<p>Born in Clark, MO, February 12, 1893, General Bradley was named Omar for an editor friend of the family and Nelson for the local doctor. His parents, John Smith Bradley and Sarah Elizabeth (nee Hubbard) Bradley, remained in the Clark-Highbee area until the father’s death in 1908, when he and his mother moved to Moberly, MO. General Bradley married Mary Quayle of Moberly, MO, December 18, 1916. They had one daughter, Elizabeth Bradley Dorsey, who lives in Washington, DC. General Bradley married Kitty Buhler, September 12, 1966.</p>
<p>Of his class, General Bradley was the first to become a brigadier general. His promotion came in February 1941 when he was a lieutenant colonel, and at the recommendation of General Marshall became Commandant of the Infantry School. In this post he set up the Infantry Officer Candidate program that eventually commissioned more than 45,000 combat leaders before the end of World War II.</p>
<p>General Bradley’s commissioning as a second lieutenant of infantry on graduation from West Point June 12, 1915, was followed on July 1, 1916, by promotion to first lieutenant. He rose to the temporary rank of major in World War I while serving with the 14th Infantry Regiment, but reverted to captain in 1920 in the general postwar reduction of the Army.</p>
<p>After World War I General Bradley was assigned to ROTC duty at South Dakota State College, and then was ordered to a four-year tour in 1920 as instructor in mathematics at the U.S. Military Academy. In 1925 he graduated from the Advanced Course at the Infantry School, Fort Benning, GA, and was ordered to duty in Hawaii. In 1927 and 1928 he was in charge of National Guard and Reserve Affairs for the Hawaiian Islands. </p>
<p>General Bradley graduated from the Command and General Staff School in 1929, and then was assigned as instructor in tactics and weapons at the Infantry School. Assignment to the Army War College, from which he graduated in 1934, followed his four-year tour at Fort Benning. After graduation from the War College, he was assigned to the U.S. Military Academy as an instructor in tactics and later became plans and training officer of the Academy. He served there until June 1938, when he reported to Washington for General Staff duty. In 1939 he became Assistant Secretary of the General Staff and served in this capacity until February 1941 when, as a brigadier general, he was sent to Fort Benning.</p>
<p>General Bradley was given his own division—the 82nd Infantry—within two months after Pearl Harbor. His promotion to major general came on February 15, 1942. Four months later, in June 1942, he was transferred from the 82nd—which was soon to be designated the 82nd Airborne Division—to command the 28th Infantry Division at Camp Livingston, LA. </p>
<p>Early in 1943, General Bradley was selected by General Eisenhower as his personal representative in the field in North Africa. Then, on April 15, 1943, he was given command of the II Corps. It was the II Corps that smashed through units of the Afrika Korps in Northern Tunisia to reduce Hill 609, take Bizerte, and with the British 1st and 8th Armies end the war in Africa. </p>
<p>The day after the collapse of the enemy in Tunisia, General Bradley was en route to Algiers to help plan the invasion of Sicily and on July 10, 1943 invaded Sicily with his II Army Corps.</p>
<p>In the summer of 1943, General Bradley was selected to command the First U.S. Army in the Normandy Invasion. His release from command of II Corps, then in Sicily, was arranged during the last week in August and effected on September 7. After conferences in Washington, Bradley arrived in the United Kingdom in October. On the 20<sup>th</sup> of that month, he opened the Headquarters of the First U.S. Army in Bristol. Also, in October, General Bradley was given additional duties as Commanding General, First United States Army Group which later was to become the Twelfth U.S. Army Group.</p>
<p>On June 6, 1944, General Bradley landed in France with his First Army to break the Atlantic Wall. On July 26 the First Army smashed through the German lines at St. Lo and opened the way through Avranches for the speedy liberation of France. On August 1 he divided the American forces into two Armies, the First Army and Third Army, and committed General Patton’s Third Army through the breached enemy wall. He relinquished the First Army to General Hodges and assumed command of the U.S. 12th Army Group, which eventually comprised the combat forces of the First, Third, Ninth, and Fifteenth American Armies with more than 1,300,000 combat troops—the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under one field commander. </p>
