Col. Sue Ann Sandusky (Ret.) passed away at a nursing home in Findlay, Ohio, on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, after a battle with muscular system atrophy. She was 72.
An accomplished competitive shooter, Sandusky was a two-time member of the U.S. Randle Team (1978, 1980) and made the U.S. Dewar Team (1978). She also served on the NRA Collegiate Committee and the NRA International Competitions Committee from 1978 to 1987. Additionally, Sandusky was named to the NRA Smallbore All-American team as a member of the Texas Christian University rifle team in 1972, 1973 and 1974.
She was born in Houston, Texas, in January 1952. As a high school student in Findlay, Ohio, she began competitive rifle shooting. In 1971, she joined the Texas Christian University rifle team.
In May 1975, she enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve and was one of only a handful of women shooters recruited for the Army Reserve International Rifle Team that year.
“It was a phone call from Margaret Murdock that did it,” Sandusky said about how she joined the team after receiving a surprise long-distance recruiting pitch from one of the world’s greatest woman shooters.
During her time in the Army Reserve, Sandusky shot in dozens of national and international competitions. She received the Distinguished International Shooter Badge after her medal-winning performance in the 1977 Championships of the Americas (individual gold in women’s standard rifle prone, plus team golds in women’s standard rifle prone and in women’s air rifle). She repeated the performance at the World Shooting Championships in Seoul, Korea, the following year.
In 1981, Sandusky received a direct commission as a first lieutenant in her Army Reserve unit in New York. She soon found herself serving as a range officer and tower talker during the Small Arms Firing School at Camp Perry, Ohio. Sandusky said that experience reinforced her determination to become “double Distinguished” by earning the Distinguished Rifleman Badge for service rifle shooting. By the time she got to her officer basic course, she had racked up several points toward that goal and wore a bronze “leg badge” (Excellence-in-Competition Badge) alongside her Distinguished International Shooter Badge to prove it. Unfortunately, the commander of the student officer company did not recognize the “do-dads,” as he called them, and ordered Sandusky to take the badges off. She obliged, but sent the captain a copy of the pertinent Army regulation. Later, the company commander rescinded his order and remarked that Sandusky was even wearing the badges correctly.
While in the Army Reserve, she balanced shooting activities with other military duties, serving in drilling units in Texas, Georgia and New York, and in the Army Reserve Control Group when she lived in the United Kingdom. In her civilian life during this period, she combined graduate study with working as a journalist, freelance writer and researcher. Sandusky earned master’s degrees at the University of London and at Columbia University in New York City. Her education paid off when she went on active duty as an instructor in the Department of Social Sciences at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In addition, she was the Officer Representative (faculty advisor) to the cadet rifle team.
In 1983, Sandusky was a member of the U.S. team for the Conseil International du Sport Militaire (CISM) held at Fort Benning (now Fort Moore), Georgia, where she won a silver medal in women’s smallbore standard rifle 3x20. Later that year, she was a non-shooting alternate on the U.S. team at the World Air Gun Championships in Austria. Her training intensified in 1984, but after she lost a shoot-off for a place on the 1984 Olympic Team, she reprioritized her activities a bit, putting greater emphasis on support activities. Sandusky served as the alternate representative for the shooting sports on the U.S. Olympic Committee, and she was a member of the UIT Women’s Committee from 1984 to 1988.
When her West Point assignment ended in 1987, she had a temporary assignment with the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit en route to her officer’s advanced course. Shooting in service rifle competitions that summer, she earned both the Distinguished Rifleman Badge and the President’s Hundred Tab. Her final shooting event was in October 1987, as a member of the U.S. team at the CISM championships in Sweden, where she won a silver medal in women’s smallbore standard rifle 3x20, just as she had done in 1983.
After completing her advanced officer course, she was assigned to the headquarters of U.S. Forces Korea in Seoul. Arriving in the summer of 1988, just ahead of the Olympic Games, she worked in the headquarters section that provided liaison and support functions for the U.S. Olympic team. As a result, she was able to spend quite a bit of time at multiple Olympic venues, including the same range where she won her World Championship title in 1978.
Although Sandusky still thought of herself as a competitive shooter during the next 25 years, she had little contact with the sport. Instead, her Army career took her to different conflict zones. Selected to serve as a Foreign Area Officer (regional specialist) for Sub-Saharan Africa, she attended staff college in Zimbabwe, then served as the U.S. Defense attaché in several African countries experiencing war or instability—Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Nigeria.
Sandusky’s other assignments included the then-new NATO rapid reaction corps headquarters, based in Germany, plus deployments to Bosnia and Croatia as part of the Implementation Force, working to bring stability to the former Yugoslavia.
After spending years overseas, Sandusky was assigned to the U.S., serving as the Director of African Studies at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, from 2006 to 2007, then as Commandant of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center and the Commander of the Presidio of Monterey from 2007 to 2010.
For her final assignment, she returned to Liberia as the Senior Defense Official and Defense attaché at the U.S. Embassy for a two-year stint from 2010 to 2012. On Liberian Armed Forces Day in 2012, the President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, presented her with the Distinguished Service Order of Liberia.
Sandusky retired from the U.S. Army in January 2013 after nearly 38 years of combined active and reserve service. That year, she returned to northwestern Ohio to care for her elderly parents. She also completed a Ph.D. in higher education administration at Bowling Green State University, also working part-time as an adjunct instructor at Tiffin University, teaching national security and government courses from 2015 to 2021.
Two years ago, she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, which has greatly impacted her mobility. “And, of course, no more shooting,” she said at the time. “I’m trying to stay cheerful and I’m thankful to God for His many blessings.”
A funeral for Sue Ann Sandusky will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Findlay, Ohio, at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, November 7, 2024. Her burial at Arlington National Cemetery will be scheduled in the next year.
Legends: Sue Ann Sandusky
January 20, 1952 – October 29, 2024
