High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Colonel Theodore S. Westhusing (November 17, 1960 – June 5, 2005), a West Point professor of English and Philosophy, volunteered to serve in Iraq in late 2004 and died in Baghdad from an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound in June 2005. At the time he was the highest ranked American to die violently in Iraq since the start of the March 2003 United States-led invasion. He was 44 years old, married with three young children.