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to remember
Deane, John Russell, Jr., GEN USA(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town San Francisco
Date of Passing Jul 18, 2013
Location of Interment U.S. Military Academy West Point Post Cemetery (VLM) - West Point, New York
Wall/Plot Coordinates Section XVIII, Row F, Site 069A
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
US Army General. A highly decorated officer who participated in combat tours in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, he rose in rank to become the commander of the US Army Materiel Command from February 1975 until January 1977. The son of a career Army officer, he grew up at different Army locations in the US and overseas. In 1937, after enlisting in the US Army, he was selected to attend the West Point Preparatory School at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and won the highest ranking admission of both the Presidential and Army appointments to the West Point Military Academy at West Point, New York. After graduating in 1942 with a commission as a second lieutenant, he served in the European Theater during World War II, and by the end of war he had attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and became a battalion commander. After returning from the war, he held several different staff positions in the US and Germany and in August 1965, he became the Assistant Division Commander, 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Following two command assignments in Viet Nam, he returned to the US to become the Director of Doctrine in the Office of the US Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development, them commander of the 82nd Airborne. In July 1972, he was appointed the US Army Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development, serving until August 1972, when he became the Deputy Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. In February 1974 he was promoted to the rank of general and assigned as the Commander of the US Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command, retiring in that position on January 31, 1977 with 35 years of continued active military service. Among his military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Cross (with oak leaf cluster), the Army Distinguished Service Medal (with two oak leaf clusters), the Silver Star (with two oak leaf clusters), the Legion of Merit (with one oak leaf cluster), the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal (with numeral 25), the Purple Heart, the National Order of Vietnam, 5th Class, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry (with Palm), and the Combat Infantryman Badge. After his retirement, he founded a consulting company which provided advice on the development of technology directed at the weapons requirement of the Armed Forces. He died at the age of 94.
Deployment - West German Border Security Operations
From Month/Year
September / 1945
To Month/Year
September / 1991
Description The United States Army maintained a substantial and continuous military presence at the inner German border throughout the entire period from 1945 to after the end of the Cold War. Regular American soldiers manned the border from the end of the war until they were replaced in 1946 by the United States Constabulary, a lightly armed constabulary force responsible for border security. It was disbanded in 1952 after policing duties were transferred to the German authorities. In its place, two dedicated armoured cavalry regiments were assigned to provide a permanent border defence. The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Nuremberg and the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment based at Fulda– later replaced by the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment – were tasked with monitoring the border using observation posts, ground and air patrols, countering border intrusions and gathering intelligence on Warsaw Pact activities. Unlike their East German counterparts, U.S. soldiers did not stay for more than 30 days on the border, though they carried out regular patrols around the clock using foot and helicopter patrols. They also used a variety of technical measures such as ground surveillance radars to monitor Warsaw Pact troop movements across the border. A rapid reaction force was on constant duty further behind the border to provide backup in an emergency. The American presence on the border provoked political controversy in Germany. During the 1960s the state of Hesse refused to grant U.S. forces land rights to its observation points or allow them to install paved access roads, electricity or telephone lines. It took the view that since there was no legally recognised border, there was no legal reason for their military observation posts to be built along it. By the 1980s the American border presence had become the target of peace activists, who in 1984 blockaded the U.S. Observation Post Alpha with a human chain. The U.S. withdrew from the inner German border in 1991.
