[1][2][3] Born in Rockdale, Texas and raised in Dallas, Vittrup attended Southern Methodist University for one year before being appointed to the United States Military Academy.

[2][3] After the war, Vittrup commanded the 33rd Infantry Regiment at Fort Kobbe in the Panama Canal Zone.

As a brigadier general, he was chief of the Army section of the Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group in Athens, Greece from August 1952 to September 1953.

[2][3] In 1958, while serving as the Army’s deputy commander for operations in the Pacific, Vittrup negotiated a military aid package with Indonesia.

[2][3][5] Their son John Frederick Vittrup (20 April 1933 – 28 December 1968) was an U.S. Army major and physician.