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KF5JRV > TODAY 25.06.19 13:42l 6 Lines 4679 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 9221_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Jun 25
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<N3HYM<KF5JRV
Sent: 190625/1136Z 9221@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQK6.0.18
Following his arrival in London, Major General Dwight D. Eisenhowertakes command of U.S. forces in Europe. Although Eisenhower had neverseen combat during his 27 years as an army officer, his knowledge ofmilitary strategy and talent for organization were such that Army Chiefof Staff General George C. Marshall chose him over nearly 400 seniorofficers to lead U.S. forces in the war against Germany. After provinghimself on the battlefields of North Africa and Italy in 1942 and 1943,Eisenhower was appointed supreme commander of Operation Overlord–theAllied invasion of northwestern Europe.Born in Denison, Texas, in 1890, Eisenhower graduated from the UnitedStates Military Academy in 1915. Out of a remarkable class that was toproduce 59 generals, Eisenhower ranked 61st academically and 125th indiscipline out of a total of 164 graduates. As a commissioned officer,his superiors soon took note of his organizational abilities, andappointed him commander of a tank training center after the U.S.entrance into World War I in 1917. In October 1918, he received theorders to take the tanks to France, but the war ended before they couldsail. Eisenhower received the Distinguished Service Medal but wasdisappointed that he had not seen combat.Between the wars, he steadily rose in the peacetime ranks of the U.S.Army. From 1922 to 1924, he was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, andin 1926, as a major, he graduated from the Army’s Command and GeneralStaff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, at the top of a class of 275.He was rewarded with a prestigious post in France and in 1928 graduatedfirst in his class from the Army War College. In 1933, he became aide toArmy Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur, and in 1935 he went withMacArthur to the Philippines when the latter accepted a post as chiefmilitary adviser to that nation’s government.Promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel while in the Philippines,Eisenhower returned to the United States in 1939 shortly after World WarII began in Europe. President Franklin Roosevelt began to bring thecountry to war preparedness in 1940 and Eisenhower found himselffiguring prominently in a rapidly expanding U.S. Army. In March 1941, hewas made a full colonel and three months later was appointed commanderof the 3rd Army. In September, he was promoted to brigadier general.After the United States entered World War II in December 1941, ArmyChief of Staff Marshall appointed Eisenhower to the War Plans Divisionin Washington, where he prepared strategy for an Allied invasion ofEurope. Promoted to major general in March 1942 and named head of theoperations division of the War Department, he advised Marshall to createa single post that would oversee all U.S. operations in Europe. Marshalldid so and on June 11 surprised Eisenhower by appointing him to the postover 366 senior officers. On June 25, 1942, Eisenhower arrived at U.S.headquarters in London and took command.In July, Eisenhower was appointed lieutenant general and named to headOperation Torch, the Allied invasion of French North Africa. As supremecommander of a mixed force of Allied nationalities, services, andequipment, Eisenhower designed a system of unified command and rapidlywon the respect of his British and Canadian subordinates. From NorthAfrica, he successfully directed the invasions of Tunisia, Sicily, andthe Italian mainland, and in December 1943 was appointed Supreme AlliedCommander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Operation Overlord, thelargest combined sea, air, and land military operation in history, wassuccessfully launched against Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944. OnMay 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. By that time, Eisenhower was afive-star general.After the war, Eisenhower replaced Marshall as army chief of staff andfrom 1948 to 1950 served as president of Columbia University. In 1951,he returned to military service as supreme commander of the NorthAtlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Pressure on Eisenhower to run forU.S. president was great, however, and in the spring of 1952 herelinquished his NATO command to run for president on the Republicanticket.In November 1952, “Ikeö won a resounding victory in the presidentialelections and in 1956 was reelected in a landslide. A popular president,he oversaw a period of great economic growth in the United States anddeftly navigated the country through increasing Cold War tensions on theworld stage. In 1961, he retired with his wife, Mamie Doud Eisenhower,to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which overlooked the famousCivil War battlefield. He died in 1969 and was buried on a family plotin Abilene, Kansas.
73, Scott kf5jrv
KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
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