Thomas Edward Fitzpatrick Jr.
Major General, U.S. Army

Thomas Edward Fitzpatrick Jr. was born on 19 November 1920.

Military Career

Fitzpatrick attended the U.S. Military Academy and graduated with the Class of 1945. He was then commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Field Artillery. Following graduation, he served in Japan as Battery Commander and Assistant Plans and Operations Officer, 8th Field Artillery Battalion, and as aide to the Commanding General of the 24th Infantry Division.

Following a brief tour with the 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, WA, in 1948 Fitzpatrick attended the Officers Guided Missile Course at Fort Bliss, TX. After graduating in 1949, he remained at Fort Bliss as a Guided Missile Studies Officer in the Research and Analysis Department of the Guided Missile School. After a tour in Korea, Fitzpatrick attended the University of Southern California and received a Master's Degree in Engineering.

In early 1956, he returned to Fort Bliss as a member of the Combat Developments Department. He served for the next three years as a Project Officer in the Combat Operations Division and as Chief of the Weapons Division.

After attending the Command and General Staff College in 1959, Fitzpatrick spent the next three years with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. In July 1963, he joined the Army General Staff in the Anti-Ballistic Missile Office, Office of the Chief of Research and Development. A year later, he graduated from the U. S. Army War College. He then returned to the Office of the Chief of Research and Development as Chief of the Nike X and Space Division.

From May 1967 to May 1968, Fitzpatrick served in Vietnam, first as Commanding Officer of the 52nd Artillery Group at Pleiku, and later as Executive Officer of the I Field Force Artillery. After that, he spent two years as Director of the Safeguard Central Training Facility of the U.S. Army Air Defense School at Fort Bliss.

On 1 August 1970, Brigadier General Fitzpatrick became Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Combat Development, Headquarters Army Air Defense Command (ARADCOM). In July 1972, Fitzpatrick was promoted to the rank of Major General. Lieutenant General Richard T. Cassidy, Commanding General of ARADCOM, and Mrs. Fitzpatrick pinned on the General's new stars.

In 1973, Major General Thomas E. Fitzpatrick Jr. replaced Lieutenant General C. J. LeVan as Commanding General of 32nd Army Air Defense Command at Kaiserslautern, West Germany. Following the tour of duty in Germany, in 1975 Fitzpatrick became the ranking U.S. Army General on the General Staff of the joint U.S./Canadian North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) in Colorado Springs, CO. The General Staff consisted of general officers from Canada and the U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy. In 1978, Fitzpatrick was nominated for a third star (to Lieutenant General) but declined the promotion because it would have entailed another tour of duty at the Pentagon, which he did not want.

Major General Fitzpatrick retired from active duty in 1978 in Colorado Springs.

Death and Burial

Major General Thomas Edward Fitzpatrick Jr. died on 12 October 1987. He is buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery in El Paso, TX.

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