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<em>Jerry Spears Addington</em> was born in the small town of Belcherville, TX. Born prematurely at 5 months, he learned from the very beginning that to get on in this world he would have to be a fighter. Home schooled until eighth grade, he graduated from Nocona High School as the salutatorian in 1936. He applied for an appointment to West Point, was a second alternate, and was accepted at the last moment. He graduated from USMA with a Bachelor of Science degree and was commissioned in the Field Artillery.</p>
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Jerry served in a variety of assignments from June 1940 until July 1942: as battery officer with the 2d Infantry Division Artillery Training Center, battalion adjutant with the 38th Field Artillery Battalion, and battery commander with 2d Battalion, 72d Field Artillery Regiment. Jerry was a captain by February 1942, and two months later he married Eleanore “Billie” Flaherty in Lynn, MA.</p>
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By July 1942, Jerry was serving as the operations officer of the 595th Field Artillery Battalion at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. He then served as assistant operations officer with the Headquarters of 93rd Division, and he accompanied the division to the South and to the Southwest Pacific, where he held the positions of division operations officer, chief of staff, and executive officer of Division Artillery. While he was serving in the Pacific, Jerry’s and Billie’s daughter Linda was born in 1944 in Lynn, MA, shortly before his promotion to lieutenant colonel. During 1945, he was the commanding officer of the Army Ground Forces on the Palawan Island Province of the Philippines after the liberation of the Philippines from Japanese occupation forces. From February 1946 until August 1946, he served as the assistant chief of staff for logistics for the 86th Infantry Division.</p>
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He returned stateside in 1946, met his new daughter, and settled in to attend Columbia University for a year. Upon completion, he was appointed an instructor of electrical engineering at the Academy and became an assistant professor in that department in 1949. He enjoyed teaching at his alma mater and another daughter, Leslie, was born at West Point in October 1949.</p>
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In August 1950, he became the assistant operations officer of the Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group in Athens, Greece, where he served and the family lived until March 1953. Jerry and Billie’s third daughter, Ellie, was born later that month in Lynn, MA. From August 1953 until September 1954, he commanded the 6th Armored Field Artillery Battalion at Ft. Sill and then was the deputy chief of staff of the Artillery Center at Ft. Sill until December.</p>
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From January 1955 until July 1955, he attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA. In August 1955, as a colonel, he was appointed the chief of Psychological Warfare Plans in the Department of the Army’s Office of the Chief of Psychological Warfare. In May 1956, he was assigned to the Joint Advanced Study Group of the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff working on the role of military forces in future international conflicts. Jerry and Billie's son, David, was born in January 1957 in Washington, DC.</p>
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In August 1958, Jerry began attending the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle Barracks, PA. Following graduation, he remained on the faculty there as an assistant course director and later as director of the military strategic concept course. The family enjoyed all facets of life there. They stayed in Carlisle while Jerry was assigned to Headquarters of the I Corps (Group) Artillery at Camp St. Barbara, South Korea, in August 1962. A year later the family was reunited when Jerry was assigned to Headquarters, North American Air Defense Command, in Colorado Springs as the chief of operations of the Electronic Warfare Division, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations.</p>
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On 1 Jul 1965, Jerry assumed command of the 31st Artillery Brigade (Air Defense) in Oakdale, PA, where he was responsible for the air defense of the Western PA-New York-Ohio-Michigan industrial heartland. He was promoted to brigadier general in July 1965. From 1967 to 1969, he served as the chief of the U.S. Military Training Mission headquartered in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and was responsible for U.S. training and security assistance programs for the Royal Saudi Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard.</p>
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From 1969 to 1970, Jerry was the assistant deputy chief of staff for plans and programs of the North American Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs. After the assignment, in July 1970, BG Jerry Addington retired from active duty. During his distinguished military career he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, three Legions of Merit, a Bronze Star, and the Air Medal. He also received the American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, WWII Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Philippine Liberation Ribbon, and the Philippine Independence Ribbon.</p>
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After his retirement, Jerry and Billie moved to Albuquerque, NM, where he began a second career as a math teacher. After 11 years teaching in Albuquerque public schools he retired again. Jerry and Billie enjoyed a return to West Point in 1990 for the Class of 1940’s 50th Reunion, and in 1992 Jerry and Billie celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. In his life he cherished three important things so dear in life: God, country, and family. He loved his church and his country, and he dearly loved his children and grandchildren. They meant the world to him and he to them. Upon his death from heart failure, he was survived by his wife, Billie; daughter Linda Stewart and her husband Bob, daughter Leslie Beach and her husband Bruce, daughter Ellie Knight and her husband Jim; son David and his wife Cindy; and nine grandchildren. Rarely has one been revered so highly and missed so deeply by his survivors.</p>
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And it was said: “Well done, be thou at Peace.”</p>
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<em>Ellie Addington Knight</em></p>