Thomas Pike has researched military records and photographs in the United States and overseas for over thirty years, focusing primarily on World War II and the Vietnam War. He has conducted hundreds of interviews of veterans from these wars with the goal of bringing military history to life; to complete the narrative on Vietnam and World War II.
He received his Master’s Degree in Strategic Intelligence from the National Intelligence University, where he wrote his master’s thesis on Russian operations and German intelligence collection during a large campaign in World War II. While an Army War College Fellow, he researched operations and intelligence activities at the national and operational level. He retired from the U.S. Army as a Colonel and has held commands from the company to the brigade level.
Over the course of his research, Tom Pike has visited numerous World War II battlefields to include the D-Day Beaches, Berlin, "Koenigsberg" and other battlefields in the former region of Eastern Prussia. He is working on several books that analyze operations and intelligence during the Tet Offensive in 1968. He has traveled to Vietnam numerous times since 1996 and has visited battlefields from Hanoi to Saigon/HCMC. During his first visit to Vietnam, he toured Hue City with several veterans led by LtGen Ron Christmas, the former commander of H Company, 2/5 Marines which fought there during the Tet Offensive. He has also conducted research in Kham Duc, Dak To, Kontum, Pleiku and Ban Me Thuot for a book on the B3 Front and the Tet Offensive. Along the coast in the II Corps area, his research included Nha Trang, Qui Nhon, Tuy Hoa and other former bases and battlefields.
Tom Pike has edited several published books detailing operations and intelligence during the Vietnam War. He has a thorough knowledge of U.S. and NVA Order of Battle and has spent years researching declassified Top Secret satellite imagery from the war. This unique information as well as his other research have collectively assisted returning veterans, tour groups and historians for over twenty years. He debuted the first book of analyzed satellite imagery from Vietnam in his book I Corps Vietnam: An Aerial Retrospective which includes imagery from satellites as well as fixed wing aircraft. He also incorporated this data in his edited work, Military Records, February 1968, 3rd Marine Division: The Tet Offensive, which is widely used by veterans as a reference for their tours during that period. Periodicals and authors have used his research to support their publications to include the Vietnam Veterans of America’s publication, “The Veteran.” His research has also been references in several books to include Patton’s Pawns: the 94th U.S. Infantry Division at the Siegfried Line by the renowned World War II historian, Tony Le Tissier.