<p>In the spring of 1945, after his American armies had smashed the German winter attacks and broken down the Siegfried Line to push on to the Rhine, General Bradley was given his fourth star.</p>
<p>Except for his original divisional assignment—a pre-combat training job given him as a result of his experience as Commandant of the Infantry School—General Bradley won his wartime advancement on the battlefield. A corps commander in North Africa and later in Sicily, he took an Army across the Normandy beaches and ended the war in Germany in command of an Army Group.</p>
<p>On August 15, 1945, General Bradley became Administrator of Veterans Affairs. He relinquished this post on December 1, 1947, in order to familiarize himself with Army problems before taking on new duties as Chief of Staff. </p>
<p>On February 7, 1948, General Bradley became Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, succeeding General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower.</p>
<p>General Bradley was sworn in as the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in the Department of Defense on August 16, 1949, and on August 16, 1951, was reappointed for a two-year term. General Bradley brought to that highest military office a unique background of military and civilian experience. </p>
<p>He was nominated by President Truman for promotion to General of the Army on September 18, 1950; was confirmed by the Senate September 20, and was appointed to that rank effective September 22, 1950, making him the fifth five-star Army general officer.</p>
<p>At the first meeting of the 12 Atlantic Pact nations in Washington on October 5, 1949, General Bradley was appointed the first chairman of the Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, consisting of the military chiefs of staff of the 12 American and European countries then united in the North Atlantic Treaty for mutual defense. The number has since grown to 15. At the termination of his office as Chairman in 1950, he continued until August 1953 as U.S. Representative to the Military Committee (NATO) and U.S. Representative to the Standing Group of the Military Committee, consisting of representatives of the U.S, United Kingdom, and France. In these assignments he exercised great responsibility in the coordination of the military efforts of the free world.</p>
<p>General Bradley’s decorations include: the Distinguished Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters; Distinguished Service Medal of the United States Navy; the Silver Star; the Legion of Merit with one oak leaf cluster; Bronze Star Medal; Mexican Border Service Medal; World War I Victory Medal; American Defense Service Medal; American Campaign Medal; European-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with one bronze arrowhead and seven battle stars; World War II Victory Medal; Army of Occupation Medal with clasp for Germany; the Combat Infantryman’s Badge; and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (January 10, 1977).</p>
<p>He also has the following foreign decorations: Grand Cross—Order of the Crown with Palm, and Croix de Guerre (Belgium); Knight Commander of the Bath (British Empire); Order of the White Lion Star for Victory, First Class; and Military War Cross of 1939 (Czechoslovakia); Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, and Croix de Guerre with Palm (France); Grand Cross of the Royal Greek Order of George I; Grand Cross of Couronne de Chene, and Croix de Guerre (Luxembourg); Grand Cross of the Order of Ouissan Alaouite Cherifien, Degree of Grand Officer (Morocco); Knight of the Grand Cross, Order of Orange-Nassau Netherlands); Commander’s Cross with Star, and appointed Chevalier of the Order of Polonia Restituta (Poland); Order of Kutuzov, 1<sup>st</sup> Degree; and Order of Suvarov, 1<sup>st</sup> Degree (Russia); Order of Military Merit; Degree of Grand Officer (Brazil); Order of General San Martin, Degree of Grand Officer (Argentina); Grand Cross of the Military Order of Italy.</p>
<p>General Bradley died in St. Luke’s Hospital Center, New York City, on April 8, 1981 from cardiac arrest. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington Cemetery on April 14<sup>th</sup>. </p>
<p>A detailed account of his leadership qualities and his character may be found in the Spring 1970 issue of <em>ASSEMBLY</em>.</p>
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