GEN(R) Jack Merritt new USFAA Chairman.

As of 28 August 2004. General (Retired) Jack N. Merritt became the Chairman of the Board of the United States Field Artillery Association, replacing the late General (Retired) Donald R. Keith. In July, General Keith resigned from the position due to poor health and died in September. General Merritt lives in Arlington, VA.

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General Merritt had an illustrious 35-year military career, ultimately serving at the highest level of international responsibility. Rising from private to four-star general, his final assignment before retiring from the Army in October 1987 was as the US Representative on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee, the highest military body in NATO, stationed in Brussels, Belgium. Also of note, he commanded a battalion in Vietnam, was a former Chief of Field Artillery and Commanding General of Fort Sill, and he and his wife Rosemary (Ralston) are natives of Lawton, OK.

General Merritt maintained his prestigious contributions and service to the Army and nation after he retired. Among many other activities, he served for ten years as the President and Chief Operating Officer of the Association of the US Army (AUSA) in Washington, DC, remaining as President Emeritus. He currently serves as the Director and Vice Chairman of the Atlantic Council, also in DC, and as a Director and Vice Chairman of the George Catlett Marshall Foundation, Lexington, VA. He was the President of the Capital Cannoneers Chapter of the USFAA in DC for several years.

Born 23 October 1930 in Lawton, he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Field Artillery out of the FA Officer Candidate School (OCS), Fort Sill, in 1953. General Merritt commanded a battery in Korea and one in Germany and was both a Cannon and Missile Gunnery Instructor at the Field Artillery School. Fort Sill. In 1968, he commanded the 3d Battalion, 34th Field Artillery, part of the 9th Infantry Division, in Vietnam. He went on to serve at the White House on the staff of the National Security Council and then, in 1973, commanded the 1st Cavalry Division Artillery at Fort Hood, TX.

While at Fort Hood, he moved up to 1st Cav Chief of Staff in 1975 and then, as a Brigadier General, on to Assistant Division Commander in 1976. Major General Merritt became the Commandant of the Field Artillery School and Commanding General of Fort Sill in 1977. He served in that capacity until 1980 when he became the Commandant of the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, PA.

As a Lieutenant General, he became the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) Deputy Commander for Combined Arms, where he simultaneously served as Commandant of the Command and Staff College and Commander of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth, KS, among other responsibilities.

In 1983, General Merritt became the Director of the Joint Staff for the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Pentagon. He pinned on his fourth star and served as the highest ranking US military officer in NATO before his retirement in 1987.

General Merritt is a former Chairman of the Marshall Legacy Institute in VA and former Chairman of the Advisory Council to the Board of Visitors of the Citadel in SC. He is a Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and a Member of the Board of Visitors of the International Programs Center at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, among other organizations. He holds an Honorary Doctorate in Military Science from the Citadel and an MS in Business Administration from George Washington University in DC and is a Member of the Field Artillery OCS Hall of Fame and the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. He is a Director on the Boards of four corporations.

His decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal (2 awards), Army Distinguished Service Medal (2 awards), Silver Star and Legion of Merit (2 awards).