page_title: Allen B. Reed
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Allen B. Reed / Naval service / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: Landing force from USS Denver in Nicaragua in 1912 beside a railroad [NH 93077]
context_page_description: Captain Allen Bevins Reed was a U.S. Naval officer whose career began aboard vessels in the Asiatic and Pacific Fleets. Early in his career he was Captain Takeshita Isamu's escort during a ceremonial visit to the mayor of San Francisco, and he was a member of a Naval Board of Inquiry. Reed assumed the command of a landing force of 120 men in Nicaragua in 1912 to protect a railway line following a coup d'état attempt by General Luis Mena.
  Over his career, Reed commanded eight ships, and after he was made captain, he was commander of Division 80 of Destroyer Squadron 11, Division 30 of Battle Fleet from the flagship USS McCawley, and Division 45 of the Battle Fleet from USS Preble. Reed received the Navy Cross for his command of the USS Susquehanna during dangerous transatlantic voyages of World War I. Reed was the plank owner commanding officer of the newly commissioned heavy cruiser USS New Orleans, and in the summer of 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt took a cruise on the ship through the Panama Canal and the Pacific Ocean.
context_section_description: On March 21, 1904, Reed reported for duty aboard the school ship USS Mohican and was then on several vessels of the Asiatic and Pacific Fleets for more than four years. During that time he was commissioned an ensign, which then required successful completion of two years sea duty. Reed was a lieutenant and senior engineer on the USS Albany by October 13, 1909, when he was Imperial Japanese Navy Captain Takeshita Isamu's escort during a ceremonial visit to the mayor of San Francisco.
  He was stationed at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in 1910, and in April 1911 Reed became a member of the Naval Board of Inquiry that convened to investigate fraud involving naval Paymaster Arthur M. Pippin and two others. The men were court-martialed and sentenced to hard labor at San Quentin State Prison.
  Reed was an executive officer on USS Denver when he was given command of a landing force of 120 men who landed at Corinto, Nicaragua on August 29, 1912. This followed a coup d'état attempt by General Luis Mena, Minister of War to overthrow President Adolfo Díaz and the Denver was one of six ships brought in to provide troops to protect the railway line from Corinto to Managua.
caption: USS Denver ship's landing force under Lt. A. B. Reed rests beside the Corinto, Nicaragua railroad line, 1912
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