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Generals
General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)
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Douglas MacArthur lived his entire life, in the United States Army. He spent his early years in remote sections of New Mexico, where his father, Arthur MacArthur Jr., commanded an infantry company charged with protecting settlers and railroad workers from the Indian "menace." As a teenager, Arthur had served with distinction in the Union Army, eventually earning the Congressional Medal of Honor for leading a courageous assault up Missionary Ridge in Tennessee.
When Douglas was six, Captain MacArthur was assigned to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. Three years later the family moved to Washington, D.C., where Arthur took a post in the War Department. During these formative years, Douglas was able to spend time with his grandfather, Judge Arthur MacArthur, a man of considerable accomplishment and charm. As his grandfather entertained Washington's elite, Douglas learned another valuable lesson: a MacArthur is a scholar and a gentleman.
Douglas, who had always been an unremarkable student, first started to reveal his own intellectual gifts when his father was posted to San Antonio, Texas, in 1893. There he attended the West Texas Military Academy, thriving in an atmosphere which combined academics, religion, military discipline and Victorian social graces. By virtue of his excellent record there, his family's political connections and top scores on the qualifying exam, Douglas received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1898. Over the next four years, he would achieve one of the finest records in Academy history. General Arthur MacArthur -- back from the Philippines, where he had helped defeat the Spanish and served as military governor -- looked on proudly as his son graduated first in the class of 1903.
What became a lasting connection with the Philippines began with Douglas' first assignment out of West Point, when the young Lieutenant sailed to the islands to work with a corps of engineers. Douglas came away from the trip firmly convinced that America's future -- and his own -- lay in Asia.
One of Douglas's next assignments included service as an aide in Theodore Roosevelt's White House. But when he found himself in a tedious engineering assignment in Milwaukee in 1907, his performance dropped and he received a poor evaluation. To add to his confusion, he had fallen in love with a New York debutante named Fanniebelle, and his brilliant career prospects seemed to wane. But Douglas made amends in his next assignment, at the staff college at Leavenworth, and when his father died in 1912 he was transferred to the War Department in Washington, so that he could care for his mother. While there he was taken under the wing of Chief of Staff Leonard Wood, a protege of his father, and his career was again firmly on track. In 1915 MacArthur was promoted to major and the following year became the Army's first public relations officer, performing so well that he is largely credited with selling the American people on the Selective Service Act of 1917, as the country moved ever closer to joining the war in Europe.
Even though his record to that point had been excellent, the First World War gave Douglas MacArthur his first real measure of fame. Quickly promoted to brigadier general, he helped lead the Rainbow Division -- which he had helped create out of National Guard units before the war -- through the thick of the fighting in France. With a flamboyant, romantic style matched only by real feats of courage on the battlefield, MacArthur became the most decorated American soldier of the war.
While his peers were demoted to their pre-war ranks, MacArthur kept his through a plum new assignment as Superintendent of West Point. Although he antagonized many of the old guard, MacArthur made good on his mandate to drag the moribund Academy into the 20th century, enabling it to produce officers fit to lead the country in the type of modern war he had just experienced first hand. He also managed to get married -- to Louise Cromwell Brooks, a vivacious flapper and heiress very different from her spit-and-polish second husband. A minor scandal erupted when Chief of Staff John J. Pershing -- with whom Louise had had an affair during the war -- shipped MacArthur from West Point to a makeshift assignment in the Philippines. Although disappointed, MacArthur was glad to be back in his beloved islands; Louise, used to the glamorous society of cities like New York and Paris, was not pleased. Even after their return to the States in 1925, the marriage continued to deteriorate. Louise filed for divorce in 1928. Once again, MacArthur found solace in the Philippines, where he took command of the Army's Philippine Department and renewed a friendship with the island's leading politician, Manuel Quezon, whom he had known since 1903.
