Military Vehicle Repair: Chevy cucv, cucv, glow plugs

Question
I own a 1985 cucv pickup. I have owned it for 11 years. I recently had to have the starter rebuilt,finally. I hooked the batteries up backwards which caused all kinds of havoc under the hood. I ran a remote switch to the glow plugs and got 12 volts of power from the red wire on the driver side alternator. Two weeks later it needed rebuilt. Am I causing damage to the alternator by using the power wire on it to heat up the glow plugs?  

Answer
No.
That red terminal is electrically the same as the positive post of the front battery, and the diamond shaped power tap on the firewall, just inboard of the glow plug relay.
The alternators are interchangable, by the way. They are identical.
The problem with the alternator may have been caused by the backward connection you mentioned.

Van