Livsey is a native of Clarkston, Georgia. He is a 1952 graduate of North Georgia College. Years later he served as a trustee for the university foundation.[2] He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in the Regular Army. He has a Masters degree in Psychology from Vanderbilt University. His military schooling includes the Infantry Officer Basic and Advanced Courses, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College where he graduated first in his class, the Armed Forces Staff College, and the Army War College.
Career
In 1953, Livsey served his first combat tour as platoon leader with the 3rd Infantry Division in South Korea. He commanded his first company with the 30th Infantry at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1954. From 1958 to 1961, he served in Germany as a company commander in the 2nd Armored Rifle Battalion, 36th Infantry, 3rd Armored Division. He served his second combat tour in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968 with the 4th Infantry Division as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-3 (Operations), and as the Commander, 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry of the 3rd Brigade Task Force.
In May 1971, Livsey took command of the 2nd Brigade 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized) at Fort Carson. He later returned to Fort Carson in 1974 to serve as the Assistant Division Commander (Support) and as the Assistant Division Commander (Maneuver) for the 4th ID (M) until June 1976. From July 1977 to May 1979, he was the Commanding General of the Infantry Center and Commandant of the United States Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia.
In May 1979, Livsey became the Commanding General of the 8th Infantry Division (Mechanized), United States Army Europe where he served until June 1981. He then assumed the position of Commanding General, VII Corps, USAREUR, and served there until July 1983. From July 1983 until April 1984 he served as the Deputy Commanding General, United States Army Forces Command as well as Commanding General of the Third United States Army, Fort McPherson, Georgia.
Other notable assignments include, I Corps Chief of Staff in Korea, Executive to the Army Chief of Staff in Washington, D.C. and Southeast Asia, staff officer in the Office of Research and Development, and leadership instructor at West Point.
In May 1984, and until his retirement on June 30, 1987, Livsey served as Commander-in-Chief, United Nations Command/Commander-in-Chief Combined Forces Command/ Commander, United States Forces, Korea/Commanding General Eighth United States Army.
Awards and decorations Livsey's awards and decorations include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, Army Distinguished Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Silver Star, Legion of Merit (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters), Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star with "V" Device, Air Medals, Army Commendation Medal with "V" Device (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Combat Infantryman Badge (2nd Award), Army Staff Identification Badge, and the Parachutist Badge.
Personal life In October 2008, a portion of Highway 314 in Fayetteville, Georgia was renamed as the "General Bill Livsey Highway" in Livsey's honor. Numerous active and retired military leaders, including Major General Jack Wheeler, were in attendance. Also in attendance was HeroBox, a non-profit organization that sends custom care packages to American soldiers.
On April 18, 2009, the drill field at the center of the University of North Georgia's campus was renamed the William J. "Lipp" Livsey Drill Field in Livsey's honor. A commemorative plaque bearing Livsey's likeness was added near the reviewing stand.[3]
On 15 August 2015, he was arrested for allegedly assaulting Ryan Irvin, a food delivery man for a local Chinese restaurant, and resisting arrest in Fayetteville, Georgia. Meanwhile, the restaurant wants to drop the incident entirely
As officers tried to handcuff him, Livsey resisted, according to the police chief. The struggle created a small laceration on Livsey's arm. Fayette County EMS was called to the scene to treat the injury and police tried to handcuff Livsey again.
The police chief said Livsey tried "to punch one of the officers and kick another one all while making threatening and disparaging remarks." In his interview with the AJC, the retired general spoke with emotion over what he called his mistreatment by authorities. "It's the first time in my life I'm ashamed to be an American," Livsey said. "They took me away without my shoes, glasses or medicine." He added, "I fought for this country so hard, and I've tried to do good all my life."
Livsey was a platoon leader in the Korean War and later commanded an infantry battalion in Vietnam before returning to South Korea to command U.S. forces there in the mid-1980s. He retired in 1987. He received many awards and decorations during his military career, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with three Oak Leaf Clusters and the Distinguished Flying Cross. In October 2008, a portion of Highway 314 in Fayetteville was renamed the "General Bill Livsey Highway" in Livsey's honor. Livsey was taken to the Fayette County jail on charges of robbery, misdemeanor obstruction, theft of services, simple assault and terroristic threats.
Sounds like he forgot how to be an ordinary citizen.
He’s in his 80s and they still cuffed him?
Maybe next time he won’t stiff the delivery driver.
When I said “Nuke the Chinese”
I meant
“Put the take-out in the microwave”.
I think he’s on the sauce again. I’ve seen a couple of real benders
That was dumb. If you have no way to pay the man, you need to let him take the food back.
Sounds like the General has a touch of Alzheimers, or some form of dementia. Age almost doesn’t matter, when someone is truly angry. My dad was about 86, and while recovering from a surgery, he became physically abusive to the nurse’s aides. He was so abusive, they had to strap him down to the bed from time to time. It was a shock for the family to hear how his condition has deteriorated so quickly. He’s at peace now.
With a grandson who delivers for a restaurant, how simple might this have been, once the check was offered, for the delivery person to have called the owner/manager, indicated that an elderly retired military person wished to proffer a check, and let the manager handle it?
“...a portion of Highway 314 in Fayetteville, Georgia was renamed as the “General Bill Livsey Highway”
Now that portion of the road is going to have to be
renamed again.
Bill Livsey Highway to
Bill me Later if you want to Livsey Highway.
During the assault, police said, two people in the home took the food, placed it on a counter and began eating it.
...
My favorite part of the whole story. You’ve got to keep your priorities straight, no matter how adverse the conditions.
Just say no to MSG addiction.
