Major General Leroy N. Suddath, Jr., age 89, died on February 27th, 2020 at St. Joseph’s Hospital.
Born in Savannah on February 21,1931 at the Old Oglethorpe Sanitarium to Lucille and Leroy Suddath, he was the youngest of five children including Tom, Bill, Mary Ann and Lucille. He attended Charles Ellis School, Richard Arnold Junior High School, Savannah High School, Georgia Military College and then graduated from Richmond Academy in Augusta where he was an All-GIAA Basketball player. He attended Auburn University on a basketball scholarship and the University of Georgia before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1956 and was commissioned a second Lieutenant of Infantry.
He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College, The Foreign Service Institute, The National War College and the Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security.
He served two and a half years in Vietnam as an advisor to the 8th Vietnamese Airborne Battalion; as the Commander, Second Battalion, 28th Infantry, First Infantry Division; and in a special assignment with the Central Intelligence Agency.
He participated in eight campaigns and was decorated six times for gallantry in action. His awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal; two Silver Star Medals; the Distinguished Flying Cross; Five Bronze Star Medals, the Vietnamese Service Medal with eight campaign stars; the Order of Saint Maurice, The Master Parachutist Badge, the Ranger Tab and the Combat Infantry Badge. He was inducted into the Richmond Academy Hall of Fame in 2015.
His General Officer assignments include the Assistant Division Commander, 82nd Airborne Division; Provost Marshal General, U.S. Army, Europe and Seventh Army; Commanding General U.S. Army Berlin Brigade; and the Commanding General U.S. Army Special Operations Command, consisting of Special Forces, Rangers, Special Operations Aviation, Psychological Operations and Civil Affairs Units.
General Suddath retired from the Army in 1988 and served as a consultant to Defense related industries and lastly, as the President for VnVets, GP, Inc. He was a member of the Savannah Golf Club and served on the Board of Managers. He was a communicant of Saint John’s Episcopal Church and a member of the vestry and former President of the Men of St. John’s. He was a member of the Society of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS); a member of the West Point Society of Savannah, the Harvard Club of Georgia and the Army Navy Club of Washington, DC. He was a former member of the Chatham Dove Club, The Forest City Gun Club, The Special Forces Club of London, England and the Augusta Country Club.
He is survived by his wife of 64 years, the former Carole Walker Connolly and daughters Lucille and Ann Cooper, Son Leroy III, son-in-law Bill McCampbell and granddaughters Kristen Carol Henderson and Laura Pauline McCampbell, and grandsons Michael Ellerbe, Jr. and Colin McCampbell.
Memorial services will be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Monday, March 2nd at 2 P.M. followed by a reception at The Green-Meldrim House. General Suddath will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery with his brothers, William O’Neal Suddath and Thomas Howle Suddath.
