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SSG Arch Kennedy (Reb)
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Treadwell, Jack L., COL USA(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Snyder, Oklahoma
Date of Passing Dec 12, 1977
Location of Interment Fort Sill Post Cemetery (VLM) - Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Jack Treadwell was born on March 30, 1919, in Ashland, Alabama. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 28, 1941, and was trained as an infantryman, serving with the 180th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division throughout World War II.
He deployed with the unit to North Africa in June 1943, participating in the amphibious assault on Sicily in July 1943, Salerno in September 1943, Southern France in August 1944, having received a battlefield commission on March 23, 1944.
Capt Treadwell was wounded in March 1945, and after hospitalization, he returned to duty with the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in March 1946. His next assignment was with the 7th Infantry Regiment at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, from April 1948 to September 1949, followed by attending the Armored School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, from September 1949 to August 1950.
Maj Treadwell served as a company commander and executive officer with the 350th Infantry Regiment in Austria from August 1950 to December 1952, and then as Aide-de-Camp to the commander of 1st U.S. Army at Fort Jay, New York, from December 1952 to July 1954.
He next completed Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then served as a the Headquarters commandant of the Army Forces on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands from September 1955 to September 1956. Col Treadwell returned to the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning from September 1956 to August 1958, followed by Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, from August 1958 to February 1959.
His next assignment was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, from February 1959 to August 1961, followed by Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, from August 1961 to September 1962. Col Treadwell next completed a degree program at the University of Omaha from September 1962 to July 1963, and then served as on the staff of Headquarters U.S. Army Europe and as a battalion commander in Germany from July 1963 to July 1966.
He served as the Chief of the U.S. Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning from July to November 1966, and then served as commander of the 197th Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning until August 1968. Col Treadwell served as Chief of Staff of the Americal Divison in Vietnam from October 1968 to March 1969, and then as commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam from March to September 1969.
He served with Headquarters 4th U.S. Army (redesignated 5th U.S. Army in June 1971) at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, from October 1969 to June 1972, followed by service as Senior Army Advisor to the Army Reserve at Columbia, South Carolina, from July 1972 until his retirement from the Army on March 1, 1974.
Jack Treadwell died on December 12, 1977, and was buried at the Fort Sill Post Cemetery in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.
.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=42ab30b60a9c9e61a50d221564bb39bf "11th Infantry Brigade (Light)")
.png?ixlib=java-2.3.0&w=100&s=f8dc92acae54e1950f2141fa10de8c83 "23rd Infantry Division (Americal)")
