During World War II (1939–1945) he served in an Army Railway Operating Battalion and ran engines in the Philippines and Korea.

[2] As president he initiated programs to fight abuse of drugs and alcohol by railway workers, while resisting random checks of employees using breathalyzers and sniffer dogs.

[1] In September 1981 President Ronald Reagan imposed a three-month cooling-off period and three-year no-strike agreement to end a railway worker's dispute.

Sytsma held out for a guarantee that locomotive engineers would retain their 15% salary differential over other train crew members.

[6] In May 1986 Sytsma was involved in negotiations with Amtrak over a dispute that could have led to a strike affecting hundreds of thousands of commuters on the east coast of the US.

He worked with the Salt Lake County Fire Department for many years as a volunteer photographer, until losing his sight due to macular degeneration.