Dallas, Texas
Theodore Westhusing, then the highest-ranking officer to die in the Iraq war, was a senior faculty member at West Point who volunteered to go to war. In Iraq, the husband and father of three helped train the Iraqi army and worked in a counterterrorism and special operations unit. Westhusing, 44, died June 5 of non-combat-related injuries. He was assigned to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. He was born in Dallas and went to school in Tulsa before becoming an honor graduate from West Point in 1983. He had doctorates in Russian, philosophy and military strategy. He is survived by his wife, Michelle Westhusing, a daughter, Sarah; and two sons, Aaron and Anthony. All live in West Point.
One never forgets when they meet a person who makes a lasting impression because of a conversation shared on a flight from Houston to Tulsa for family visits—my family in Sw MO.
I have never forgotten and just happened to mention his name a week ago to the Ft. Bragg soldier husband of a friend at a dinner we were attending. There was something in his spirit that remains with me to this day.
Janice Keyes
January 20, 2024 | Houston, TX | Acquaintance
Those who know your true story, Ted, understand and love you all the more. Your children are now grown and out making their ways in the world. Your friends think about you especially when faced with moral choices in this flawed world of ours that is daily now degraded by more than flawed leaders and followers.
I think of you in Burbank, north of LA, St. Louis, Austin, and at West Point. Life lived longer just becomes more and more confusing and more and more a morass both at the...
Thomas Palaima
January 20, 2024 | Bastrop, TX | Teacher
COL. Westhusing was the 1/503 INF (AASLT) S-3 while I was the Acting CSM we were together in Korea for almost a year. Being a veteran of the 82nd Airborne we bonded pretty quickly and I soon realized the quality of his character and the depth of his knowledge. We ran many miles together (he smoked me all the time) including the infamous "Schoolhouse " run at least twice a week. While I struggled to keep up with his pace he would be calmly talking about tasks we needed to accomplish or...
Hoyle Hodges
January 19, 2024 | Work
Dear Ted, I am wrapping things up this year at UT Austin and in going through things in my office, I come upon things we did together again and again. As Dylan sings in "Murder Most Foul" about the body of our murdered president, "But his sould was not there, where it was supposed to be at, for the last sixty years they've been searching for that." Your spirit and soul lives on in all those whom you served and helped and guided and loved. I have you in my heart still and in my mind. And I...
Prof. Thomas G Palaima
September 18, 2023 | Friend
You chose the path of honor and we remember you and what you stood for and still stand for. You were so far away on June 5, 2005. And so alone. But you still reside in many hearts.
Tom Palaima
June 06, 2019 | Austin, TX
Dear Colonel Westhusing,
This year we're going up June 1, 2013. There will be six of us. Among those joining in will be a classmate of yours from USMA, John Cody. You may or may not remember him. He'll have a friend with him, Pat Nelson. Also present will be Chuck Hosking, an older gentlemen who has lived a life quite different from our own, a life devoted to peace. He had reservations about joining us, worried if he would be welcome in our company. I said of course you'll be welcome....
Alex Limkin
May 24, 2013 | Albuquerque, NM
He was a good guy only doing his job. We did have a few laughs whilst walking round Camp Dublin.
Ian Stewart(St Andrews,Scotland)Project Manager with Parsons on Camp Dublin
April 09, 2013
Never Forgotten! This is a man who created a lasting impression.
Janice Keyes
August 20, 2012 | Houston, TX
Still remembered and honored by many.
August 18, 2012