Although he and Quezon failed in their bid to have MacArthur named governor of the Philippines, President Hoover helped take the sting out of it by naming MacArthur to the Army's top job, Chief of Staff, in 1930. But the early '30s were a trying time to be Chief, when the Great Depression made Americans deaf to MacArthur's warnings about the rising tide of world fascism. Despite his able leadership, the Army fell to all-time lows in strength under his watch. This, along with the damage to his reputation from the Bonus March of 1932, when he very visibly led army troops in routing impoverished World War I vets from the capital, made MacArthur receptive to other opportunities. Once again, he was drawn to the Philippines. In 1935, his old friend Quezon, President of the newly created Philippine Commonwealth, invited him to return to Manila as head of a U.S. military mission charged with preparing the islands for full independence in 1946.
The next few years were among the happiest in MacArthur's life. On his way to Manila, he met and fell in love with 37-year-old Jean Marie Faircloth from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. When Pinky died shortly after their arrival in Manila, Jean helped fill the void, and her devotion would remain a source of strength for the rest of his life. After the birth of their son, Arthur MacArthur IV, the 58-year-old general proved a doting father. But their blissful life in Manila was slowly overshadowed by the growing threat posed by an expansionist Japan. MacArthur, despite the able assistance of top aide Dwight Eisenhower, would not have enough time or money to build a force capable of resisting the Japanese. When war finally came with the blow at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Philippines was doomed: MacArthur's air force was quickly destroyed, his army shredded, and by January his forces had retreated to the Bataan peninsula, where they struggled to survive. From his command post on the island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay, MacArthur watched his world fall apart.
to be continued ...
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From this day till the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered ,we Band Of Brothers Henry V-W.Shakespear
Eendracht maakt Macht !
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6/3/2004, 2:04 pm
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Sgt Eagle
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MacArthur
But despite MacArthur's poor showing in the Philippines, President Roosevelt knew he couldn't let America's most famous general fall to the enemy, and ordered him to withdraw to Australia. Although it ran counter to his notion of a soldier's duty, MacArthur left his men facing sure destruction, comforted only by the belief that he might lead an army back to rescue them. For the next three years, the world watched as his personal quest -- "I shall return" -- became almost synonymous with the war in the Pacific. Although MacArthur's path through the dense jungles of New Guinea was hardly imagined in the initial war plans, his singleminded drive and resourcefulness made it one of the two prongs in the Allied drive to roll back the Japanese. Simultaneously fighting a two front war -- one with the Japanese, the other with the U.S. Navy, who understandably saw the Pacific as theirs -- MacArthur slowly gained momentum. In October of 1944 the world watched as he dramatically waded ashore at Leyte, and in the following months liberated the rest of the Philippines. On September 2, 1945, he presided over the Japanese surrender on board the "U.S.S. Missouri," bringing an end to World War II.
His place as a leading figure of the 20th century already secure, MacArthur may have made his greatest contribution to history in the next five and a half years, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan. While initiating some policies and merely implementing others, by force of personality MacArthur became synonymous with the highly successful occupation. His GHQ staff helped a devastated Japan rebuild itself, institute a democratic government, and chart a course that has made it one of the world's leading industrial powers. Yet by the late 1940s, MacArthur was increasingly bypassed by Washington, and it seemed his remarkable career might be over.
But in June of 1950, the sudden outbreak of the Korean War thrust MacArthur back into the limelight. Placed in command of an American-led coalition of United Nations forces, MacArthur reversed the dire military situation in the early months of the war with a brillian amphibious assault behind North Korean lines at the Port of Inchon. But within weeks of this great triumph he and Washington miscalculated badly. MacArthur's approach to the Chinese border triggered the entry of Mao's Communist Chinese, and as 1951 dawned, they faced what he called "an entirely new war." Although the able leadership of General Matthew B. Ridgway stabilized the military situation near the prewar boundary at the 38th parallel, MacArthur's months of public and private bickering with the Truman administration soon came to a head. On April 11, 1951, the President relieved General MacArthur, triggering a firestorm of protest over our strategy not only in Korea, but in the Cold War as a whole. As the last great general of World War II to come home, MacArthur received a hero's welcome. Despite his dramatic televised address to a joint session of Congress, however, the issue died quickly, and with it any hopes MacArthur had of reaching the White House in 1952.
