He was the Honor Graduate of his Infantry-Cavalry School Course in 1907, and graduated first in his 1908 Army Staff College class. General Craig spoke up too, somewhat more diffidently than the civilians. But Assistant Secretary Johnson, who was pretty much running the Department of War in place of a largely absent Secretary of War Harry Woodring, wanted Marshall for the job. He was professor and dean of the School of Journalism and Mass . Marshall was junior to 33 other generals, but when age was factored in, only four could serve out a four-year term before the mandatory retirement age of 64. In addition to training officers to be flexible thinkers, Marshalls new syllabus proved to be an excellent tool for weeding out officers who could not be weaned from an unbridgeable tendency to freeze up when their plans inevitably went awry. Pershing, however, had a better card to play: he spoke in Marshalls behalf directly to Franklin Roosevelt. The European Recovery Program, as it was formally known, became known as the Marshall Plan. This speaks volumes about the usefulness of the drill; it was no longer about battlefield evolutions; it was about the discipline many officers thought could be derived from mind-numbing, time-eating, make-work projects aimed solely at keeping idle hands and feet moving in some regimented way. Marshall's stepson with Tupper, Army Lt. Allen Tupper Brown, was killed by a German sniper in Italy in 1944. New York, Viking Press, 1963. After Marshalls death in 1959, Katherine moved to a residential hotel in the North Carolina mountains, enjoyed friends and traveled. Marshall married Katherine Boyce Tupper Brown in 1930 after the death of his first wife in 1927. The deal was thus sealed. But the voice that swayed the president to a man he barely knew and had not yet fully sized up was that of Marshalls new friend, Harry Hopkins. George C. Marshall - U.S. National Park Service Marshall also raised and equipped the largest ground and air force in the history of the U.S. and was called the organizer of victory by Winston Churchill. This position is the American equivalent rank to field marshal. From the very moment Marshall ascended to the head of the United States Army, his was the brain at the center of the orderly, measured growth that created the wartime field armies and all the organizations that supported them until the moment of final victory. And in doing so, they changed the world. In October 1933, after only five months in command of his regiment, the crown jewel of many a career, Colonel Marshall was abruptly reassigned as senior instructor to the staff of the 33rd Infantry Divisionthe Illinois National Guard command based in Chicago. He came away from these interactions with a list of things he wanted to see fixed in the U.S. Army, among them a paucity in night battle doctrine, a technique he drove home throughout his career. Marshall, George C., Selected Speeches and Statements of General of the Army George C. Marshall, ed. As a representative of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff at the international conferences in Casablanca, Morocco, in Washington, D.C., in Quebec, in Cairo, and in Tehrn, Marshall led the fight for an Allied drive on German forces across the English Channel, in opposition to the so-called Mediterranean strategy of the British. Also significant during his secretaryship were the provision of aid to Greece and Turkey, the recognition of Israel, and the initial discussions that led to the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Under his direction U.S. forces went from fewer than 200,000 officers and men to a well-trained and well-equipped force of 8,300,000. Riding on his other successes at The Infantry School, Marshall attempted to get the generals to sign off on a plan to triangularize the entire infantry, from platoon to division. They learned and tested and nurtured truths about making warand about teaching and learning and running organizations, about working cooperatively, and so on. The European Recovery Program he proposed in 1947 became known as the Marshall Plan. Following the death of General Marshall in 1959, his wife moved to their second home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, giving Dodona to her oldest daughter Molly and her husband James Winn. General George Marshall: US Army Chief of Staff in WWII - ThoughtCo In 1927, Marshall was an instructor at the Army War College at Washington Barracks (now known as Fort Lesley J. McNair) in Washington, D.C.a heady assignment he might have relished had it not coincided with the death of his beloved wife, Katherine. This is what he had done for the 1st Infantry Division in 1917 and part of 1918, and it helped prepare him for what he would have to do beginning again in 1940. Marshall finished college in 1901. She became ill in Scotland in 1905 and returned to the United States. This was as career-boosting a friendship as could befall any Regular Army officer. The Marshall Plan would help Europe quickly rebuild and modernize its economy along American lines. In a report Marshall had probably written over the signature of General Pershing, the chief of staff had attempted to make a case for a smaller infantry division than the four-regiment behemoth the Army fielded in France. Marshall, on the other hand, made only one request of only one man. The six-month tour to which he had acceded stretched to a full year. Marshall sometimes worried that she was taking on too many responsibilities to the detriment of her health. It takes fewer troops to hold than to attack. