Five Star General Omar Nelson Bradley was born in a log cabin on February 12, 1893 near Clark, Missouri. Bradley said that, “Almost all of the meat mother put on the table was game that father bagged with his 12 gauge L.C. Smith double barrel shotgun.” He also said that he “killed and dressed rabbits and sold then for five cents each”. It was this quiet industrious young man who began to save his hard earned cash to go to the University of Missouri in Columbia. Only a forward looking Sunday School teacher changed history when he encouraged Bradley to take the exam to enter West Point. Bradley placed second but got his chance when the number one man bowed out. He played left field for the Army Baseball team with a .383 batting avg. and graduated in 1915 with a West Point class that produced 59 Generals and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He married Mary Elizabeth Quayle on December 28, 1916.
Omar Bradley's Army Career
Omar Bradley spent WWI on the US Mexican Border and as Army personnel assigned to the Butte, MT Copper Mines. His 19th Infantry Division was slated to go to Europe in 1918 but the war ended before he could be deployed. From 1920-1936 he taught at West Point, trained at Fort Benning and Fort Leavenworth and even had a stint in Hawaii. He caught his first big break in 1936 when he was assigned as a Lt. Colonel to work directly under Gen. George Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff. In 1941 he was promoted to Brigadier General and commanded Fort Benning. In 1942 as a Major General he took over the 82nd Infantry and then the 24th Infantry. He was a major factor in the North Africa and Sicily campaigns and was promoted to Lt. General then became America’s leading General in the D-Day operations. By the end of WWII, Bradley had been promoted to Four Star General and commanded the 12th Army Group, which numbered four armies and 1.3 million men. This was the largest command ever presided over by any American General. In 1949, Omar Bradley was appointed by President Truman as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Then in 1950 he was promoted to Five Star General.
The Civilian Omar Bradley
After heading the NATO Military Committee which helped to establish the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a force for peace in the world, Bradley became the Chairman of the Board of the Bulova Watch Company from 1958 to 1973. He continually called for peace in the world through relying our humanity rather than burgeoning technology. He once stated that “The central problem of our time, as I view it, is how to employ human intelligence for the salvation of mankind”. Omar Bradley died on April 8, 1981 in New York City of from a cardiac arrhythmia. He is laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.
Sources
The 100 Greatest Heroes by Harry Paul Jeffers, 2003, Citadel Press
Courtney Hicks Hodges: From Private to Four-star General in the United States Army by Stephan T. Wishnevsky, 2006, McFarland
Life Magazine June 5, 1944
Bulletin of Atomic Scientists February 1958
Roger Saunders - Roger Saunders is a 9th generation American. On his father’s side, his 6th Great Grandfather came to Fairfax Co. VA in the Early ...
Join the Conversation