CPT John C. Bates

CPT John Bates is an instructor and company athletics coordinator with the Department of Physical Education at the United States Military Academy.

A native of Houston, TX, he enlisted in the Army Reserves as a wheeled vehicle mechanic in 2007 and commissioned as an ordnance officer after graduating from Prairie View A&M University in 2015. Following the Ordnance Basic Officer Leadership Course and Explosive Ordnance Disposal School, he served as platoon leader and operations officer for the 763D EOD CO at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He then attended EOD Captains Career Course at Fort Gregg-Adams, Virginia, before assuming command of Task Force Sinai’s EOD Detachment in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. 

After his command, CPT Bates served as an assistant professor of military science at Cornell University before attending graduate school at the State University of New York at Cortland. 

Most notably, he has been married to his wife, Erin Bates, since 2019, and they are the proud parents of daughter Quinn.