True to his word, the old soldier "faded away" from the public eye, living quietly in New York until his death in 1964. While it's questionable whether his storied life ever brought him complete satisfaction, one thing is clear: Douglas MacArthur had more than fulfilled his self-imposed destiny of becoming one of history's great men.
Sgt Eagle
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From this day till the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered ,we Band Of Brothers Henry V-W.Shakespear
Eendracht maakt Macht !
GO Belgium
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6/3/2004, 2:05 pm
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Sgt Eagle
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Re: Generals
DWIGHT DAVID EISENHOWER 1890 - 1969
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Born October 14, 1890, at Denison, Texas, third of seven sons of David Jacob and Ida Elizabeth Stover Eisenhower. The family returned to Abilene, Kansas, in 1892. Graduated from Abilene High School, 1909. Worked at Belle Springs Creamery, 1909-1911.
Entered United States Military Academy, West Point, New York, June 14, 1911, and graduated June 12, 1915. Commissioned a Second Lieutenant, September 1915.
Married Mamie Geneva Doud of Denver, Colorado, July 1, 1916. First son, Doud Dwight, born September 24, 1917, and died January 2, 1921. Second son, John Sheldon Doud, born August 3, 1922.
Served with the Infantry September 1915 to February 1918 in Ft. Sam Houston, Camp Wilson and Leon Springs, Texas and Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia. Served with the Tank Corps, February 1918 to January 1922 in Camp Meade, Maryland, Camp Colt, Pennsylvania, Camp Dix, New Jersey, Ft. Benning, Georgia, and Ft. Meade, Maryland. Promoted to First Lieutenant on July 1, 1916; Captain on May 15, 1917; Major (temporary) on June 17, 1918; and to Lieutenant Colonel (temporary) on October 14, 1918. Reverted to permanent rank of Captain on June 30, 1920 and was promoted to Major on July 2, 1920.
Volunteered to participate as a Tank Corps observer in the First Transcontinental Motor Convoy from July 7, 1919 to September 6, 1919.
Assigned as executive officer to General Fox Conner, Camp Gaillard, Panama Canal Zone, January 1922 to September 1924. Served in various capacities in Maryland and Colorado until August 1925.
Entered Command and General Staff School, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, August 19, 1925, graduated first in a class of 245, June 18, 1926.
Served as battalion commander, 24th Infantry, Ft. Benning, Georgia, August 1926 to January 1927.
Next assigned to American Battle Monuments Commission, directed by General John J. Pershing. January to August 1927 served in Washington, D.C. office, writing a guidebook to World War I battlefields. In charge of guidebook revision and European office, Paris, France July 1928 to September 1929.
August 27, 1927, entered Army War College, Washington, D.C. and graduated June 30, 1928.
Served as executive officer to General George V. Moseley, Assistant Secretary of War, Washington, D.C., November 1929 to February 1933. Served as chief military aide to General Douglas MacArthur, Army Chief of Staff, until September 1935.
September 1935 to December 1939 assigned to General MacArthur as assistant military advisor to the Philippine Government. Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, July 1, 1936.
Assigned to General DeWitt Clinton, Commander, 15th Infantry, for a short term in Ft. Ord, California, and then permanently to Ft. Lewis, Washington as regimental executive, February 1940 to November 1940. Chief of Staff for General Thompson, Commander, 3rd Division, Ft. Lewis until March 1941. Served as Chief of Staff to General Kenyon Joyce, Commander 9th Army Corps, Ft. Lewis, until June 1941. Designated Chief of Staff to General Walter Kreuger, Commander 3rd Army, Ft. Sam Houston, Texas, June 1941 to December 1941. Promoted to Colonel (temporary), March 11, 1941, and to Brigadier General (temporary), September 29, 1941.
