John J. Pershing

John J. Pershing (1860-1948), American general, who led the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in Europe during World War I (1914-1918). John Joseph Pershing was born in Linn County, Missouri, and educated at the United States Military Academy. He served in the Apache campaign in 1886, the Sioux campaign in 1890 and 1891, in Cuba in 1898, and in the Philippines from 1899 to 1903. In 1916, he headed a punitive expedition into Mexico in pursuit of Francisco Villa (known as Pancho Villa), who had attacked Columbus, New Mexico, killed 18 people, and burned the town. In September of that year, Pershing was made a major general. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Pershing was appointed commander in chief of the AEF in France and conducted its operations with great success. He convinced the U.S. government to increase the number of men needed for the army. In October of that year he was made a full general. He preserved the unity of the American army, in spite of pressure to divide it among other Allied forces. He also supported the Western strategy of concentrating forces within France to fight against Germany, rather than diluting the forces to attack lesser enemies such as the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria. The success of the Americans at Saint-Mihiel, France, greatly stimulated the Allied morale. When the armistice came, Pershing was almost in sight of his goal, Sedan. For his contribution to the Allied victory, in September 1919 he was made General of the Armies of the United States, a rank he shares only with George Washington.

Appointed chief of staff of the U.S. Army in 1921, Pershing embarked on the unprecedented task of combining into one organization the Regular Army, the National Guard, and the Permanent Reserves. After his retirement in 1924, he headed a commission supervising American war memorials in France. His memoirs, My Experiences in the World War, were published in 1931.