Richard K. Sutherland - Between The Wars

Between The Wars

Returning to the United States, Sutherland married Josephine Whiteside in 1920. They had one child, a daughter named Natalie.

Sutherland was an instructor at the United States Army Infantry School from 1920 to 1923 and professor of military science and tactics at the Shattuck School from 1923 to 1928. He graduated from the Command and General Staff College in 1928. Fluent in French, he attended the École supérieure de guerre in 1930. From 1932 and 1933 he attended the U.S. Army War College. He then served with the Operations and Training Division of the War Department General Staff.

In 1937 he went to Tientsin, China, in command of a battalion of the 15th Infantry; however, he was not promoted to major until March 1938, when he was assigned to the Office of the Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government (Philippines), Manila, under General Douglas MacArthur with the "local rank" of lieutenant colonel. He was promoted to the rank in July of that year. Sutherland soon eased his superior, Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower out of his position and became MacArthur's chief of staff.