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The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General George C. Marshall - May 10th, 2003
http://www.m1-garand.com/Marshall.htm ^

Posted on 05/10/2003 12:00:06 AM PDT by SAMWolf



Dear Lord,

There's a young man far from home,
called to serve his nation in time of war;
sent to defend our freedom
on some distant foreign shore.

We pray You keep him safe,
we pray You keep him strong,
we pray You send him safely home ...
for he's been away so long.

There's a young woman far from home,
serving her nation with pride.
Her step is strong, her step is sure,
there is courage in every stride.
We pray You keep her safe,
we pray You keep her strong,
we pray You send her safely home ...
for she's been away too long.

Bless those who await their safe return.
Bless those who mourn the lost.
Bless those who serve this country well,
no matter what the cost.

Author Unknown

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FReepers from the The Foxhole
join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time.

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General George Catlett Marshall
(1880 - 1959)

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This American soldier-statesman was born on December 31, 1880, into a family of Virginia and Kentucky lineage in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where his father manufactured coking coal for the iron and steel industry. The Uniontown Marshalls were distantly related to John Marshall, former chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. He had an older brother, Stuart (1875-1956), and a sister, Marie (1876-1962).



Young Marshall was not a particularly good student in school, but he was particularly interested in history, and he developed the ability to interpret American society and specific problems he faced in a broad historical context. In later years, when asked to which political party he belonged, Marshall generally responded: My mother was a Republican; my father was a Democrat; and I'm an Episcopalian.

Marshall attended the Virginia Military Institute, graduating in 1901 as the highest-ranking cadet. He entered the U.S. Army in February 1902. For the next fifteen years, he served in various of the posts in the U.S. and the Philippines. Between 1906 and 1910, he attended army schools at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and also taught there. He was a member of the small group of U.S. Army officers trained in modern warfare prior to World War I.

He went to France in the summer of 1917 as the director of training and planning for the First Infantry Division. In mid-1918, he was promoted to American Expeditionary Forces headquarters, where he was a key planner of American operations. In 1919 he became an aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing. Between 1920 and 1924, while Pershing was army chief of staff, Marshall was an important planner and writer in the War Department in Washington, D.C.


Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall, James Byrnes


Following a tour of duty (1924-27) with the Fifteenth Infantry in Tientsin, China, Marshall was assigned to teach at the Army War College, but when his wife died, he was moved to the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, to become head of instruction. There he reformed army infantry officer training to prepare for a war of mechanization, air power, and rapid movement. He briefly (1932-33)commanded posts at Fort Screven, Georgia, and Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, where one of his key duties was creating and running Civilian Conservation Corps camps. Between 1933 and 1936, he was in Chicago as senior instructor to the Illinois National Guard. He was promoted to brigadier general in October 1936 and given command of Vancouver Barracks, Washington, and its CCC district (1936-38).

Marshall returned to Washington to become head of the War Department's War Plans Division and then deputy chief of staff (1938-39), prior to being selected by Franklin D. Roosevelt to be army chief of staff (1939-45). Highly regarded by his peers, leaders of the Roosevelt administration, and members of Congress, Marshall was in charge of getting the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps ready for war (1939-41), reorganizing the army (1942), and leading it throughout the war. He was the most important member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and, according to Winston Churchill, the organizer of Allied victory.


GENERAL MARSHALL AND WAR DEPARTMENT CHIEFS. Left to right: Lt. Gen. H. H. Arnold, Maj. Gen. J. T. McNarney, General Marshall, Maj. Gen. B. B. .Somervell, and Lt. Gen. L. J. McNair.


