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<em>Wiley L. Dixon, III</em>, the second child of Major Wiley Lee Dixon, Jr., and Gazelle Toombs Dixon, was born December 13, 1915, at Louisville, Kentucky. He afterwards lived in Henderson, Kentucky the birthplace of his father, and at various Army Posts in the United States—Washington, D.C.; Chicago and Rockford, Illinois; Dallas, and San Antonio, Texas.</p>
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He was directly descended from Lt. Col. Henry (Hal) Dixon and Captain Wynn Dixon of Revolutionary fame. His forebears had been prominent in the early history of the nation and state, in military, diplomatic and civic life. Among his ancestors on his mother's side are Jonathan Edwards, the Harrison's and Robert Toombs of Georgia. Other distinguished ancestors may be found in the annals of Kentucky, Isaac Shelby, First Governor of Kentucky, David Hart of the Transylvania Company and others. Wiley was a member of the North Carolina Society of the Cincinnati.</p>
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With such a background of fighting men it is of small wonder that Wiley became interested in a military career. He entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1935 from San Antonio, Texas, after having won a presidential appointment from Ft. Sam Houston. Prior to this he had won the Harvard Award for scholarship, leadership and citizenship in the Dallas Texas High School. He continued to maintain a high academic standing while attending Alamo Heights High and Westmoreland College, San Antonio.</p>
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While basically a student his philosophy of living was to get the most out of life. To enjoy in full measure the people around him—this for Wiley meant knowing and loving people. Always genial, friendly, lovable, he made friends easily. It can in truth be said, to know him was to love him.</p>
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Upon graduating from West Point in June, 1939, Wiley was commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry. In the following September, after a graduation leave spent in his beloved Kentucky, he reported for duty with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Infantry at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. He was made the executive officer of a rifle company, and quickly set about winning the admiration and respect of officers and enlisted men alike with his efficient manner of handling the endless petty details of administration and training. Wiley was a quiet, unassuming chap with a knack of approaching each new task calmly and taking it in his stride as if he had been handling similar jobs for years. This confidence in his own abilities was one of Wiley's greatest assets, and it in turn engendered confidence in all those with whom he came in daily contact. The garrison life was soon ended, however, with the move of the battalion to Fort McCellan, Alabama in November of 1939. The 5th Infantry Division was activated, and in the seven months to follow Wiley’s outfit was to roam the southern states testing the new tactics then developing around the triangularized division. Wiley was plunged into a maelstrom of activity, training raw recruits and re-training seasoned soldiers to a high state of perfection, culminating in the first of the large scale maneuvers in the Sabine area of Louisiana. To this field work Wiley brought the same drive and energy which had characterized his garrison duties, still retaining his confident, efficient manner of doing things. Fellow officers were continually amazed at his imperturbability when all around him was confusion, and at his tenacity of purpose...an almost bulldog-like quality of sticking to the job until it was finished, regardless of personal feelings.</p>
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After the Louisiana maneuvers, Wiley returned to Fort Sheridan to settle down once again to garrison duties. He had been married during a brief Christmas leave while on maneuvers, and now he brought his charming young wife to add to the social life at the post. His friends will long remember the charm and friendliness that pervaded the Dixon's quarters...his home was a quiet haven of refuge from the cares of the day. Wiley was by this time commanding the heavy weapons company of the battalion, and doing an even more painstaking job than he had as an executive officer. His men were absolutely devoted to him, and their sense of loyalty was only matched by his own high example of devotion to duty. It was a great loss to the battalion when Wiley received his orders for the Philippines and left for what was to be his last station in April, 1941.</p>
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He was assigned to the 12 M.P. Co. at Ft. McKinley, where he remained until the outbreak of the war when he was transferred to the second headquarters on Bataan. Wiley wrote during the brief time that he could write, that he had had many narrow escapes; however his only thought was for his family at home, and no word of complaint was expressed for his own personal discomfort. His company was twice cited for gallantry but was forced to surrender to the Japanese on April 8, 1942.</p>
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After about eleven months in a “missing in action” status, Wiley’s family was notified that he was a prisoner of war. Nothing further was learned until the last of September 1943, when a card supposedly written by him was received saying he was interned at Osaka, Japan. A few days later a message from the War Department came saying that he had died on January 2, 1943 of pneumonia in Zentsuji Prisoner of War Camp, Japan.</p>
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Wiley Lee Dixon, III has answered the Last Roll Call, but his spirit lives on in the hearts of all those who knew him. There are many of us who will always feel that he was the epitome of those oft repeated words “An officer and a gentleman”.</p>
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“No one ever dies who is remembered”, so it is that though said to have died in a Japanese prison camp Wiley still lives on and will always live in the hearts of those who knew and loved him.</p>
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He is survived by his widow, Elizabeth Wilson Dixon; three year old daughter, Margaret Phelps; Gazelle Toombs Dixon, his mother; Nancy Dixon Powell, sister; Captain Robert Toombs Dixon, his brother; and Mrs. Nannie M. Dixon, his grandmother.</p>
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