On Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, Major General Leroy Suddath, Jr., of Savannah, will be posthumously inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame in Columbus.
His nomination and biographic information by Savannah historian Mark O’Dell and Leroy Suddath, III, cited the general’s work to create a foundation for funding and training for Rangers that led to leadership positions beyond the designated duties in special operations forces.
From the nomination: “In 1987, Suddath fought to maintain the Ranger minimum acceptable level of fill percentages at 120 percent. He argued that the Ranger Regiment was the ‘one unit in the Army that must always be ready to go right now.’ As he fought to increase Ranger capabilities within his scope of influence, he worked in concert with Army Chief of Staff John Wickham at speaking engagements to promote the importance of all special operations forces to the United States’ global mission to promote democracy.”
Major Gen. Suddath grew up in Savannah and attended Savannah High School for a year before graduating from Richmond Academy in Augusta in 1949. He attended Auburn University and the University of Georgia before leaving home to follow his family’s tradition of military service and retired in 1988 to Isle of Hope as the Commanding General of the 1st Special Operations Command. He died there in 2020.
Suddath’s Army career began as he attended West Point, where he became close friends with his roommate, Norman Schwartzkopf. After graduation in 1956, Second Lieutenant Suddath was stationed in Bamberg, Germany, until, at the age of 32, he graduated from Ranger School and was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.
In 1964, Suddath was sent to Vietnam as an advisor for the first Vietnamese Airborne Battalion. He then worked at the Pentagon in Washington D.C., until returning to Vietnam a second time. During his return to combat he received two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and worked with the Central Intelligence Agency during the Phoenix Program. His many awards include the Distinguished Service Medal.
During the 1970s Suddath held command positions in the U.S. and in Europe, including battalions in the 504th and 508th Infantry Regiments, the Chief of the Officer Personnel Division in Europe, the 5th Advanced Individual Training Brigade, and Assistant Division Commander of the 82nd Airborne.
In 1981, Brigadier General Suddath took command of the U.S. Army Berlin Brigade for three years. While there, he kept up the Cold War relations with West Germany and oversaw the operations of Spandau Prison, where Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess was imprisoned after the Nuremberg Trials.
According to the nomination, he returned to the U.S. in 1984 where he became the Commanding General of the newly formed 1st Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty), North Carolina. He was instrumental in converting the U.S. Army’s post-Vietnam War Special Forces into the powerful force it is today. By increasing its size, he ensured that the Army Rangers would always be operationally ready, paved the way for Rangers to move into senior leadership positions in the Special Operations community, and secured a footing for the U.S. Army Rangers in his hometown by stationing Ranger units at Fort Stewart and at Hunter Army Airfield. He continued to be an active member of the Ranger community and community volunteer until his death.
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