Tom Treece's books cover military service, many jobs

Recently, I wrote about the '70s soft rock band Brussel Sprout, comprised of several Monroe County natives, including John Vass and Tom Treece.

Treece, a Monroe High School and Monroe County Community College graduate, also has the distinction of being a prolific writer, having contributed to The Monroe News for over 20 years. His column “But What Do I Know?" includes both humorous and serious perspectives on a variety of daily life-based topics and has generated two books featuring his writings: "But What Do I Know?" volumes 1 and 2. The first book was published in 2007, and the second book was published in 2014.

Many of the anecdotes and ideas for the What Do I Know? column stem from Treece’s varied life experiences and numerous jobs. In the overview for both books, readers learn about some of those jobs, including working as a grocery store stock boy, factory worker, college student, clothing store salesman, department manager, hospital surgery scrub nurse, Army soldier, swimming pool construction worker, cable lineman, cable installer, auto mechanic, car salesman, house painter, record store clerk, motorcycle shop manager, head shop salesman, singer, songwriter, guitarist, recording artist, disc jockey, radio salesman, sales manager, station manager, general manager, public speaker, telethon host, ministry co-founder, author, city manager and, of course, as a newspaper columnist.

Other aspects of Treece’s writings relate to his military service as a member of the U.S. Army, serving with the 11th Light Infantry Brigade during the Vietnam War. First formed during World War I in 1917 at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, the unit fought in France during that conflict. During the interwar period prior to World War II, the 11th Light Infantry Brigade trained at Fort Sheridan in Illinois and at Camp Custer (which became the Michigan National Guard’s Fort Custer Training Center, located in Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties near Battle Creek). Just prior to the start of World War II, the 11th Light Infantry Brigade disbanded.

Treece served in the 11th Light Infantry Brigade which was resurrected on April 15, 1966.  The unit would be part of the U.S. Army’s 23rd Infantry Division — more popularly known as the Americal Division. It was this unit that was deployed into the Quang Ngai province of the Son Tinh district of South Vietnam and was involved in what became known as the My Lai Massacre. Treece was so moved by this event that he wrote "The Ghost Closet: Return to Vietnam on the Wings of DOVE (An Account of One Veteran's Healing)," published by the Monroe Publishing Co. in 2005. The book is about Treece’s return to build schools in Vietnam; all proceeds from the book were used to fund the Pho Phong Elementary School in the village where he served during the war. The Toledo-based DOVE (Development of Vietnam Endeavors) organization completed the project in August 2007.

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Some of Treece’s other projects include "The Wide Road," a Christian CD based on a friend’s prayer request for his brother who was on “the wide road”; the music is based on two Scripture passages — Matthew 7:13-14: "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it," and Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

As previously mentioned in the Brussel Sprout article, Treece founded Guided Ministries with his wife, Renee, in 2013.

— Tom Adamich is president of Visiting Librarian Service, a firm he has operated since 1993. He also is project archivist for the Greening Nursery Co. and Family Archives and the electric vehicle awareness coordinator at Monroe County Community College.

This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Tom Treece's books cover military service, many jobs