A Message from Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson
Today is Veterans Day.
President George Washington said after the Revolutionary War
that “we owe these veterans a debt of gratitude, indeed a debt of
honor.” President Lincoln said during his second Inaugural Address
that we must “care for him who has borne the battle, and for his
widow and his orphan."
So, as our nation pauses today to pay tribute to the 50 million
veterans – the men and women who have served our country in uniform
throughout its history – we do so with gratitude and honor.
The cache is a tribute to a remarkable soldier and veteran of
two world wars, General William "Bill" Livesay. The following
information was taken from an article that appeared in the July
1950 publication "Life of the Soldier and the Airman":
From Private To General
General William G. Livesay, born in Benton, Illinois, enlisted
as a private of Infantry, United States Army at the age of 20. That
was in 1915 when a private's pay was 15 dollars a month and when a
man who made corporal in his first 3-year hitch was going places
fast. This is a story about General Livesay, a man who went places
fast. In less than two years he won promotions to corporal and
sergeant, to second and first lieutenant. And when he was only 22
years old he was made a captain and went to France with the 28th
Infantry. Within a year, at the age of 23, he was a major, assigned
to the 2d Infantry Brigade as adjutant - a big job.
A man so "struck with luck" that he was promoted to the grade of
major little more than three years after he enlisted as a private?
The question would never occur to the reader who knows that the
Silver Star Medal is our country's third highest decoration for
gallantry in action - second only to the Medal of Honor and the
Distinguished Service Cross. General Livesay won the Silver Star
award four times.
He won three of the coveted decorations in the Meuse-Argonne,
Soissons, and the Aisne-Marne offensives in World War I and was
also awarded the French Croix de Guerre. And, as if to prove that
it wasn't the brashness of a 23-year-old, nor pure luck, the
General turned around in World War II and earned another Silver
Star - in the Italian campaign, when he was 50 years old.
As Commanding General of the famous 91st Division, 1944-45, "his
professional skill, tenacity of purpose, and inspiring leadership
contributed in great measure to the Allied victory in Italy." That
was just one of the things they wrote about the General,
officially, when they awarded him the Distinguished Service Medal.
He won the Legion of Merit for "outstanding performance of duty" as
Commanding General of the Puerto Rican Mobile Force. Great Britain,
Greece, and Italy also bestowed honors upon him.
In 1920, soon after the young infantry officer came home from
the first World War, the War Department took cognizance of his
combat record and made him an instructor at the Infantry School,
Fort Benning, GA.
In the years between the two great wars, the General held
various assignments in the Army, and was graduated from the Command
and General Staff School and the Army War College. He became Chief
of the Training Section, Office of the Chief of Infantry, in 1937.
In rapid succession he was an infantry battalion commander,
Operations Officer of the 2d Division Staff, Chief of Staff of the
Puerto Rican Department, and later, after a brief tour with the
35th Division back in the States, he returned to Puerto Rico to
become Commanding General of the Department's Mobile Force.
General Livesay headed for combat the second time in 1942 when
he was made Commanding General of the 91st Infantry Division which
went overseas in May 1944. The first elements of the Division
started fighting on the Anzio Beachhead, and in 271 combat days his
division was first at the Arno River; first at Leghorn; and first
at Pisa. It secured Futa Pass, toughest single position in the
Gothic Line; Monticelli; and Mount Adone, where two of his
battalions won Distinguished Unit citations.
This combat veteran of two World Wars remained in command of the
91st until its inactivation in December 1945, when he was assigned
to Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, in Washington. After several
other assignments in the United States, including membership on the
War Department's Military Education Board, General Livesay headed
the War Department Group of the United Stated Military Mission to
Greece until Apil 1948.
Before retiring in 1950, the General commanded the Armored
School and Center, at Fort Knox, Ky., which is, as he said
"dedicated to the purpose of supremacy for the United States in any
future war . . . unceasingly engaged in developing armored
leadership conscious of its powerful role in the Field Combat
Forces."
