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<em>Julian Johnson Ewell</em> is one of the great soldiers and heroes of the U.S. Army. He was a man of many talents, a fearless soldier who loved music, poetry and opera. He had a bril­liant intellect and a droll wit. Truly a man for all seasons.</p>
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He was born in Stillwater, OK, to LTC George W. and Jamie Offutt while his father was professor of military science and tactics at Oklahoma A & M College. He attended Duke University for two years prior to enter­ing the Military Academy.</p>
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Shortly after graduation he was assigned to the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion as one of the initial groups to enter the “new” type of service, and he always considered himself an airborne soldier. On D-Day, the sixth of June 1944, he jumped into Normandy before dawn as commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 501st Infantry Regiment (101st Airborne Division). In the fall of 1944, he again jumped with the 501st into Holland, where they recently named a bridge in his honor. While in Holland he succeeded to the regimental command as a lieutenant colonel and fought in the de­fense of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. The 101st Division commander, BG Anthony McAuliffe, ordered him to take his regiment to Bastogne and hold off the approaching two German divisions. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross “for extraordinary heroism” in connection with his successful defense of Bastogne. In his book, <em>Look Out Below,</em> Chaplain (LTC) Francis Sampson relates, “Colonel Julian Ewell took over the regiment, and he will always stand out in my mind as the near ­perfect example of the officer and the gentle­man.” GEN McAuliffe, said of him, “There were many men and commanders in my operation who did outstanding things, but Ewell’s was the greatest gamble of all. ... no man has more courage.”</p>
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After World War II, COL Ewell served as the executive officer to the commander, Berlin, and subsequently was chief of plans of the Seventh Army at Stuttgart, Germany. After attending the Army War College in 1952, he again saw combat in Korea as commander of the 9th “Manchu” Infantry Regiment of the Eighth Army.</p>
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On his return to the United States, COL Ewell spent four years at West Point as the commander of a cadet regiment and later as Assistant Commandant of Cadets. During that period, his style of leadership influenced many future leaders of the Army.</p>
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In 1961, COL Ewell transferred to the White House and was executive assistant to GEN Maxwell Taylor, who was serving as the military representative to President John E Kennedy. He then moved to the Pentagon as the executive to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When promoted to brigadier general in 1963, he was sent to Germany as the assistant division commander of the 8th Infantry Division and later was chief of staff, V Corps.</p>
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In 1968, shortly after TET, he was select­ed to command the 9th Infantry Division located in the Delta of South Vietnam. Initially he found that a large number of infantrymen were incapacitated by foot dis­ease caused by spending long periods in the brackish water of the Delta and unavailable for combat duty. To remedy the situation, he initiated Operation Safestep and, with the assistance of Walter Reed Hospital, solved the foot problems. Medical journals have cited this as an outstanding example of pre­ventive medicine. MG Ewell initiated several innovative ground and air tactical concepts that enabled the division operations to keep a constant pressure on the enemy, allowing the government of Vietnam to pacify large areas of the Delta. When he was promoted to lieutenant general in 1969 to take com­mand of II Field Forces, GEN Creighton Abrams stated at the change of command ceremony, “The performance of this divi­sion has been magnificent, and I would say that in the last three months it has been an unparalleled and unequalled performance.”</p>
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During his command, the Vietnamese government honored the division with the Cross of Gallantry for its combat operations and the Civil Action Medal for its humani­tarian support of the Vietnamese people, the first time a military unit had been awarded the Civil Action Medal.</p>
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Subsequent to Vietnam, LTG Ewell was Military Advisor to the United States/Vietnam Peace Delegation in Paris and com­pleted his active duty as the chief of staff, NATO South at Naples, Italy, during the period 1971–73.</p>
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In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross, LTG Ewell’s military decorations include four Distinguished Service Medals, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Air Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge, two Legion of Merits and many foreign decorations.</p>
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Marriages to Mary Gillem and Jean Hoffman ended in divorce. A 40-year mar­riage to Beverly McGammon Moses ended with her death in 1995. In 2005 he mar­ried his beloved widow, Ambassador Patricia Gates Lynch. LTG Ewell is survived by four children: Gillem Ewell of Charles Town, WV; Dorothy Ziegler of Montgomery, AL; Dale Moses Walker of Albuquerque, NM; and Stephen Moses of Williamsburg, VA.</p>
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LTG Ewell's Army career is succinctly summarized by these words of GEN Abrams in April 1969, “General Ewell, your division commander over a little more than a year, has proven to be a brilliant and sensi­tive commander. His tactical con­cepts have been characterized by imagination, sensitivity to the kind of situation that you all are in, and he plays hard. General Ewell has been the epitome of the professional soldier—devoted to his country, devoted to his men, and devot­ed to his profession and the development of it.”</p>
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—<em>Mrs. Patricia Gates Lynch Ewell and MG Ira A. Hunt Jr.</em></p>