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Home Town Heavener
Last Address Arlington, VA
Date of Passing Aug 16, 2005
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
William E. Potts, 83, a retired Lieutenant General in the Army, a decorated veteran of three wars and a military intelligence official in the 1960s and 1970s, died of heart disease August 16, 2005, at Powhatan Nursing Home in Falls Church. He was a longtime Arlington resident.
General Potts was born in Heavener, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma Military Academy (now Rogers State University) in 1941.
At age 20, six weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he passed up an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy to enlist in the Army. He participated in the Normandy landings and led Armored Cavalry forces in reconnaissance missions behind enemy lines for Gen. George S. Patton's 3rd Army. His unit was so effective in night operations that the German army's general staff dubbed its soldiers "the ghosts of Patton's Army."
He was only 22 years old when Patton gave him a battlefield promotion to Major in recognition of his leadership as a battalion commander during the Lorraine campaign. He was seriously wounded during the fighting in France.
After World War II, he commanded the 72nd Tank Battalion in combat during the Korean War and the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment along the border between East Germany and West Germany in the late 1950s.
He also served almost five years in Vietnam, where he was responsible for implementing the buildup of Korean, Australian and New Zealand troops in 1965 and 1966. From 1969 to 1972, he served as head of combined military intelligence in Vietnam.
Between tours of duty in Vietnam, General Potts held a number of positions in military intelligence, including chief of staff of the Army Security Agency and assistant chief of staff for Army intelligence in the Pacific. After his last tour of duty in Vietnam, he served as the Army's assistant chief of staff for intelligence and as deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.
General Potts received a second undergraduate degree, from the University of Maryland, in the 1950s, as well as two master's degrees from George Washington University, in management and personnel administration in 1955 and in international affairs in 1962. He was a doctoral candidate in executive development and contemporary international relations at American University but was reassigned to Vietnam before finishing the degree.
During his military career, he participated in 15 campaigns and was awarded 51 decorations, including the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Purple Heart and the French National Order of the Legion of Honor. He is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
After his retirement in 1975, General Potts worked for General Research Corp., Computer Sciences Corp. and Raytheon Systems Co. before retiring a second time in 1999. He also headed a team that produced a 20-volume study of the Indochina conflicts for the Department of Defense and consulted with the federal government on intelligence and operational matters for use in future military operations.
The 2nd Division was first constituted on 21 September 1917 in the Regular Army.It was organized on 26 October 1917 at Bourmont, Haute Marne, France.
The 2nd Infantry Division is a formation of the United States Army. Its current primary mission is the pre-emptive defense of South Korea in the event of an invasion from North Korea. There are approximately 17,000 soldiers in the 2nd Infantry Division, with 10,000 of them stationed in South Korea,accounting for about 35% of the United States Forces Korea personnel.
The 2nd Infantry Division is unique in that it is the only U.S. Army division that is made up partially of South Korean soldiers, called KATUSAs (Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army). This program began in 1950 by agreement with the first South Korean president, Syngman Rhee. Some 27,000 KATUSAs served with the U.S. forces at the end of the Korean War. As of May 2006, approximately 1,100 KATUSA soldiers serve with the 2ID. There were also more than 4,748 Dutch soldiers assigned to the division between 1950 and 1954.
Twice during World War I the division was commanded by US Marine Corps generals, Brigadier GeneralCharles A. Doyen and Major GeneralJohn A. Lejeune (after whom the Marine Corps Camp in North Carolina is named), the only time in U.S. military history when Marine Corps officers commanded an Army division.
He organized and commanded the 5th Marine Regiment in World War I, and in France took command of the 4th Brigade, 2d Division, composed of the 5th and 6th Marine Regiments and the 6th Machine Gun Battalion. from 26 October to 8 November 1917, he served as commanding general, 2nd Division (United States), the first Marine officer to command a U.S. Army division. He returned to the United States, dying of influenza during the height of the global pandemic on 6 October 1918 at Quantico, Virginia.The 4th Brigade went on to win a historic victory in Belleau Wood. Brigadier General Doyen's contribution to these victories was recognized by the posthumous award of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal, the first to ever be awarded.
Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina was named in his honor during World War II. Lejeune is often referred to in the present day as being the "greatest of all Leathernecks" and the "Marine's Marine."
Major General John A. Lejeune, U.S. Marine Corps, 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps (1920-1929)
MOH Recipient(s) Private Frank J. Bart U.S. Army, Company C, 9th Infantry, 2nd Division.
being on duty as a company runner, when the advance was held up by machinegun fire voluntarily picked up an automatic rifle, ran out ahead of the line, and silenced a hostile machinegun nest, killing the German gunners. The advance then continued, and when it was again hindered shortly afterward by another machinegun nest this courageous soldier repeated his bold exploit by putting the second machinegun out of action.
PVT Frank J. Bart
MOH Recipient(s) SFC Junior D. Edwards,U.S. Army, Company E, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
SFC Edwards, Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. When his platoon, while assisting in the defense of a strategic hill, was forced out of its position and came under vicious raking fire from an enemy machine gun set up on adjacent high ground, SFC Edwards individually charged the hostile emplacement, throwing grenades as he advanced. The enemy withdrew but returned to deliver devastating fire when he had expended his ammunition. Securing a fresh supply of grenades, he again charged the emplacement, neutralized the weapon and killed the crew, but was forced back by hostile small-arms fire. When the enemy emplaced another machine gun and resumed fire, SFC Edwards again renewed his supply of grenades, rushed a third time through a vicious hail of fire, silenced this second gun and annihilated its crew. In this third daring assault he was mortally wounded but his indomitable courage and successful action enabled his platoon to regain and hold the vital strongpoint. SFC Edwards' consummate valor and gallant self-sacrifice reflect the utmost glory upon himself and are in keeping with the esteemed traditions of the Infantry and military service.
SFC Junior D. Edwards
MOH Recipient (s) Corporal Victor H. Espinoza,U.S. Army, Company A, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division.
For acts of gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty while serving as an Acting Rifleman in Company A, 23d Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division during combat operations against an armed enemy in Chorwon, Korea on 1 August 1952. On that day, Corporal Espinoza and his unit were responsible for securing and holding a vital enemy hill. As the friendly unit neared its objective, it was subjected to a devastating volume of enemy fire, slowing its progress. Corporal Espinoza, unhesitatingly and being fully aware of the hazards involved, left his place of comparative safety and made a deliberate one man assault on the enemy with his rifle and grenades, destroying a machinegun and killing its crew. Corporal Espinoza continued across the fire-swept terrain to an exposed vantage point where he attacked an enemy mortar position and two bunkers with grenades and rifle fire, knocking out the enemy mortar position and destroying both bunkers and killing their occupants. Upon reaching the crest, and after running out of rifle ammunition, he called for more grenades. A comrade who was behind him threw some Chinese grenades to him. Immediately upon catching them, he pulled the pins and hurled them into the occupied trenches, killing and wounding more of the enemy with their own weapons. Continuing on through a tunnel, Corporal Espinoza made a daring charge, inflicting at least seven more casualties upon the enemy who were fast retreating into the tunnel. Corporal Espinoza was quickly in pursuit, but the hostile fire from the opening prevented him from overtaking the retreating enemy. As a result, Corporal Espinoza destroyed the tunnel with TNT, called for more grenades from his company, and hurled them at the enemy troops until they were out of reach. Corporal Espinoza's incredible display of valor secured the vital strong point and took a heavy toll on the enemy, resulting in at least fourteen dead and eleven wounded. Corporal Espinoza's extraordinary heroism and selflessness above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
