Omar Nelson Bradley (12 February 1893 – 8 April 1981) was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. He was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy-making in the Korean War.
Born in Randolph County, Missouri, he worked as a boilermaker before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated from the academy in 1915 alongside Dwight D. Eisenhower as part of "the class the stars fell on." During World War I, he guarded copper mines in Montana. After the war, he taught at West Point and served in other roles before taking a position at the War Department under General George Marshall. In 1941, he became commander of the United States Army Infantry School.
After the U.S. entry into World War II, he oversaw the transformation of the 82nd Infantry Division into the first American airborne division. He received his first front-line command in Operation Torch, serving under General George S. Patton in North Africa. After Patton was reassigned, Bradley commanded II Corps in the Tunisia Campaign and the Allied invasion of Sicily. He commanded the First United States Army during the invasion of Normandy. After the breakout from Normandy, he took command of the Twelfth United States Army Group, which ultimately comprised 43 divisions and 1.3 million men, the largest body of American soldiers ever to serve under a single field commander.
After the war, Bradley headed the Veterans Administration. He was appointed as Chief of Staff of the United States Army in 1948 and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949. In 1950, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army, becoming the last of the nine individuals promoted to five-star rank in the United States Armed Forces. He was the senior military commander at the start of the Korean War, and supported President Harry S. Truman's wartime policy of containment. He was instrumental in persuading Truman to dismiss General Douglas MacArthur in 1951 after MacArthur resisted administration attempts to scale back the war's strategic objectives. Bradley left active duty in 1953 (although remaining on "active retirement" for the next 27 years). He continued to serve in public and business roles until his death in 1981 at age 88.
Early life and education
Omar Nelson Bradley, the son of schoolteacher John Smith Bradley (1868–1908) and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Hubbard; 1875–1931), was born into poverty in rural Randolph County, Missouri, near Moberly in 1893. Bradley was named after Omar D. Gray, a local newspaper editor admired by his father, and a local physician, James Nelson. He was of British ancestry, his ancestors having emigrated from Great Britain to Kentucky in the mid-1700s.Five Stars: Missouri's Most Famous Generals, by James Muench, page 104 He attended at least eight country schools where his father taught. The elder Bradley never earned more than $40 a month in his lifetime, while he was a schoolteacher and sharecropper, the latter with the aid of all the family. They never owned a wagon, a horse, or a mule. When Omar was 15, his father died; he credited his father with passing on to him his love of books, baseball and shooting.
His mother moved with him to Moberly, where she remarried. Bradley graduated from Moberly High School in 1910. He was an outstanding student and athlete who was chosen captain of both the baseball and track teams.
Bradley was working as a 17-cents-an-hour (equal to $ today) boilermaker at the Wabash Railroad when he was encouraged by his Sunday school teacher at Central Christian Church in Moberly to take the entrance examination for the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. Bradley had been saving his money to enter the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he intended to study law. He finished second in the West Point placement exams, held at Jefferson Barracks Military Post in St. Louis, Missouri. The first-place winner was unable to accept the Congressional appointment, however, and the nomination was passed to Bradley in August 1911.
While Bradley was attending the academy, he did not excel academically; but still ranked 44th in a class of 164. He was a baseball star and often played on semi-pro teams for no remuneration (to ensure his eligibility as an amateur to represent the academy). He was considered one of the most outstanding college players in the nation during his junior and senior seasons at West Point, noted as both a power hitter and an outfielder, with one of the best arms in his day. He rejected multiple offers to play professional baseball, choosing to pursue his Army career.
While stationed at West Point as an instructor, in 1923 Bradley became a Freemason. He became a member of the West Point Lodge #877, Highland Falls, New York and continued with them until his death.
Bradley married Mary Quayle (1892–1965), who had grown up across the street from him in Moberly. Her father, the town's popular police chief, had died when she was young. The pair attended Central Christian Church and Moberly High School together. On the cover of the 1910 Moberly High School yearbook, The Salutar, they were shown across from each other, although they did not date during those years. His picture bore the description "calculative" and hers "linguistic." She earned a college degree in education.
West Point and early military career
At West Point, Bradley played three years of varsity baseball including on the 1914 team. Every player on that team who remained in the army ultimately became a general. He also played football, where he was a teammate of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Bradley graduated from West Point in 1915, known as "the class the stars fell on," which produced 59 future general officers. Bradley's cullum number is 5356.
Bradley was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Infantry Branch of the United States Army and was first assigned to the 14th Infantry Regiment. In 1915, he served on the Mexico–United States border, defending it from incursions due to the Mexican Civil War. On 1 July 1916 he was promoted to first lieutenant.