Marshall "retired" in November 1945, but President Truman immediately asked him to go to China to attempt to mediate a settlement between the Nationalists and Communists. In January 1947 he was named secretary of state. In that role, his name is most commonly associated with the "Marshall Plan," for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in December 1953. In 1949 he resigned from the State Department and was soon named president of the American National Red Cross, hardly a sinecure, given the organization's troubles at the time. In September 1951, three months after the outbreak of the Korean War, Truman asked him to become secretary of defense, a job he held for a year. Marshall died at Walter Reed Hospital on October 16, 1959, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


President Truman presents General George Marshall with permanent membership in the Reserve Officers Association, October 16, 1945.


One of the most magnificent stories about General Marshall is regarding D-Day. General Marshall was so very significant in every aspect of building up the military, and fighting the war in both theaters. He was also a major contributor in the conception and execution of the D-day plan, but was destined to be forgotten by history. President Roosevelt was conscious of this fact, and concerned Marshall's excellence would not be remembered, much as Lincoln's Chief of Staff during the Civil War. The President offered General Marshall, General Eisenhower's job as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, which in turn would allow him to lead the Normandy invasion. General Marshall turned down this offer because he felt he was needed in Washington, and a change of command at the last moment simply for his reputation and ego was not appropriate.



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: biography; freeperfoxhole; georgemarshall; marshallplan; michaeldobbs; veterans; virginia; vmi; wwii
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To: snippy_about_it
Good Night Snippy.
61 posted on 05/10/2003 9:12:24 PM PDT by SAMWolf ((A)bort (R)etry (I)mJustJokingButYouShouldHaveSeenTheLookOnYourFace...)
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To: SAMWolf
Thanks for this post. I really appreciate that you also include your sources -- VERY scholarly of you!

It amazes me that a military man with the stature of Marshall would have the tenacity to stay in the Military during the 1930's when, as you so plainly showed us, his assignments were at times only slightly related to the military. We are grateful that he did so.
62 posted on 05/10/2003 10:26:30 PM PDT by Graewoulf
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To: Graewoulf
I really appreciate that you also include your sources -- VERY scholarly of you!

Thanks, but it's not so much scholarly as I am trying to avoid someone coming back later and saying "you got that from my site and didn't give me credit".

At first I thought crediting the main article was good enough but I found out it's better to cover all sources in threads like this.

63 posted on 05/10/2003 11:08:14 PM PDT by SAMWolf ((A)bort (R)etry (I)mJustJokingButYouShouldHaveSeenTheLookOnYourFace...)
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To: PhilDragoo
BTTT!!!!!!
64 posted on 05/11/2003 3:09:44 AM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: PhilDragoo
Yes those were the days of such skillful leadership, the Madeline Albright team. Puts those like George Marshall to shame lol.
65 posted on 05/11/2003 7:12:27 AM PDT by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: SAMWolf; aomagrat

The Baltimore Class sure had good a looking lines.

Except when they lost their bows in typhoons!

66 posted on 05/11/2003 7:04:30 PM PDT by GATOR NAVY
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To: GATOR NAVY
Boy! I bet that cut her top speed down some.
67 posted on 05/11/2003 7:14:04 PM PDT by SAMWolf ((A)bort (R)etry (I)gnore?... Tried Ignore, still have the error.)
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To: SAMWolf
IMHO Gen. Marshall doesn't get enough credit for the WWII victory, compared to the higher profile Generals like Ike, Patton, Bradley and MacArthur. Marshall wrote the playbook for victory from the first painful decision that reinforcing the Phillipines would be a waste of valuable resources to gearing the homefront to supply a much more mechanized Army to the decision to go for Europe first. Not least, Marshall had an eye for talent and advanced some junior people to very senior positions, like that talented colonel in War Plans who ended up Supreme Allied Commander.
68 posted on 05/12/2003 2:11:29 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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To: colorado tanker
Marshall was an extremely capable strategic planner. You're right about him not getting he credit fo rall he did during the war. The field commanders were the ones in the News.
69 posted on 05/12/2003 2:14:12 PM PDT by SAMWolf ((A)bort (R)etry (I)gnore?... Tried Ignore, still have the error.)
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