Assigned to General Staff, Washington, D.C., December 1941 to June 1942. Named Deputy Chief in charge of Pacific Defenses under Chief of War Plans Division, General Leonard Gerow, December 1941. Designated as Chief of War Plans Division, February 1942. In April 1942, appointed Assistant Chief of Staff in charge of Operations Division for General George Marshall, Chief of Staff. March 27, 1942, promoted to Major General (temporary).
Conducted mission to increase cooperation among World War II allies, London, England, May 1942. Designated Commanding General, European Theater, London, England, June 1942. Named Commander- in-Chief, Allied Forces, North Africa, November 1942. Promoted to Lieutenant General (temporary), July 7, 1942 and to General (4 stars) (temporary), February 11, 1943. He was appointed Brigader General (permanent) on August 30, 1943 and was promoted to Major General (permanent) on the same date.
Appointed Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Forces, December 1943. Commanded forces of Normandy invasion, June 6, 1944. December 20, 1944, promoted to General of the Army (5 stars). Shortly after the German surrender, May 8, 1945, appointed Military Govemor, U.S. Occupied Zone, Frankfurt, Germany. On April 11, 1946, wartime rank of General of the Army converted to permanent rank.
Designated as Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, November 19, 1945. Inaugurated as President, Columbia University, New York City, June 7, 1948. Named Supreme Allied Commander, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Europe, and given operational command of Treaty Organization, Europe and given operational command of U.S. Forces, Europe, December 16, 1950. Retired from active service, May 31, 1952 and resigned his commission July 1952.
Announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for President on June 4, 1952 in Abilene. Was nominated at the Republican convention and elected on November 4, 1952.
Served two terms as President of the United States, January 20, 1953 to January 20, 1961. Saw end of Korean War, promoted Atoms for Peace, and dealt with crises in Lebanon, Suez, Berlin, and Hungary in foreign affairs. Saw Alaska and Hawaii become states. Was concerned with civil rights issues and the interstate highway system in domestic affairs.
In March 1961, by Public Law 87-3, signed by President John F. Kennedy, returned to active list of regular Army with rank of General of the Army from December 1944. Maintained office at Gettysburg College and residence at his farm near Gettysburg, PA, January 1961-March 1969.
General Dwight D. Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969 at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. He was buried in the Place of Meditation at the Eisenhower Center, Abilene, Kansas on April 2, 1969.
Last edited by Sgt Eagle, 6/3/2004, 2:12 pm
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From this day till the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered ,we Band Of Brothers Henry V-W.Shakespear
Eendracht maakt Macht !
GO Belgium
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6/3/2004, 2:11 pm
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Sgt Eagle
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General George PATTON
One of the most complicated military men of all time, General George Smith Patton, Jr. was born November 11, 1885 in San Gabriel, California. He was known for carrying pistols with ivory handles and his intemperate manner, and is regarded as one of the most successful United States field commanders of any war. He continually strove to train his troops to the highest standard of excellence.
Patton decided during childhood that his goal in life was to become a hero. His ancestors had fought in the Revolutionary War, the Mexican War and the Civil War, and he grew up listening to stories of their brave and successful endeavors. He attended the Virginia Military Institute for one year and went on to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point on June 11, 1909. He was then commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the 15th cavalry Regiment.
Patton married Beatrice Ayer, whom he dated while at West Point, on May 26, 1910. In 1912 he represented the United States at the Stockholm Olympics in the first Modern Pentathlon. Originally open only to military officers, it was considered a rigorous test of the skills a soldier should possess. Twenty-six year old Patton did remarkably well in the multi-event sport, consisting of pistol shooting from 25 meters, sword fencing, a 300 meter free style swim, 800 meters horse back riding and a 4-kilometer cross country run. He placed fifth overall, despite a disappointing development in the shooting portion. While most chose .22 revolvers, Patton felt the event's military roots garnered a more appropriate weapon, the .38. During the competition Patton was docked for missing the target, though he contended the lost bullet had simply passed through a large opening created by previous rounds from the .38, which left considerably larger holes.
