Marshall, George Catlett (1880–1959)

Early Career

Marshall was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on the last day of 1880 to parents with extensive family roots in Kentucky and Virginia. He matriculated at the Virginia Military Institute in September 1897 and attained the high-est cadet rank available to him every year. Scholastically, he finished in the middle of his class, graduating in 1901 with a degree in civil engineering. The Spanish–American War convinced him to seek a career in the Army; and he served in the Philippines from 1902 to 1903. In 1906, he was chosen to attend the Army school at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Having been the top student for two years, he was made an instructor for two more years. He served as instructor for various National Guard units (1907–12 and 1933–36), earn-ing a reputation as a friend of the Guard that would prove useful during the mobilization of 1940 to 1942.

In June 1917, he became the First Division's chief of operations and training. In July 1918, he moved to the head-quarters of the American Expeditionary Forces as assistant chief of planning. He planned the first independent American raid at Cantigny, France (May 1918), and was head of the team planning the St. Mihiel and Meuse– Argonne offensives that were carried out from September through November of 1918. He drew important lessons from his World War I experiences that influenced the con-duct of the 1940 to 1942 mobilization and the planning for the post–World War II military.

Between May 1919 and June 1924, Marshall was an aide to Gen. John J. Pershing. In the mid-1920s, he was sta-tioned for three years in Tientsin, China. Between 1927 and 1932, he served as chief of instruction at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where he gradually reformed the school's faculty and methodology to empha-size simplicity, individual initiative, and the leader's need to operate under conditions of mobile warfare with imperfect knowledge of the battlefield and the enemy. During the 1930s, Marshall headed three Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) districts, where he espoused greater use of reserveofficers to assist the Army and sought to facilitate educa-tional programs for CCC men.

In July 1938, Marshall returned to the War Department as head of the War Plans Division, and in October he was made deputy chief of staff. Marshall became friends with Harry L. Hopkins, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt's key adviser, and Frank M. Andrews, who commanded GHQ Air Force. They, together with Henry H. Arnold, chief of the Army Air Corps, undertook to educate Marshall in air power ideas and values. Later, Marshall would make certain that airmen were chosen for significant General Staff positions.

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