So none of his guests had cash or a credit card number to phone in to the restaurant? I find it kind of hard to believe that no one in the house had any other form of payment. Sounds like alcohol may have been a contributing factor here.
I always thought a four-star general would have very generous pensions
There were three other people with the general that night for dinner...shame on them for not stepping in a paying the bill.
This General has never been in trouble with the law. It seems to me that there was a misunderstanding and it ballooned into the police responding ....with seven police cars and nine officers.
The driver and care giver for the general, who witnessed it all, gives a completely different account...and the Chinese food place wants all charges dropped...but the police will not do so. I think the police are making a big mistake.
Here's the other account:
The general’s personal caregiver and driver, Tim Bedgood of Sharpsburg, gives a sharply different version of events.
Bedgood charges the multiple officers (“seven cop cars and nine officers”) mishandled the complaint, including handcuffing the 84-year-old so tightly his wrists bled.
The official version “is not accurately portrayed,” Bedgood said, adding that he and two women were in the home from the time the call for takeout was made until the takeout delivery driver left the home. Bedgood said he left to pay the food bill in person at the restaurant, and when he returned, police in force had Livsey in cuffs outside with individual police units stationed at several intersections in the neighborhood.
Not one of the eyewitnesses was interviewed the night of incident about what they saw, Bedgood said. By Tuesday afternoon, Bedgood said, he still had not been asked by police for his version of events.
He said he asked the police captain as officers were taking Livsey away, did they know who they had in custody. "We know exactly who he is; we know he had a highway named after him," the captain responded to Bedgood, he said Tuesday.
Livsey was released Monday on bond after spending two nights in jail.
The dispute between Gen. Livsey, a widower who lost his wife of 60 years in July 2013, and the restaurant delivery driver involved payment of $80.60 for the takeout order, according to warrants filed by police.
The paperwork say the general’s debit card was turned down after being called in by the driver, Ryan Irvin. The Royal Chef Chinese restaurant refused to take a personal check, the warrants allege.
What happened then, the warrants allege, was a physical dispute over payment of the bill or return of the food. Livsey is alleged to have assaulted the delivery driver by placing his left hand around the driver’s neck and pushing him against the refrigerator, warrants said.
Bedgood — who was present and witnessed the whole thing — has a different version of events. He said the general had misplaced his cash and gave the delivery driver an expired debit card. When Livsey offered a check, Irvin refused and reached to retrieve the bags of food being carried in by a woman.
At that point, Bedgood said, Gen. Livsey stepped between Irvin and the woman and “grabbed Ryan by the arm, saying ‘Talk to me, talk to me.’”
Irvin left the Livsey residence without either payment or the food, the warrants allege.
Chief Pitts says, “When the complainant explained that checks are not accepted by the restaurant and he would have to take the food back, the home owner became irate, threatening him and grabbed him by the throat and facial hair and pushed him backwards pinning him against the refrigerator in the kitchen. The complainant stated while he was assaulted by the home owner, two females in the residence took the food and set it on the counter to begin eating. Once released the delivery driver, fearing for his safety, fled the scene.”
Pitts further says, “Upon officer’s arrival at ... Carriage Chase, they located the home owner in question, William J. Livsey, who stated he ordered the food but upon delivery couldn’t find any money to pay for it. He stated when his card was declined the delivery driver pushed him. Officers asked if he purchased the food and he stated he did not, but that he did consume some of the food. Upon arresting Livsey, he created a small laceration on his arm while resisting being handcuffed. Fayette County EMS was called to the scene to provide first aid to his injury. Livsey was then re-handcuffed at which time he began to scuffle with officers attempting to punch one of the officers and kick another one all while making threatening and disparaging remarks.”
The general’s driver, Bedgood, said that he himself paid for the food within 20 minutes of the initial event. He also says that Irvin had tried to withdraw his complaint, allegedly saying that the situation was completely overblown.
An interview with Irvin verified that point. Irvin said Tuesday night he had told a Fayetteville police captain that he wanted to drop the charges but was told that it was not possible.
Bedgood said that he talked with Irvin, who allegedly told Bedgood that Irvin had “a shouting match with a captain” about the charge that the general had gripped his neck.
Bedgood said that Irvin told the captain that the general had never touched his neck, only his arm.
The Citizen posed the following question to Chief Pitts:
1. Did the “victim” Ryan Irvin ask officers to withdraw any charges following the incident?
2. Did a captain have a conversation with Irvin in which Irvin denied that Livsey ever put any hands on the victim’s neck?
3. Did Irvin complain to any officer that the incident was blown all out of proportion?
3. Was the food paid for by the time officers arrived?
4. Does the PD have any protocols to deal with elderly subjects?
5. Did any officer witness the altercation, or is the only report of any crime that of a single witness, the victim himself?
6. Did officers interview any of the other three eyewitnesses inside the house?
7. Did their stories match that of Ryan Irvin?
8. Is it possible that your officers over-reacted and over-charged someone with no criminal record?
Here is the chief’s response:
“We are still reviewing this situation and as such, it is an open investigation. We released information we believe is necessary to initially notify the media of the incident. The responding officers were acting on the information they received from both the victim and the suspect and after presenting the information they received to a magistrate court judge, he agreed there was probable cause for an arrest. We will continue to investigate the incident and proceed through the court system for a resolution as we do with every case. If there is any additional information be it exculpatory or inculpatory that comes to light that needs to be released, we will release it at the appropriate time.”
Fayetteville Mayor Greg Clifton Tuesday afternoon said he was still sorting through all the facts from Saturday night’s incident, but did offer an interesting insight.
“It looks like we may be budgeting for body cameras. That would clear everything up,” he said.
Senile or drunk?
guess he spent his cash on beer
He’s 84, with an illustrious career. I would absolutely cut him some slack.