GE 347
General Douglas MacArthur

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (Born January 26, 1880 – Died April 5, 1964) was an American General and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army who was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur, Jr., the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the U.S. Army (or Five-Star General), and the only man ever to become a Field Marshal in the Philippine Army.
From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he attempted a series of reforms. His next assignment was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, he became the Army's youngest Major General. He served on the court martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and was President of the American Olympic Committee during the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In 1930, he became Chief of Staff of the United States Army. As such, he was involved in the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D.C. in 1932, and the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines.
But in 1941, during World War II, MacArthur was recalled to active duty as commander of U.S. Army Forces Far East. A series of disasters followed, starting with the destruction of his Air Force on December 8, 1941, and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese. MacArthur's forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur, his family and his staff left nearby Corregidor Island in PT boats and escaped to Australia, where MacArthur became Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japan's surrender on September 2, 1945, and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on April 11, 1951. He later became Chairman of the Board of Remington Rand, (From 1942 to 1945, Remington Rand was one manufacturer of the M1911A1 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol used by the United States Armed Forces during World War II).
Douglas MacArthur died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on April 5, 1964, of biliary cirrhosis. President Kennedy had authorized a state funeral, and Vice President Johnson confirmed the directive, ordering that MacArthur be buried "with all the honor a grateful nation can bestow on a departed hero.” On April 7, his body was taken on a funeral train to Union Station and transported by a funeral procession to the Capitol, where it lay in state. An estimated 150,000 people filed by the bier. The body was finally laid to rest in the rotunda of the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia.