Necrology

Winant Sidle '38

Sep. 7, 1916-Mar. 19, 2005

Winant Sidle ’38, a retired major general and onetime chief of information for the U.S. Army, who became well known for the “Sidle Commission” recommendations on news coverage of military operations, was born on September 7, 1916, in Springfield, OH. The elder of two sons of Don R. Sidle ’11, an insurance broker, and the former Helen L. Winant, “Si” Sidle grew up in the Philadelphia, PA, suburb of Lansdowne and was graduated from Lansdowne High School as president of his class. His father having just lost his insurance business to bankruptcy during that Depression era, he relied on scholarship aid to enter Hamilton in 1934. On the Hill he became a member of Sigma Phi and one of the most active students on campus. He lettered in baseball and football, and served as associate and sports editor of Hamilton Life, business manager of the Hamiltonian, and editor of the student handbook. President of the journalism honorary Pi Delta Epsilon, he also chaired the Honor Court, served on the Executive Committee and as president of the Interfraternity Council, and was elected vice president of his class. Tapped by Quadrangle, DT, and Pentagon, he left the Hill with his diploma in 1938.

After a year of law school at the University of Pennsylvania, Si Sidle was compelled for financial reasons to go to work as a salesman for Atlantic Refining Co. in Philadelphia. When the first draft drawings were held in October 1940, prior to American entry into World War II, his number was the 10th one out of the fishbowl. As a consequence he became one of the first “draft-motivated” volunteers by enlisting in an artillery battalion of the Pennsylvania National Guard. After his battalion was federalized in early 1941, he earned an officer’s commission in the field artillery. While stationed in North Carolina, Lt. Sidle met Anne M. Brown. They were married on September 30, 1942, in Charlotte.

During World War II, Si Sidle served in North Africa and Italy, where he participated in the landings at Anzio. He subsequently served in France and occupied Germany and Austria as a battalion commander. After the war in 1946, having decided to remain in the peacetime Army, he obtained a regular commission as a major. He was to remain in uniform for another 30 years, including five tours of duty at the Pentagon in addition to “meritorious service” with the 3rd Infantry Division Artillery as a battalion commander in Korea during the conflict there. It also resulted in the addition of an oak leaf cluster to his Bronze Star.

Earlier, in 1949, Si Sidle had earned an M.A. degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin. That year he was selected by Gen. Albert C. Wedemeyer as a speech writer, which caused Si to be doubly grateful for his training in public speaking at Hamilton. He later wrote speeches for three Army Chiefs of Staff as well as a chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Throughout his military career he would more or less alternate between assignments as an information officer and artillery commander. Along the way he was being groomed for higher rank through postings to the Army’s Command and General Staff College and its War College.

In 1963, Si Sidle was posted to the Pentagon as the Army’s assistant chief of information and later military assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Promoted to brigadier general, he remained in Washington until 1967, when he was appointed chief of information for the U.S. Military Assistance Command in Vietnam. There he had the difficult task of dealing with skeptical reporters covering an unpopular war. He did so with great integrity, earning their respect as well as that of his “boss,” General William C. Westmoreland.

In 1969, after briefly commanding field artillery troops in combat in Vietnam, Si Sidle returned to Washington as the Department of the Army’s chief of information. He received his second star as a major general in 1970. Three years later, he returned to the field as deputy commanding general of the Fifth Army. By 1974, however, he was back in Washington as deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. He retired after 35 years with the Army in 1975. Following three years as director of regional activities for the Association of the United States Army, a private organization active in support of the military, he went to work for Martin Marietta Aerospace in Orlando, FL, becoming its director of public relations and later Martin Marietta’s first director of corporate ethics.

In the wake of the invasion of Grenada in 1983, when there was media outrage over the exclusion of journalists from the scene and subsequent restrictions on island access, Gen. John W. Vesey, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appointed Gen. Sidle to chair a commission to investigate and offer recommendations on news coverage of future military operations. Made up of seven military officers and seven journalists, the “Sidle Commission” concluded that the media had a right to combat access to the maximum degree possible, and recommended that the Defense Department create press pools to assure both operational security and the safety of journalists. It reflected Gen. Sidle’s own view of journalism in time of war: “It should not be a lap dog, and it should not be an attack dog. It should be a watchdog.” The commission’s recommendations were substantially adopted by the Defense Department and have governed military-media relations to a great extent since.

Gen. Sidle, a genial pipe smoker given to both friendliness and candor, retired from Martin Marietta to Southern Pines, NC, in 1990. Always active in community affairs wherever he was posted, he had chaired United Way fund drives and served as senior warden of several Episcopal churches as well as a member of the board of Rollins College. A self-described “lousy” golfer but by all reports a good bowler, he also enjoyed gardening and refinishing furniture in his spare time.

Winant Sidle died at his home in Southern Pines on March 19, 2005, of complications from a stroke. Besides his wife of 62 years, he is survived by three sons, Douglas W., Peter B., and Andrew M. Sidle; two daughters, Meredith Hackett and Susan Callahan; and seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Gen. Sidle’s brother, Paul R. Sidle ’47, predeceased him in 1995.

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