Allen B. Reed

Who was Allen B. Reed?

Captain Allen Bevins Reed was a U.S. Naval officer whose 30-year span of ship-commands began on a patrol gunboat fighting pirates and Moro rebels in the Philippines at the turn of the 20th century and ended as the plank owner commanding officer of the newly commissioned heavy cruiser USS New Orleans in the 1930s. In the latter years of his naval career, Reed was attached to the office of the Chief of Naval Operations where his assignments included Director of Fleet Maintenance Division, Assistant to the Chairman of the U.S. Maritime Commission and navy liaison to the Office of Production Management before he went on retired inactive status in 1941, three months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.