November 17, 1960 - June 5, 2005

Theodore Westhusing was a West Point professor who volunteered to serve in Iraq. Westhusing graduated from West Point in 1983. He left for Iraq near the end of 2004 and was helping train the Iraqi army, working as counter-terrorism and special operations director under Lt. Gen. David Petraeus.

He wrote a number of columns on his military experience that were printed in West Point and elsewhere. Among them was an opinion piece that appeared in The Tulsa Tribune on the eve of the first Iraq war in December 1990. In it, he detailed the nature of the modern soldier.

“In the minds of friend and foe alike, our Army is, without a doubt, the best-trained, best-equipped, best-led and most intelligent of any in our nation’s history,” he wrote. “Our soldiers are recognized as the world’s finest.”

He was an adviser for the movie “Troy.” He explained military planning and troop movement to filmmakers.