Blackshear M. Bryan

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Blackshear M. Bryan

February 8, 1900(1900-02-08) – March 2, 1977 (aged 77)

General Blackshear M. Bryan
Place of birth Alexandria, Louisiana
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 1922-1960
Rank Lieutenant General
Commands held 24th Infantry Division
XVI Corps
I Corps
U.S. Military Academy
U.S. Army Pacific
U.S. First Army
Battles/wars Korean War
Awards Army Distinguished Service Medal
Order of the British Empire
Air Medal in Korea
Other work President, Nassau Community College

Lieutenant General Blackshear Morrison Bryan was a United States Army general who served during the World War II and Korean War-era.

Contents

[edit] Early Life and Education

Bryan was born in Alexandria, Louisiana on February 8, 1900. He was attending Virginia Military Institute when he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1918. He graduated with the second or June 14th class of 1922, receiving a commission as a second Lieutenant in the artillery.


After graduation from West Point, Bryan took artillery officer training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He returned to West Point to serve as an assistant Army football coach during the 1925 and 1926 seasons. Bryan was also an instructor there in 1928-1929 and 1933-1934. He was promoted became a lieutenant in 1927 and captain in 1935. In 1940 he was promoted to major and graduated from the Army War College, then at Washington Barracks (Fort Lesley J. McNair) in Washington, D.C., before the school was closed for the duration of World War II.

[edit] World War II

At the outbreak of World War II, Bryan was chief of the Policy Section for the War Department General Staff in Washington, D.C. where he was promoted to Lieutenant colonel. In 1942 he was promoted to colonel and assigned as Chief of the Aliens Division for the Provost Marshal General's Office. With a his promotion to general and a 1943 reorganization, he headed the Prisoner of War Division with charge over Japanese internment and prisoner of war camps throughout the United States. In July 1945, Bryan became Provost Marshal General and transitioned an agency whose lifespan rarely exceeded beyond the end of combat hostilities into a post-war organization with charge over Army military investigations, the military police and the Army's military police school.

[edit] Cold War and Korea

In 1948, he transferred to Panama Canal Zone, serving as chief of staff under General Matthew Ridgway who headed a newly established unified multi-service command structure, the Caribbean Command, replacing the Army's World War II Caribbean Defense Command.

In March 1951, Bryan was part of the first rotation of combat commanders since the start of the Korean War, taking charge of the 24th Infantry Division, a first combat command that he took on with Ridgeway's full faith, despite not having combat experience.

After a year in Korea, Bryan served as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Far East Command in Tokyo before commanding the XVI Corps in Japan. He then took on a leading role on the military armistice commission of the United Nations that concluded hostilities in Korea in 1953 and directed the repatriation of prisoners of war. After promotion to major general and a short stint as commanding general of I Corps in Korea, he was appointed the 43rd superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point for which he served from 1954 to 1956.

In July 1956 he took command of U.S. Army Pacific in Hawaii. In July 1957 Bryan assumed his final command as commanding general, U.S. First Army at Fort Jay, Governors Island in New York City. After 37 years of active duty, Bryan entered the retired list February 29, 1960.

[edit] Retirement and Family

From 1960 to 1965 Bryan served as the first president of the Nassau Community College in Long Island, New York.

Two of Bryan's sons, Blackshear Jr. and James, served in the U.S. Army. Blackshear M. Bryan, Jr. or "Morrie" was born in 1929 at West Point during his father's tenure as assistant football coach. He attended the Academy, graduating with the class of 1954. He accepted a commission with the Air Force, then transferred to the U.S. Army in 1963. Serving in Vietnam he was cited twice for heroism during his tour. On September 22, 1967, as he was rounding out his tour in Vietnam, Major Morrie Bryan was killed in a crash of his U-21A during a training mission as he attempted to avoid trespassers on the runway.

Jamie after serving two combat tours in Vietnam also died in 1967 in a military aircraft accident.

Blackshear M. Bryan died March 2, 1977 and was buried at the West Point Cemetery.

[edit] References

United States Army Pacific, History, Commanding Generals, Blackshear M. Bryan [1]

United States Military Academy Class of 1954 Webpage - Combat Deaths[2]

German Prisoners of War in the United States by Arnold P. Krammer in Military Affairs, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Apr., 1976), pp. 68-73

Preceded by
Frederick Augustus Irving		 Superintendents of the United States Military Academy
1954–1956		 Succeeded by
Garrison H. Davidson

[edit] See also


United States Army Portal