He received a commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army through the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Initially serving in the Military Intelligence Corps, Bryant was later selected to serve in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. During his time in the U.S. Army, he was assigned to the Ballistic Missile Defense System Command in Huntsville, Alabama, the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson in Colorado and taught constitutional law to cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Bryant served another year in the Tennessee Army National Guard.