When the United States entered World War I in April 1917 (see the American entry into World War I), he was promoted to captain on 15 May and sent to guard the Butte, Montana copper mines, considered of strategic importance. Bradley was promoted to the temporary rank of major in June 1918 and assigned to command the second battalion of the 14th Infantry. He joined the 19th Division in August 1918, which was scheduled for European deployment, but the influenza pandemic and the armistice with Germany on 11 November 1918 intervened.
From September 1919 until September 1920, Bradley served as assistant professor of military science at South Dakota State College (now University) in Brookings, South Dakota.
During the difficult period between the wars, he taught and studied. From 1920 to 1924, Bradley taught mathematics at West Point. He was promoted to major in 1924 and took the advanced infantry course at Fort Benning, Georgia. After brief duty in Hawaii, Bradley was selected to study at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1928–29. Upon graduating, he served as an instructor in tactics at the U.S. Army Infantry School. While Bradley was serving in this assignment, the school's assistant commandant, Lieutenant Colonel George C. Marshall, described Bradley as "quiet, unassuming, capable, with sound common sense. Absolute dependability. Give him a job and forget it."
From 1929, Bradley taught again at West Point, studying at the U.S. Army War College in 1934. Bradley was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 26 June 1936 and worked at the War Department; after 1938 he was directly reporting to U.S. Army Chief of Staff Marshall.
On 20 February 1941, Bradley was promoted to the (wartime) temporary rank of brigadier general (bypassing the rank of colonel.)Hollister, Jay. "General Omar Nelson Bradley ". University of San Diego History Department. May 3, 2001. Retrieved on May 14, 2007. (This rank was made permanent by the army in September 1943). The temporary rank was conferred to allow him to command the U.S. Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia (he was among the first from his class to reach even a temporary rank of general officer; first was his West Point classmate Luis Esteves, who was promoted Brigadier general in October 1940Ammentorp, Steen. "Biography of Major-General Luis Raul Esteves ". Retrieved on July 5, 2020.). While serving in this position he played a key part in developing the officer candidate school model. While serving as commandant, Bradley began a long professional relationship with Willis S. Matthews; Matthews served as his aide-de-camp while he was commandant. When Bradley moved on to command of first the 82nd Infantry Division and later the 28th Infantry Division, Matthews served as assistant chief of staff for operations (G-3). When Bradley served as Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Matthews was again his aide. When Bradley was appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Matthews served as his executive officer.
On 15 February 1942, two months after the American entry into World War II, Bradley was made a temporary major general (a rank made permanent in September 1944) and soon took command of the 82nd Infantry Division (soon to be redesignated as the 82nd Airborne Division) before succeeding Major General James Garesche Ord as commander of the 28th Infantry Division in June.
Louisiana Maneuvers The Louisiana Maneuvers were a series of U.S. Army exercises held around Northern and Western-Central Louisiana, including Fort Polk, Camp Claiborne and Camp Livingston, in 1940 and 1941. The exercises, which involved some 400,000 troops, were designed to evaluate U.S. training, logistics, doctrine, and commanders. Overall, headquarters were in the Bentley Hotel in Alexandria.
Many Army officers present at the maneuvers later rose to very senior roles in World War II, including Bradley, Mark Clark, Dwight Eisenhower, Walter Krueger, Lesley J. McNair and George Patton.
Lieutenant Colonel Bradley was assigned to General Headquarters during the Louisiana Maneuvers but as a courier and observer in the field, he gained invaluable experience for the future. Colonel Bradley assisted in the planning of the maneuvers, and kept the General Staff in Washington, D.C. abreast of the training that was occurring during the Louisiana Maneuvers.
Bradley later said that Louisianans welcomed the soldiers with open arms. Some soldiers even slept in some of the residents' houses. Bradley said it was so crowded in those houses sometimes when the soldiers were sleeping, there would hardly be any walking room. Bradley also said a few of the troops were disrespectful towards the residents' land and crops, and would tear down crops for extra food. However, for the most part, residents and soldiers established good relations.Bradley, Omar N.:Omar N. Bradley: A Soldier's Story, 1951
World War II Bradley's personal experiences in the war are documented in his award-winning book A Soldier's Story, published by Henry Holt & Co. in 1951. It was re-released by The Modern Library in 1999. The book is based on an extensive diary maintained by his aide-de-camp, Chester B. Hansen, who ghost-wrote the book using the diary; Hansen's original diary is maintained by the U. S. Army Heritage and Education Center, at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.A Soldier's Story, xxv.