
MAJ Brian Sears grew up in the mountains of Western North Carolina and graduated from the United States Military Academy with a degree in History in 2012. He commissioned as a Field Artillery officer and was assigned to the 1-38 Field Artillery Regiment, 210 Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, Camp Casey, Korea, where he served as a platoon leader and a general’s aide-de-camp. He deployed to Afghanistan as a general’s military assistant, and upon redeploying, served as a liaison officer to the Republic of Korea Army. Brian attended the Field Artillery Captains Career Course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He was then assigned to the 4-27 Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Armored Division, where he served as the 1-1 Cavalry Squadron’s Fire Support Officer, and later the Brigade Fire Control Officer. Brian then commanded the 1st Armored Division’s Headquarters Support Company. He then deployed to Afghanistan and served as Bagram Airfield’s J3 (Operations Officer). Graduated from Baylor University in 2022, with a degree focusing on American Religious History. He recently transitioned from the Field Artillery to serving as a FA59 (Strategist). Brian now serves as a senior instructor in the American History division of the Department of History. Brian also serves the West Point Anglican Chapel Service as an ordained Deacon and as the officer-in-charge (OIC). He is grateful to be married to May and for their four wonderful children.
M.A. in History - Baylor University
B.S. in American History - U.S. Military Academy
Research Interests
American Religious History, Faith and belief in the U.S. Military
Selected Publications
“An Anticommunist Pentecostal Vanguard: The Latter Rain Revival Attempts to Drive Eschatological Competition” (Conference on Faith and History, Birmingham, Alabama, October 12, 2024).
“Marching on Washington or Charismatic Reconstructionism: Dueling Political Strategies during the Long Reagan Era” (Conference on Faith and History, Birmingham, Alabama, October 10, 2024).
Review of Fleek, Sherman L., “The Mormon Military Experience: 1838 to the Cold War.” Journal of Military History 88, no. 1 (January 2024): 206–8.
“Power, Prophecy, and Dominionism: The New Apostolic Reformation Goes to Washington” Fides Et Historia, Vol. 54 No. 2 (Summer/Fall 2022), pgs. 80-102.
"Tongue-Talkers in the White-Robed Army: Early White Pentecostals in the Ku Klux Klan" (American Society of Church History, New Orleans, Louisiana, January 10, 2022).
Review of Elaine Thomas, World War II Veterans’ Voices and Home Front Memories. Sound Historian: Journal of the Texas Oral History Association, Volume 22, 2021, 53-54.