After the Olympics, Patton kept busy taking lessons at the French cavalry School and studying French sword drills. In the summer of 1913, Patton received orders to report to the commandant of the Mounted Service School in Fort Riley, Kansas, where he became the school's first Master of the Sword. He designed and taught a course in swordsmanship while he was a student at the school.
Patton's first real exposure to battle occurred when he served as a member of legendary General John J. Pershing's staff during the expedition to Mexico. In 1915, Patton was sent to Fort Bliss along the Mexican border where he led routine cavalry patrols. A year later, he accompanied Pershing as an aide on his expedition against Francisco "Pancho" Villa into Mexico. Patton gained recognition from the press for his attacks on several of Villa's men.
Impressed by Patton's determination, Pershing promoted him to Captain and asked him to command his Headquarters Troop upon their return from Mexico. With the onset of World War I in 1914, tanks were not being widely used. In 1917, however, Patton became the first member of the newly established United States Tank Corps, where he served until the Corps were abolished in 1920. He took full command of the Corps, directing ideas, procedures and even the design of their uniforms. Along with the British tankers, he and his men achieved victory at Cambrai, France, during the world's first major tank battle in 1917.
Using his first-hand knowledge of tanks, Patton organized the American tank school in Bourg, France and trained the first 500 American tankers. He had 345 tanks by the time he took the brigade into the Meuse-Argonne Operation in September 1918. When they entered into battle, Patton had worked out a plan where he could be in the front lines maintaining communications with his rear command post by means of pigeons and a group of runners. Patton continually exposed himself to gunfire and was shot once in the leg while he was directing the tanks. His actions during that battle earned him the Distinguished Service Cross for Heroism, one of the many medals he would collect during his lifetime.
An outspoken advocate for tanks, Patton saw them as the future of modern combat. Congress, however, was not willing to appropriate funds to build a large armored force. Even so, Patton studied, wrote extensively and carried out experiments to improve radio communications between tanks. He also helped invent the co-axial tank mount for cannons and machine guns.
After WWI, Patton held a variety of staff jobs in Hawaii and Washington, D.C. He graduated from the Command and General Staff School in 1924, and completed his military schooling as a distinguished graduate of the Army War College in 1932.
When the German Blitzkrieg began on Europe, Patton finally convinced Congress that the United States needed a more powerful armored striking force. With the formation of the Armored Force in 1940, he was transferred to the Second Armored Division at Fort Benning, Georgia and named Commanding General on April 11, 1941. Two months later, Patton appeared on the cover of Life magazine. Also during this time, Patton began giving his famous "Blood and Guts" speeches in an amphitheater he had built to accommodate the entire division.
The United States officially entered World War II in December 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. By November 8, 1942, Patton was commanding the Western Task Force, the only all-American force landing for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. After succeeding there, Patton commanded the Seventh Army during the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and in conjunction with the British Eighth Army restored Sicily to its citizens.
Patton commanded the Seventh Army until 1944, when he was given command of the Third Army in France. Patton and his troops dashed across Europe after the battle of Normandy and exploited German weaknesses with great success, covering the 600 miles across France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. When the Third Army liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp, Patton slowed his pace. He instituted a policy, later adopted by other commanders, of making local German civilians tour the camps. By the time WWII was over, the Third Army had liberated or conquered 81,522 square miles of territory.
In October 1945, Patton assumed command of the Fifteenth Army in American-occupied Germany. On December 9, he suffered injuries as the result of an automobile accident. He died 12 days later, on December 21, 1945 and is buried among the soldiers who died in the Battle of the Bulge in Hamm, Luxembourg.
Remembered for his fierce determination and ability to lead soldiers, Patton is now considered one of the greatest military figures in history. The 1970 film, "Patton," starring George C. Scott in the title role, provoked renewed interest in Patton. The movie won seven Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Picture, and immortalized General George Smith Patton, Jr. as one of the world's most intriguing military men.
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From this day till the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered ,we Band Of Brothers Henry V-W.Shakespear
Eendracht maakt Macht !
GO Belgium
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6/14/2004, 1:39 pm
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