J. Edward Houseworth

COL (US Army, Retired) J. Edward Houseworth III of Springfield, Virginia, passed to his final rest on 9 March, 2014, at Fairfax Hospital. COL Houseworth, the son of a World War I veteran and mother who later rose to GS-13 with the Department of Labor Statistics, was born on June 30, 1922. The eldest of three sons, he attended public schools in Philadelphia, graduating from Overbrook High School. He worked part-time as a bookkeeper and sold programs at University of Pennsylvania football games where he honed his love of the sport. Continuing with the family’s passion for service to their country, he set his sights on the United States Military Academy. While waiting for his successful Entrance Examination score to rise through a crowded pool of applicants, he bussed overnight to Durham, North Carolina, presenting his West Point test scores to the Dean of Admissions at Duke University. Accepted on the spot, he waited tables and did odd jobs to defray his expenses for an academic year. With the increasing hostilities of World War Two, he left Duke to enlist in the U.S. Army, serving with a Coast Artillery Battery in Fort Monroe, Virginia. After a brief enlisted period of service he entered the U.S. Military Academy as a member of the Class of 1946. Upon graduation with a commission in the Field Artillery, he was sent with a contingent of classmates to Flight School in Oklahoma. While there, he met and courted Miss Miriam Hastings, a student at Oklahoma College for Women, in Chickasha. They married in May, 1947, and he was immediately posted – unaccompanied – to the Occupation Forces in Japan. After his wife joined him, they served out his tour and returned to Ft. Bliss, Texas where their first son was born. Subsequent Field Artillery assignments took them to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina; Ft. Sill, Oklahoma where their second son was born; the University of Pennsylvania for a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering; back to Oklahoma; then to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, for the Command and General Staff School, where their third son was born. From there, then Captain Houseworth was assigned – unaccompanied – to the islands of Quemoy and Matsu as an advisor to the Republic of China Army during the 1958 Taiwan Straits Conflict. While living in caves with his Taiwanese artillery counterparts, he advised them on counter-battery and direct fire defensive tactics in the face of shelling of the islands by forces of the Peoples Republic of China. After this combat tour, his family joined him in Taiwan while he was assigned as an advisor to the Taiwanese Army Field Artillery Training Center in Chia-yi. From there, he and the family transferred to Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, where he was assigned to the Army’s Electronics Command as the Combat Developments Command Liaison Officer. While there, he participated in the Army’s early adaptation of laser-based communications applications and technologies. At the completion of a four-year tour, he was assigned as the Senior Army Advisor to the Republic of Vietnam Regional Forces in Pleiku, Vietnam. While living among the indigenous Montagnard people, he advised senior South Vietnamese Army commanders in combat tactics and operations against both local guerilla and regular North Vietnamese forces. He returned to the United States and was posted to the Army Materiel Command in Washington, DC. In 1971, he was posted again to the Republic of Vietnam where he served as the Deputy Science Advisor, Headquarters, Military Assistance Command. While in this assignment, he participated in the testing and validation of many sensing and reconnaissance technologies now employed in both military and civilian applications. His return to Washington, DC, posted him to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). He retired in 1976. After a brief stint as a Senior Analyst with Braddock, Dunn and McDonald, he returned to Civil Service to support the fledgling Army Space Programs Office from which he retired again in 1989. Throughout his military and civilian careers, and into retirement, COL Houseworth devoted a great amount of his personal time, energy and resources to his community, his church, to the Boy Scouts of America and to Young Life. He served on local boards of both the Boy Scouts of America, and, with his wife, the Northern Virginia Young Life organization. He served three times as an Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Annandale where he was a long-time usher and delivered Meals on Wheels to shut-in members of the congregation. Additionally, he and his wife volunteered at the Kennedy Center for over 20 years. As an ardent supporter of his alma mater, he served his class in many alumni association roles and coordinated many activities both in the metropolitan Washington area and at West Point. He is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Miriam; three sons, Lawrence of Bethesda, Maryland, Dr. Stephen of Shreveport, Louisiana and David of Sacramento, California. He also leaves 5 loving grandchildren, numerous nephews, nieces, associates, friends, fellow congregants of First Presbyterian Church, neighbors and the West Point Class of 1946. Visitation will be from 2-4 and 6-8 PM, Friday, 14 March 2014 at DeMaine Funeral Home, 5308 Backlick Road, Springfield, VA 22151, 703-941-9428. A memorial service will be held at 1:00 PM, Saturday, 15 March, 2014, at the First Presbyterian Church of Annandale, 7610 Newcastle Dr, Annandale, VA 22003, (703) 941-3300. Memorial donations may be sent to Young Life or to the First Presbyterian Church of Annandale. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.