John Dennis Sitterson Jr.

Colonel John D. Sitterson, Jr., U.S. Army retired, died November 19th, 2012 at his home in Arlington, Va. at the age of 91. Internment at Arlington with full military honors will take place on February 26th, 2013. Colonel Sitterson was born January 20, 1921 in Southern Pines, N.C. He attended N.C. State University and the U.S. Military Academy, West Point. He graduated in 1942 and was commissioned in field artillery. He served throughout World War II with the 78th Infantry Division which was deployed to Europe in 1944. He remained with that Division (despite a serious foot injury) throughout its combat operations including the Battle of the Bulge and the final WWII battles in Germany. He was among the first to cross the captured Remagen Bridge over the Rhine and played a key role in coordinating artillery support for the bridgehead.

After WWII, he served at Fort Bragg working on artillery development and testing, then he attended the new Defense Intelligence School in Washington, DC. In 1948 he married Marie Hopkins and they moved to New Delhi, India where he was Assistant Military Attaché at the American Embassy. From 1949-50, he served as Defense Attaché at Rangoon, Burma. In 1950-51 he attended the Artillery School - Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 952 he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and had responsibility for the intelligence side of air-ground operations in large Army/Air Force maneuvers in Texas.

He earned a masters degree in International Relations from Georgetown University. From 1953-56 he was assigned to the International and Policy Planning Division of the Army General Staff, with responsibilities for the Far East. Concurrently, he served on a regional operations coordinating committee under President Eisenhower’s National Security Council. In 1954 he was loaned to the Assistant Security of Defense (International Security Affairs) to be desk officer for the Far East, including Vietnam. He authored a classified document correctly forecasting the future split of the Soviet Union and Communist China, and assisted the Council of Foreign Relations in New York with two book projects..

In 1956 he was assigned to fort Bragg to organize and command one of the Army’s first nuclear-capable artillery units (280mm gun), which deployed to Germany in 1957. In 1958 he became Director of Artillery Plans and Operations - Headquarters Seventh Army and until 1960, served at NATO’s new Central Army Group Headquarters (Heidelberg) as it’s first Secretary of the General Staff. From there he attended the Army War College. From 1961-66 he served in the Office of the Secretary of the Army, where he was promoted to Colonel and had staff oversight and responsibilities for the Panama Canal , U.S. administration of the Ryukyu Islands, and other International matters. He served on a White House task force on Okinawa policy, and in an extraordinary assignment for an active duty officer, he performed as Deputy Undersecretary of the Army (International Affairs) for a six month period..

In 1966 he requested combat duty in Vietnam but was deployed to Okinawa to command the 30th. Artillery Brigade - a large unique missile command including both air defense and deployable field artillery. His last active duty, 1968-72, was at the Army War College, where he was Chairman of the Department of National and International Security Studies.

During his Army service, Colonel Sitterson won 14 U.S and foreign decorations, including three awards of the Legion of merit and three Bronze Stars. (Valor).

After retiring from the Army in 1972, he and his wife Marie returned to the Washington area where he developed a second career . He worked 2 years as Associate Director for the Defense Manpower Commission and 12 years as a Washington representative for HRB- Singer (later HRB Systems), a defense electronics company. He was active in the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), a member of the (National) Technical Intelligence Group, and Chairman for two years. He did part-time consulting and conducted classified intelligence-related AFCEA courses for government and industry, under government sponsorship.

Col. Sitterson was a member of the Army/Navy Country Club (Virginia), the Atlantis Country Club (Florida), and the Army and Navy Cub (Washington). He will always be remembered as an international security strategist, defense industry executive, and an avid golfer.