Garrison H. Davidson

Garrison Holt Davidson
Lt. General Garrison H. Davidson as Superintendent of the U.S. Miltary Academy, 1956.
Nickname(s)	"Gar"
Allegiance	United States Army
Years of service	1927-1964
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands	24th Infantry Division Command and General Staff College U.S. Military Academy U.S. Seventh Army U.S. First Army U.S. Military Representative to the United Nations
Battles/wars	World War II, Korean War

A career U.S. Army officer and World War II combat commander, Garrison Holt "Gar" Davidson was born in the Bronx, New York City on April 24, 1904. He attended the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York City where he graduated in 1923. Davidson realized a boyhood dream of becoming a soldier and won an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy where he distinguished himself in football and graduated with the class of 1927. Upon graduation, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

From 1933 to 1938 he football coach at the U.S. Military Academy with a record of 35 wins, 11 losses and 1 tie.

In World War II, Davidson as a colonel was engineering officer for U.S. Seventh Army serving General George S. Patton in North Africa, Sicily, southern France and Germany. His efforts enabled Patton’s armor to move rapidly across enemy territory. An appreciative Patton used his own general stars to honor Colonel Davidson in a 1943 battlefield promotion to brigadier general.

After World War II in 1946, he was appointed Sixth United States Army chief of staff for General Mark Wayne Clark at the Presidio of San Francisco. From 1950 to 1954, he was a weapons system analyst at the Pentagon.

During the next six years, Davidson played a significant role in training officers serving in the post-war and atomic eras. Starting in 1954 he was commander of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, then in 1956 as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. There he largely prevailed over strong traditionalist viewpoints, undertaking the most rigorous revision and modernization of the academy’s instructional program since Sylvanus Thayer (1817-1833), the academy’s legendary superintendent. While at West Point, he was confirmed and promoted to the rank of lieutenent general in 1957.

Davidson was commanding general of Seventh United States Army in West Germany in 1960 saw to the mobilization of Seveth Army during the Berlin Wall and Cuban Missle crisis.

In 1962, his final command was of First United States Army headquartered at Fort Jay on Governors Island, New York. He also served a one year term as the U.S. Military Representative to the United Nations. After nearly 37 year military career, Davidson retired from active duty on April 30, 1964.

Davidson resumed his connection with West Point when appointed to a two year term to the Board of Visitors to the U.S. Military Academy by President Ronald Reagan in December 1982.

Davidson died in Oakland, California on December 25, 1995 and was buried at the West Point Cemetery. The inscription on his gravestone reads: “Soldier, Coach, Educator and His Best Teammate", the latter reference to his wife of 58 years, Verone Gruenther Davidson who died in 1996.

Reference

Ray, Max (1980). The History of the First United States Army From 1918 to 1980. Fort Meade MD: First United States Army. pp. 120, 124. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

Appleman, Roy (1992). United States Army In The Korean War: South To The Naktong, North To The Yalu, June-November 1950. Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center Of Military History. pp. 319–392. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); line feed character in |title= at position 60 (help)

"Meeting The Challenges of The Cold War: 1950-1970" in West Point Bicentennial: A Pictorial History of the First Two Hundred Years of the United States Military Academy. Available from World Wide Web at http://www.usma.edu/bicentennial/history/1950.asp

John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters,The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=42159