point to work for the West Point Association of Graduates, the Academy’s alumni organization, as a major gift fund raiser in the Development Office. He retired from that career on 31 December 2014. He is still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of his life. Freed has served as the West Point class of 1967 Scribe and Historian since 1979. In that capacity he authored 207 sets of ＂Class Notes,＂ reports on the activities of the Class of 1967 for publication in the Association of Graduates magazine Assembly, until the magazine ceased publication in 2011. In 2019 he published all those articles, along with the accompanying photographs, in a single volume titled USMA Class of 1967 Assembly Class Notes - The Complete Collection. He also publishes The Pooper Scooper, a quarterly news magazine for the Class of 1967. In preparation for the 50th reunion of the class, he put together the official reunion book, 744 pages of classmate biographies, photos, and class history. In 2021 he published two books. A photographic history of the Class of 1967 titled Faces of Service, Faces of Sacrifice, Faces of Valor...a photographic history of the service to the nation by the West Point Class of 1967 was published by Heavy Drop Publications. His book Goat Poop, Reflections From the Last Section, a collection of essays and ruminations on the vicissitudes of life, was published by Acclaim Press. Freed lives with his wife Victoria (Vicki) in Fishkill, NY. He has two sons - Kyle, who lives in Spokane, WA, and Brendan, in Hampton, VA. His third son, Colin, passed away in 2020 ten days shy of his 38th birthday. In June 2024 Mark and Freed Lowrey were honored at West Point by having a guest room in the Thayer Hotel located on post named in their honor.