As a young boy growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, James R. Montgomery''s sense of patriotism and duty to country is sparked by the United States'' entry into World War II. Too young to serve his country, he joins Junior ROTC in high school and takes the first steps in a long and illustrious military career in the U.S. Army Reserve. A Citizen-Soldier''s Road to the Office of General traces Montgomery''s career from those early days of marching on a football field through active duty in Greenland and finally into his role as a Reserve officer. The book details the Reserve officer''s job - the never-ending preparation for mobilization to active duty - and highlights the dedication of men and women willing to serve during the troubled times of the Cold War. The picture that emerges is one of how mentors, friendships, luck, and persistence influence Montgomery''s journey through a maze of military pathways to his ultimate rank as major general of the 310th Theater Army Area Command.

James R. Montgomery has B.S. and M.A. degrees from the University of Tennessee (UT) in Knoxville. He received his Ph.D. in University Administration, with a minor in History, from Columbia University in New York. He is the author or co-author of three volumes on the history of UT and over fifty articles on administration and educational research. After service in the Active Army, he joined the staff of UT as its Director of Institutional Research and continued his military career in the Army Reserve. After eight years with UT, he became the Director of Institutional Research at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. In addition, he served as the president of the Southern Association for Institutional Research and the Association for Institutional Research. After a thirty-year academic career, he entered law school at age sixty and obtained his J.D. from Dickinson Law, a part of Penn State University. He then practiced law in Blacksburg for almost thirty years. He and his wife, Mary, have three children and are the proud grandparents of five grandchildren and, at last count, six great-grandchildren.