![]() ![]() While at West Point, his fellow students nicknamed him "Whitey" for his ash blond hair they continued to use it with him for the rest of his life. Initially selected as an alternate in July 1900, he was quickly accepted as a member of the class that began that August. Senators Cushman Kellogg Davis and Knute Nelson. įrustrated with the wait to start at the Naval Academy, in 1900 McNair competed for appointment to the United States Military Academy and took an examination offered by U.S. While he was on the Naval Academy waiting list as an alternate, he began studies at the Minnesota School of Business in Minneapolis, where he concentrated primarily on mechanical engineering and statistics courses. After graduating from South High School in 1897, he competed successfully for an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. McNair attended school in Verndale through the ninth grade, the highest available locally his parents then relocated to Minneapolis so McNair and his siblings could complete high school. His siblings who lived to adulthood were: sister Nora (1881–1971), the wife of Harry Jessup brother Murray Manz McNair (1888–1976) and sister Irene (1890–1979), the wife of Harry R. He was the second-born of their six children, and the first son. McNair was born in Verndale, Minnesota, on May 25, 1883, the son of James (1846–1932) and Clara (Manz) McNair (1853–1925). The reference to King William bottles describes a brand of Scotch whisky. During Operation Cobra, an Eighth Air Force bomb landed in his foxhole near Saint-Lô when the Army attempted to use heavy bombers for close air support of infantry operations as part of the Battle of Normandy.Įarly life McNair in 1904's Howitzer, the West Point yearbook. ![]() He was killed by friendly fire while in France to act as commander of the fictitious First United States Army Group, part of the Operation Quicksilver deception that masked the actual landing sites for the Invasion of Normandy. While historians continue to debate some of McNair's decisions and actions, including the individual replacement system for killed and wounded soldiers, and a controversy over the use of tanks or tank destroyers as anti-tank weapons, his concentration on advanced officer education, innovative weapons systems, improved doctrine, realistic combat training, and development of combined arms tactics enabled the Army to modernize and perform successfully on the World War II battlefield, where the mobility of mechanized forces replaced the static defenses of World War I as the primary tactical consideration. Army", and played a leading role in the organizational design, equipping, and training of Army units in the United States before they departed for overseas combat. In this position, McNair became the "unsung architect of the U.S. McNair's experience of more than 30 years with equipment and weapons design and testing, his administrative skills, and his success in the areas of military education and training led to his World War II assignment as commander of Army Ground Forces. His outstanding performance resulted in his promotion to temporary brigadier general at age 35, he was the Army's second-youngest general officer. A veteran of the Veracruz occupation and Pancho Villa Expedition, during World War I he served as assistant chief of staff for training with the 1st Division, and then chief of artillery training on the staff at the American Expeditionary Forces headquarters. He attained the rank of lieutenant general during his life he was killed in action during World War II, and received a posthumous promotion to general.Ī Minnesota native and 1904 graduate of the United States Military Academy, McNair was a Field Artillery officer with a background in the Ordnance Department. Lesley James McNair (– July 25, 1944) was a senior United States Army officer who served during World War I and World War II. ![]() United States Army Command and General Staff Schoolįirst United States Army Group (fictitious) ![]() Reserve Officers' Training Corps, Purdue UniversityĢnd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery RegimentĢnd Battalion, 83rd Field Artillery RegimentĬivilian Conservation Corps District E, Seventh Corps AreaĢnd Field Artillery Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division Lieutenant General ( Army of the United States ) Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, France ![]()
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