Lesley James McNair General, U.S. Army
Lesley James McNair was born on 25 May 1883 in Verndale, MN, the son of James and Clara Manz McNair. He graduated eleventh in a class of 124 from the U.S. Military Academy and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Artillery after graduation in the class of 1904. During the years 1904-09 he served in a series of ordnance and artillery appointments in Utah, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington, DC. He was promoted to First lieutenant in June 1905 and to Captain in May 1907. He was then assigned to the 4th Artillery Regiment in the west from 1909-14.
While attached to the 4th Artillery Regiment, he was sent to France to observe French artillery training for a period of seven months during 1913. Upon his return he took part in Major General Frederick Funston's expedition to Veracruz from 30 April 30-23 November 1914. He saw service under General John J. Pershing in the Pancho Villa Expedition and was promoted to Major in May 1917.
World War I:
When the U.S. entered World War I, McNair went to France where he served with the 1st Infantry Division. For his outstanding service, he was awarded both the Distinguished Service Medal and the French Légion d'honneur. He was also promoted to Lieutenant Colonel (August 1917); Colonel (June 1918); and Brigadier General (October 1918), thus becoming, at age 35, the youngest general officer in the U.S. Army (at that time).
Inter-War Years:
Following the end of the First World War in November 1918, he left his position as senior artillery officer in the General Staff's Training Section and reverted to his permanent rank of Major in 1919. After returning to the U.S., he first taught at the General Service School (1919-1921); then he served as a staff officer in Hawaii (1921-1924); and served as a professor of Military Science and Tactics at Purdue University from 1924 to 1928.
In 1928 he was promoted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant Colonel; he graduated from the Army War College in 1929. Following this, he served as Assistant Commander of the U.S. Army Field Artillery School (1929-1933), and then in the Civilian Conservation Corps during the first Franklin Roosevelt Administration (1933-1935). He was promoted to Colonel in May 1935. After receiving a promotion to Brigadier General in March 1937, he was given Command of the 2d Field Artillery Brigade in Texas, which he commanded until April 1939.
As Commandant of the Command and General Staff College from April 1939 to July 1940, McNair initiated changes that prepared the College's graduates to meet the upcoming challenges of World War II.
World War II:
McNair was Chief of Staff of GHQ, U.S. Army from July 1940 to March 1942. He was promoted to Major General in September 1940, and to temporary Lieutenant General in June 1941.
In March 1942, General McNair became Commanding General, Army Ground Forces. As such, he was responsible for the organization, training and preparation of the U.S. Army for overseas service. He was instrumental in preparing large-scale divisional and corps exercises to provide Army commanders with some experience in controlling large forces in simulated combat. However, McNair's emphasis on abbreviated basic combat training schedules for inductees, as well as his programs for the training and supply of individual replacements to combat units, would later face widespread criticism after the U.S. Army invasion of North Africa in 1942. That criticism continued until the end of the war in Europe.
McNair, who had already received a Purple Heart for being wounded in the North African Campaign, was killed in his foxhole on 25 July 1944 near Saint-Lô during Operation Cobra, by an errant aerial bomb dropped during a pre-attack bombardment by heavy strategic bombers of the Eighth Air Force.
General Omar N. Bradley, his ground forces stymied, had decided to use carpet bombing to break the German lines. Eighth Air Force used 1,500 heavy bombers, 380 medium bombers, and 550 fighter bombers, to drop 4,000 tons of high explosives and napalm. Bradley was horrified when the bombs from 77 planes fell short of their targets:
"The ground belched, shook and spewed dirt to the sky. Scores of our troops were hit, their bodies flung from slit trenches. Doughboys were dazed and frightened....A bomb landed squarely on McNair in a slit trench and threw his body sixty feet and mangled it beyond recognition except for the three stars on his collar."
Medals and Awards: Army Distinguished Service Medal with 2 Bronze Oak Leaf Clusters Purple Heart
Honors:
Fort Lesley McNair in Washington, DC, was renamed in his honor in 1948.
McNair Barracks in Berlin and McNair Kaserne in Höchst (Frankfurt am Main), Germany were named in his honor. McNair Kaserne was closed and turned over to the German government when the 17th Signal Battalion moved to Kitzingen, Germany in 1992.
Death and Burial:
Lieutenant General Lesley James McNair died a particularly violent death in combat on 25 July 1944. An errant bomb from friendly forces landed squarely on McNair in a slit trench and threw his body sixty feet; mangling it beyond recognition except for the three stars on his collar.
His remains are buried at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, Basse-Normandie Region, France, in Plot F, Row 28, Grave 42.

His son, Colonel Douglas McNair, Chief of Staff of the 77th Infantry Division, was killed two weeks later by a sniper on Guam and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Posthumous Promotion:
On 19 July 1954, McNair was promoted to four-star general pursuant to Public Law 88-508. [Eleven lieutenant generals (including McNair) were promoted to 4-star rank on 19 July 1954. Seven promotions were granted to living retirees; four were awarded posthumously.] McNair's tombstone at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial originally listed him as a Lieutenant General; the rank he held at death. The American Battle Monuments Commission was unaware of the promotion to general in 1954. For that reason, his gravestone was not changed to reflect his final rank of general until 11 November 2010. McNair is now the highest ranking military officer buried at that cemetery.