Major General Winant Sidle A Tribute Major General Winant Sidle, U. S. Army (Retired) died on March 19 at his home in Southern Pines, N.C. and was buried on June 3, 2005, at Arlington National Cemetery. The following is a brief tribute to his significant contributions in the development of procedures and guidelines for combat news coverage. Following the invasion of the island of Grenada by U. S. military forces in the fall of 1983 and the problems in handling media coverage, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John W. Vessey, Jr. created a panel of 14 experts from both the military and the media to examine the Grenada operation and recommend how to best accommodate the legitimate needs of the news media in reporting on military operations in the future. Gen. Vessey directed the panel to answer, “how do we conduct military operations in a manner that safeguards the lives of our military and protects the security of the operation, while keeping the American public informed through the media?” Retired Army Major General Winant Sidle was selected to head this project. A veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam, and a former chief of information for the U. S. Army (1969-1973) and deputy secretary of defense for public affairs (1974-1975), Sidle formed the Military-Media Relations Panel, more commonly known as the “Sidle Panel,” to address the question. The panel’s answer laid the foundation of how the media reports military operations as we know it today. The panel was comprised of various media representatives and public affairs officers from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) and operations spokespersons from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and each of the armed services. The commission met in February 1984 for a weeklong conference at Fort McNair in Washington, DC that included both media and military presentations in an open session and panel deliberations in a closed session. At the conference’s conclusion, the Sidle Panel presented eight recommendations and a Statement of Principle to govern military-media relations. Gen. Sidle’s cover letter to the Chairman, JCS in 1984 follows: Letter to General John W. Vessey, Jr. Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff The Pentagon Washington, DC “Finally, there is the matter of responsibility of the media. Although this is touched on in the report, and there is no doubt that the news organization representatives who appeared before us fully recognized their responsibilities, we feel we should state emphatically that reporters and editors alike must exercise responsibility in covering military operations. As one of the senior editors who appeared before us said, ‘The media must cover military operations comprehensively, intelligently, and objectively.’ The American people deserve news coverage of this quality and nothing less. It goes without saying, of course, that the military also has a concurrent responsibility, that of making it possible for the media to provide such coverage. The members of the panel have also asked me to express their appreciation for being asked to participate in this important study and their hope that our work will be of value to the military, the media, and to the American people.” Winant Sidle Major General, U. S. Army, Retired Submitted by: Major Fred C. Lash, United States Marine Corps (Retired) Member, Sidle Panel (CJCS Commission on Military-Media Relations) 7020 Maple Tree Lane Springfield, VA 22152