Winant Sidle, 88, an Army major general who came out of retirement to chair a commission on combat news coverage, died March 19 of complications from a stroke at his home in Southern Pines, N.C., where he had lived the past 15 years.
During five tours of duty at the Pentagon, he lived at Fort Myer, in Springfield and in Alexandria before moving to North Carolina.
Gen. Winant Sidle also worked for Martin Marietta Aerospace.
(Family Photo)
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Gen. Sidle, who was trained as a journalist, chaired the commission at the request of Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The group, composed of seven military people and six media representatives, investigated the Pentagon's decision to bar journalists from covering the invasion of Grenada in 1983 and to severely restrict their access in the days after the invasion. The media complained mightily.
The Sidle Commission called for the creation of press pools to protect both operational security and reporters during fast-moving military operations, while providing media coverage of military operations to the maximum degree possible. The commission proposed that the pool remain in place "for the minimum time possible" before switching to full media coverage.
At a ceremony two years later honoring war correspondents, Gen. Sidle spoke of the role of the media in war. "It should not be a lap dog, and it should not be an attack dog," he said. "It should be a watchdog."
Winant "Si" Sidle was born in Springfield, Ohio, and grew up in Lansdowne, Pa. He graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., in 1938 and received a master's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin in 1949.
He enlisted in the Pennsylvania National Guard in December 1940; his unit, the 1st Battalion, 166th Field Artillery Regiment, was activated a month later.
During World War II, he served in North Africa, Italy (including the Anzio landing), France, Germany and Austria. After the war he joined the regular Army.
In addition to service in Korea during the Korean conflict, he was the Army's chief of information in Saigon during the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1969, and chief of information for the Army itself from 1969 to 1973. He was deputy assistant secretary of defense for public affairs in 1974-75.
After retiring in 1975, Gen. Sidle joined the Association of the United States Army as director of regional activities, before joining Martin Marietta Aerospace in Orlando, Fla., in 1978. At Martin Marietta, he was director of public relations and the company's first director of corporate ethics.
Gen. Sidle, who retired a second time in 1990, was active in community life wherever he was posted. He coached Little League baseball in Springfield, worked with United Way wherever he lived and sang tenor in the choir at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Springfield. He also was senior warden at several Episcopal congregations.
Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Anne Brown Sidle of Pinehurst; five children, Douglas Winant Sidle of Richmond, Peter Brown Sidle of Alexandria, Andrew Mullen Sidle of DeKalb, Ill., Meredith Sidle Hackett of Herndon and Susan Sidle Callahan of West Chester, Pa.; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
