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Major General (Retired) <em>Ralph W. Zwicker</em>, during his 33-year Army career, Served in command assignments from platoon to corps in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Korea. Staff duties ranged from battalion to Headquarters, Department of the Army. He attended as a student and was assigned as an instructor at the United States Military Academy, US Army Infantry School, and the National War College.</p>
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General Zwicker was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin on 17 April 1903. Spending his boyhood in Wisconsin, he graduated from high School in Madison and was a student in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin prior to entering the United States Military Academy in July 1923. Upon graduation on 14 June 1927, he was commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry. Exactly one month later he married Dorothy Harriet Stewart of Madison. Together they reported to his first duty station, Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and assignment to the 3rd Infantry regiment—“The Old Guard.”</p>
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His first overseas assignment in July 1930 was at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii with the 35th Infantry regiment and the 11th Tank company. After graduation from the company officer’s course it the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Georgia in 1933, he again was assigned to the 3rd Infantry regiment at Fort Snelling. Following promotion to first lieutenant in July, he was designated company commander of one of the original Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) companies.</p>
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His next assignment took him back to the U.S. Military Academy, where in August 1934 he became an instructor in the Department of Drawing. In August 1939 he was transferred to Fort Douglas, Utah and assigned to the famous 39th Infantry, which he was to command in combat five years later. The regiment participated actively as part of the 2nd Infantry Division at Camp Bullis and Fort Sam Houston, Texas in training and testing the then-new triangular concept of organization.</p>
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April 1941 found Major Zwicker back at Fort Benning, as an instructor in the Tactic Section of the Infantry School, he also completed the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth.</p>
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The war years brought him many varied and rewarding assignments. Duty as G-3 of the 34th Infantry Division from the time of its organization in September 1942 through its first large-scale maneuver test in November 1943 was followed by assignment to Headquarters, Army Ground Forces in Washington, as assistant to the G-3 for training. Early May 1944 found Zwicker in England as an observer for the commanding general. Army Ground Forces. After participating in the assault landings on Omaha Beach on D-Day, fortunate circumstances found him assigned in mid-June as commanding officer of the 39th Infantry regiment. He participated with the 2nd Infantry Division as regimental commander and, subsequent to mid-October, as chief of staff in all of its campaigns. During this period, he was decorated by our own government and the governments of Great Britain, France, Czechoslovakia and Russia.</p>
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During the past-war years, Colonel Zwicker furthered his professional education by attending the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island from July to December 1945 and the National War College from August 1946 to June 1947, where he returned in 1952 as an instructor. Staff assignments included a tour as assistant to the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations at Army Crnund Forces, Washington, D C- from December 1345 to August 1346, assignment to the Operation and Training Division of the Army General Stall from June 1347 to April 1349; and appointment as deputy to the Chief of Staff for Civilian Component Affairs from April 1943 to July 1949, at which time he was transferred to the European Command Headquarters and assigned as deputy director of the Operations and Training Division. Following a year in tins assignment, he spent two years in command of the 13th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.</p>
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Back in the United States, Colonel Zwicker was assigned as an instructor at the National War College. In February 1953 he went to Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Pennsylvania as assistant division commander of the 5th Infantry Division and, in March 1953 was promoted to brigadier general. After a year as commanding general of Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, he was sent to the Far East, where in October 1954 he became commanding general of the Southwestern Command, Armed Forces Far East, Japan.</p>
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In 1956 he was named G-l of AFFE/Eighth Army and served in this position until being promoted to major general in May 1957 and assigned as commanding general of the 24th Infantry Division in Korea. It was during his tenure that the vital tasks of reorganizing the division under the new Pentonic concept and redesiZnating of the 24th Division as the 1st Cavalry Division were accomplished.</p>
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In May 1956 he took command of the XX United States Army Corps (Reserve), with headquarters at Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio. There he was responsible for command, training, and support of the USAR and ROTC programs in the States of Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. General Swicker retired on 1 May 1960. He was employed by the Research Analysis Corporation of McLean, Virginia for approximately ten years.</p>