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Colonel John M. Fitzgerald II, USA
(ret.) began his career with the US Army at the West Point Military Academy. As his son-in-law wrote, “Jack’s
year at West Point was an adventure in itself. He was turned out in June with a section one standing in
four academic subjects. Jack returned to the ranks as a Corporal and entered the University of Pittsburgh
following placement examinations as a second semester sophomore. Now a Staff Sergeant, he applied for a
commission under the ROTC act when he graduated in August 1955.”
During the late 1950s and early 1960s
Colonel Fitzgerald’s military career involved both stateside and assignments in Latin American. In
1966, Jack, now a Major, was off to Viet Nam where he was assigned as the J-2 I Corps Desk Officer in the MACV Current Intelligence
and Indications Branch. Splitting his tour between Saigon and I Corps, he earned the Legion of Merit among
other decorations and was requested by the Marine Corps as a student at their Command and Staff College which he attended
after earning his Masters Degree at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. A tour at the
Pentagon (ACSFOR) followed after which Jack assisted in the activation of the new Test and Evaluation Agency and then returned
to Viet Nam as Deputy Chief of the Four Party Joint Military Team investigating status of POW and missing allied soldiers
in North Viet Nam.”
Colonel John M. Fitzgerald retired
in 1986, after a 32 year career. He is the author of The Family in Crisis: The United States,
the Philippines, and the Second World War and O’Hara’s War. The MOAA said of The Family in Crisis: The United
States, the Philippines, and the Second World War, “Fitzgerald's book covers the period from before
WWII, through the conflict, and beyond with the emphasis on the guerilla war waged against the Japanese by Filipinos and American
stay-behinds. Included is a special section on Ferdinand Marcos and an annotated bibliography.”
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