Omar N. Bradley

On August 1, 1911, Omar Bradley, aged 18, began his education at West Point Military Academy. The class the stars fell on. An excerpt from the article:

"Omar Nelson Bradley (1893-1981) was one of the towering American military leaders of the first half of the 20th century. After serving as an infantry school instructor, the West Point graduate took charge of the Eighty-second and Twenty-eighth Divisions during World War II. He commanded the Second Corps in the Tunisia and Sicilian campaigns, and as commander of the First Army he was instrumental to the success of the Normandy campaign. Bradley was appointed to head the Veterans Administration after the war, and at the end of his career he became a five-star general and the first-ever chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

...As an army group commander from August 1, 1944, to V-E Day in May 1945, Bradley commanded more troops than any general in American history: four armies, twelve corps, forty-eight divisions–in all, over 1.3 million troops.

Despite earning the nickname “the GI General” from correspondent Ernie Pyle, Bradley’s low-key style of command made him little known among his troops. The only serious criticisms of his generalship are that he acted indecisively during the battle of the Falaise gap and uncharacteristically insisted on attacking through the H[udie]rtgen Forest in the autumn of 1944. In all other circumstances, Bradley was a resourceful strategist and tactician who earned high praise from Eisenhower as “the master tactician of our forces” and “America’s foremost battle leader.” In 1950, when Bradley became one of only five U.S. Army officers promoted to the five-star rank of General of the Army, President Harry S. Truman praised Bradley as “the ablest field general the U.S. ever had.”

In August 1945, Bradley was appointed to head the Veterans Administration, and until February 1948, when he succeeded Eisenhower as U.S. Army Chief of Staff, he helped overhaul an organization responsible for seventeen million veterans. In August 1949 he became the first-ever chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, serving two terms during the difficult period of the Korean War."