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant the following year. As with all of Marshalls practical lessons, this revolution in brevity eventually permeated the Army, for instructors and students alike were released back into the Armys many nooks and crannies when their time at Benning ended, all unabashedly enthusiastic to train their fellow soldiers. At the November 14, 1938, aircraft meeting, as the assembled honorables listened mutely and nodded appreciatively at the presidents ruminations on the singular virtues of air power, only Marshall spoke up, but only after the president asked his opinion: Dont you think so, George? Marshall was not ready to be addressed so familiarly by a man he barely knew, not even this man. George Catlett Marshall Jr. GCB (December 31, 1880 - October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. George Catlett Marshall was the greatest American military man of his age. Beginning on July 7, Brig. The home opened to the public on Veteran's Day, 2005. Marshalls father owned a prosperous coal business in Pennsylvania, but the boy, deciding to become a soldier, enrolled at the Virginia Military Institute from which he was graduated in 1901 as senior first captain of the Corps of Cadets. By employing the demonstration infantry regiment resident at Benning, Marshall and the various geniuses he commanded played with the size and internal organization of the infantry battalion to find an optimal size and organization. On Tuesday, February 11, 1902 George and Lily were married in Lilys home on Letcher Avenue. The battalion was the smallest organization in the Army that could conduct independent, self-contained operations. Approximately 200 future generals transited Benning as students or instructors during Marshalls tenure, and he had a direct hand in elevating nearly every single one of them to flag. Companies, battalions, regiments, divisions, corps, field armies, and even army groups could exploit the utter simplicity of the holding attack. George C Marshall, (724) 586-2369, 180 Powell Rd, Butler, PA He wanted the essence, the heart of the matter, to be delivered clearly in the least possible time. She was a college widow and went with a lot of the boys. Someone high up was willing to defy the president. This was the beginning of a great friendship and strategic partnership. During his time at VMI . Men who served under him spoke of his quiet self-confidence, his lack of flamboyance, his talent for presenting his case to both soldiers and civilians, and his ability to make his subordinates want to do their best. If he didnt get a star soon, he would be mandatorily retired as a colonel. Profile of General George Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff in WWII. Pogue, Forrest C., George C. Marshall: Ordeal and Hope. I love these profiles. Not posed ones, but just chance shots good, bad and indifferent. In the same letter he writes, Dearest, I love you very much. G eorge Catlett Marshall (December 31, 1880-October 16, 1959), America's foremost soldier during World War II, served as chief of staff from 1939 to 1945, building and directing the largest army in history. In late 1945 and in 1946, he represented President Truman on a special mission to China, then torn by civil war; in January, 1947, he accepted the Cabinet position of secretary of state, holding it for two years. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Mr. He later served on the Army staff, commanded the 15th Infantry Regiment in China, and was an instructor at the Army War College. This was the cover Craig needed; the deed was done during the third week of October 1938. He married Elizabeth Carter Cole of Lexington, Virginia, in 1902. As Douglas MacArthur had learned from his 1933 temper tantrum at his first meeting with the new president, Roosevelt favored one character trait above all others, and that was the courage of conviction that obligated a man to speak truth to power. He is 54 years old.. Even without the crucible of World War II, Marshall and the hundreds of officers he influenced during his tour at The Infantry School changed the U.S. Army forever. After the war, in his service as Secretary of State, Marshall advocated a significant U.S. economic and political commitment to post-war European recovery, including the Marshall Plan that bore his name. He was hailed as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II. It was dead on arrival. The house is decorated in a 1950s style similar to how the Marshalls furnished it. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, 1947. First the instructor demonstrated to the students what they had to learn, usually by employing crack infantry units assigned to The Infantry School for that purpose. Early Years George Catlett Marshall Jr. was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1880, the fourth child of George Catlett Marshall and Laura Bradford Marshall. by H.A. George C. Marshall - HISTORY Lily's Books George C. Marshall's Dodona Manor In the second case, Hopkins saw to it that $250 million in Civilian Conservation Corps funding was used to build permanent housing and other facilities for CCC workers on Army posts. I get a sickly smile when people say how the country loves and admires my husband. She expressed bitterness that he should be assigned, just at the time of retirement, to be a messenger boy between the Generalissimo [Chiang Kai-shek] and the Communists. Katherine accompanied Marshall to China but was unhappy about his hard work, telling his secretary, Gen. Director, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia, 196474. It has been said that courage can be contagious. George C. Marshall | Biography, Facts, & Marshall Plan U.S. Army. When this officer returned to Benning, Marshall asked him to run a seminar for the school staff to enhance the overall approach to the mission of educating intelligent men years away from college and at the edge of a phase of life in which many adults literally close their minds. Marshalls brilliant work in France brought him an assignment to his old mentor, General of the Armies John Pershing, whom he served as aide-de-camp for five years right after the war. Marshalls key insight and innovation, which alone would have earned him a secure spot in military history, was that battlefield commanders could be systematically reconditioned to accept the chaos as inevitable and to factor it into both advance planning and the actual way they would undertake their quest to dominate any battlefield of any size. In July, 1938, Marshall accepted a post with the General Staff in Washington, D. C., and in September, 1939, was named chief of staff, with the rank of general, by President Roosevelt. The promotion clock nearly ticked out on Marshall. He was particularly caught up in educating and training the young CCC men for work and life in the real economy. Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About World War II. Acheson, Dean, General of the Army George Catlett Marshall, in Sketches from Life of Men I Have Known, pp. He told her son Allen in 1942, I cannot persuade her to lighten her own burdens: telephone, mail and committees. Payne, Robert, The Marshall Story. Washington, Historical Division, Department of the Army, 1948. Once he had decided on a military career, he concentrated on leadership and ended his last year at the institute as first captain of the corps of cadets. (He replaced his old mentor, Louis Johnson, who failed miserably to pull together a viable field army for Korea.) Several senior officers who knew Marshall well took it upon themselves to extol his merits as a means to getting him a star. And it took the second Mrs. Marshall a year to get most of them put away., 2023 The George C. Marshall Foundation. The arrival was more symbolic than anything, for it became Marshalls job to train the division to take part in actual war. Marshall and the Relief of MacArthur - The George C. Marshall Foundation Ironically, all the political pull on the Marshall promotion got him his star only a matter of weeks before seniority alone would have done the job. Katherine Marshall was born 139 years ago tomorrow; in commemoration, this weeks blog is all about Katherine. Marshall built upon the work of his immediate predecessor, Colonel Frank Cocheau, who put into play a new teaching principle when he arrived at Benning in mid-1925: demonstration-explanation-performance. The man most responsible for the Allies' victory was a quiet, desk-bound warrior. George C. Marshall International Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (EIN 62-1381698), and donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the . The call came in June 1938. In 1917, after 15 years of marriage, Marshall wrote to Lily I do wish you would send me some kodaks (pictures) of yourself. In the first instance, he had cunningly reallocated $2 million in funds earmarked for the WPA to purchase machine tools Army arsenals needed but could not get from the Congress, to manufacture small arms ammunition. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Banks Hudson said that he never paid much attention to girls early. But in his last year at the Virginia Military Institute he met Lily. The son of the owner of the successful coal business in Uniontown, PA, George Catlett Marshall was born Dec. 31, 1880. On June 5, 1947, in an address at Harvard University, Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposed the European Recovery Program known as the Marshall Plan. She is buried at Arlington National Cemetery next to Marshall, his first wife, and his first wife's mother. The man most responsible for the Allies victory was a quiet, desk-bound warrior. Gen. George C. Marshall | Military.com What position did George C. Marshall hold during World War II? Jouvenel, B., LAmrique en Europe: Le Plan Marshall et la coopration intercontinentale. He just said, let me handle that. George C. Marshall (1880-1959) was one of the most decorated military leaders in American history. The Infantry School itself, which was dedicated to training mid-career officers who were ticketed to move up, underwent a renaissance under Marshall, who encouragedin fact, demandedoriginal thinking and inspired experimentation. The 1935 promotion list was issuedwithout reference to Marshall. And he forced his students to think, and observe, and act as much in the dark of night as in the light of day, for the night attack, which was underappreciated and therefore underutilized by the U.S. Army, was a chaos-inducing tool embraced by many potential adversaries. Was he being shown the door? Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Chief of Staff Craig greeted him thusly: Thank God, George, you have come to hold my trembling hands.. In 1916 Marshall was assigned as aide-de-camp to J. Franklin Bell, the commander of the Western Department. Marshall was descended on both sides of his family from settlers who had been in Virginia since the 17th century. George C. Marshall: Education of a General, 1880-1939 MacArthur himself learned of his fate from his wife, Jean, who had heard a radio report. Named in MacArthurs place as chief of staff was Maj. Gen. Malin Craig, who was elevated to four stars. Thus, one squad and perhaps an attached machine gun could establish and hold the base of fire while the other two squads in a platoon maneuvered to mount a flank attack. He personally approved the retention or elevation of every general officer who served in the wartime army he led, and of course he selected wisely from among the hundreds and hundreds of men he had commanded and taught all across his prewar career. The hospital announced that General, Arlington National Cemetery Washington, Oct. 17 of the Army, Washington, District of Columbia, DC, United States, Section 7-grave 8198, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia, United States, To enable the proper functioning and security of the website, we collect information via cookies as specified in our, George Catlett, General Of The Army Marshall, U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims, 1936-2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Marshall.