Jack Treadwell was born on March 30, 1919, in Ashland, Alabama. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on January 28, 1941, and was trained as an infantryman, serving with the 180th Infantry Regiment of the 45th Infantry Division throughout World War II. He deployed with the unit to North Africa in June 1943, participating in the amphibious assault on Sicily in July 1943, Salerno in September 1943, Southern France in August 1944, having received a battlefield commission on March 23, 1944. Capt Treadwell was wounded in March 1945, and after hospitalization, he returned to duty with the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, in March 1946. His next assignment was with the 7th Infantry Regiment at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, from April 1948 to September 1949, followed by attending the Armored School at Fort Knox, Kentucky, from September 1949 to August 1950. Maj Treadwell served as a company commander and executive officer with the 350th Infantry Regiment in Austria from August 1950 to December 1952, and then as Aide-de-Camp to the commander of 1st U.S. Army at Fort Jay, New York, from December 1952 to July 1954. He next completed Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and then served as a the Headquarters commandant of the Army Forces on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands from September 1955 to September 1956. Col Treadwell returned to the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning from September 1956 to August 1958, followed by Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, from August 1958 to February 1959. His next assignment was at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, from February 1959 to August 1961, followed by Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, from August 1961 to September 1962. Col Treadwell next completed a degree program at the University of Omaha from September 1962 to July 1963, and then served as on the staff of Headquarters U.S. Army Europe and as a battalion commander in Germany from July 1963 to July 1966. He served as the Chief of the U.S. Army Infantry Center at Fort Benning from July to November 1966, and then served as commander of the 197th Infantry Brigade at Fort Benning until August 1968. Col Treadwell served as Chief of Staff of the Americal Divison in Vietnam from October 1968 to March 1969, and then as commander of the 11th Infantry Brigade in Vietnam from March to September 1969. He served with Headquarters 4th U.S. Army (redesignated 5th U.S. Army in June 1971) at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, from October 1969 to June 1972, followed by service as Senior Army Advisor to the Army Reserve at Columbia, South Carolina, from July 1972 until his retirement from the Army on March 1, 1974. Jack Treadwell died on December 12, 1977, and was buried at the Fort Sill Post Cemetery in Lawton, Oklahoma.

His Medal of Honor Citation reads:

Capt. Treadwell (then 1st Lt.), commanding officer of Company F, near Nieder-Wurzbach, Germany, in the Siegfried line, single-handedly captured 6 pillboxes and 18 prisoners. Murderous enemy automatic and rifle fire with intermittent artillery bombardments had pinned down his company for hours at the base of a hill defended by concrete fortifications and interlocking trenches. Eight men sent to attack a single point had all become casualties on the hare slope when Capt. Treadwell, armed with a submachinegun and hand grenades, went forward alone to clear the way for his stalled company. Over the terrain devoid of cover and swept by bullets, he fearlessly advanced, firing at the aperture of the nearest pillbox and, when within range, hurling grenades at it. He reached the pillbox, thrust the muzzle of his gun through the port, and drove 4 Germans out with their hands in the air. A fifth was found dead inside. Waving these prisoners back to the American line, he continued under terrible, concentrated fire to the next pillbox and took it in the same manner. In this fort he captured the commander of the hill defenses, whom he sent to the rear with the other prisoners. Never slackening his attack, he then ran across the crest of the hill to a third pillbox, traversing this distance in full view of hostile machine gunners and snipers. He was again successful in taking the enemy position. The Germans quickly fell prey to his further rushes on 3 more pillboxes in the confusion and havoc caused by his whirlwind assaults and capture of their commander. Inspired by the electrifying performance of their leader, the men of Company F stormed after him and overwhelmed resistance on the entire hill, driving a wedge into the Siegfried line and making it possible for their battalion to take its objective. By his courageous willingness to face nearly impossible odds and by his overwhelming one-man offensive, Capt. Treadwell reduced a heavily fortified, seemingly impregnable enemy sector.