Born in 1925,[1] Starry graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1948 as a second lieutenant of armor, after having enlisted as a private in 1943.

On May 5, 1970, Starry was wounded by a North Vietnamese grenade that also wounded future Army general Frederick Franks, Jr.[2] In 1973, Starry became commanding general of United States Army Armor Center and School, and then commander of V Corps (1976–1977), in the Federal Republic of Germany.

[3] Later, as commander of TRADOC, Starry formulated AirLand Battle doctrine and such minutiae as the Joint Air Attack Team Tactics, which prepared the Army for warfighting into the twenty-first century.

Starry viewed his predecessor at TRADOC, William DePuy, as overly simplistic in his version of Operations, ignoring the human dimension and ultimately rejected it as “too mechanical, too mathematically certain, too specific” in favour of AirLand Battle.

While the V Corps commander in Europe, Starry realized that the Soviet Army modified their doctrine to include multi-pronged attacks across multiple axis of advance.

Later his two-volume of select stories, papers, articles, and book excerpts were edited by Lewis Sorley called Press On!

Starry was also one of twenty-one signers, all retired flag officers, of a letter to John McCain supporting the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.