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Home Town Augusta, Georgia
Last Address Washington, D.C.
Date of Passing Jul 17, 1978
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
John Fuller Davis (Jack) was born 2 May 1892 in Augusta, Georgia, the son of John Fuller and Emily St. Pierre Morgan Davis. He was descended from a long line of soldiers and patriots, the Barnwell, Fuller, Morgan and Trenholm families of South Carolina. His father died when Jack was a young boy so he never used the "Jr.â?? after his name. In his early years he was raised by an uncle, an Episcopal minister in Florida, while his mother attempted to develop a career in nursing so that she would be able to support herself and her three children.
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In 1905 his mother married James C. Nagle, the first Dean of Engineering at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College, where he taught from 1890 to 1922. Jack developed a true father-son relationship with his stepfather, a remarkable man who undoubtedly was instrumental in Jack's attending Texas A&M for three years before entering West Point in 1911.
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At West Point his four years were marked by a keen sense of humor, an attractiveness the femmes couldnâ??t resist, and frequent bouts with thE Academic and Tactical Departments. The results of the latter were many hours on the area and consequently shoes worn thin and a clean sleeve. Also as a cadet he developed a true love for horses and played on the polo team; thus it was only natural that upon graduation he chose the Cavalry,
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His first assignment took him to Mission, Texas, on the Mexican border with the 3d Cavalry, During this assignment Jack married Aileen, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Frank S. White of Austin, Texas. Aileen was a product of the University of Texas, a real Texas beauty, and one of Jack's drags while he was o cadet. When they returned to Mission, one of Jack's tasks, in addition to defending against incursions by Pancbo Villa, was to instruct his new bride in the use of the 45 caliber pistol, just in case.
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When the United States entered World War I, the 3d Cavalry was assembled from its various border posts and transferred to France in October 1917. After Armistice Day-Jack was fortunate to be sent on temporary duty to attend Cambridge University in England. He cherished this association with the British, and it was reflected in his gentlemanly bearing throughout the rest of his life.
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Upon returning to the United States in 1919, Jack was assigned to the 13th Cavalry at Fort Clark and Fort Ringgold, Texas, In L921 he was assigned to the Reserve Officers Training Corps at his old Alma Mater, Texas A&M, where he was senior instructor of the Cavalry unit. In 1925 he was selected to attend the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Following graduation he had a brief tour at The Cavalry School at Fort Riley but was recalled to Fort Leavenworth to serve for three years as an instructor at the Command and General Staff College. It was while at Fort Riley that Jack and Aileen suffered the loss of their beautiful daughter Frances, when she was only four years old.
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In 1930 he was selected to attend the Army War College in Washington, D.C., after which lie served on the War Department General Staff for three years. He assumed command of the 2d Squadron, 3d Cavalry at Fort Myer, Virginia, in 1934, His classmates referred to this unit as "one of those very hep-hep squadrons of Cavalry in which the black horses wear white spats and the white horses wear black ones,â??
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In 1935 Jack was sent to Guatemala as Chief of the Military Mission to that country and Superintendent of the Military Academy, the Escuela Polytechnics. He also held the assimilated grade of brigadier general in the Guatemalan Army, a fact that impressed his classmates since they were still in the lowly grade of lieutenant colonel. It is said that one of the first things Jack did when he was made Supc was to build an area as big as a polo field so the lads could walk off their slugs on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.
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In 1937 Jack returned to the United States where he was assigned to the 1st Cavalry, Mechanized, at Fort Knox, Kentucky, as Operations and Training Officer and later to a corresponding position with the 7th Cavalry Brigade, Mechanized. In these assignments he was instrumental in converting the Army concept of battlefield mobility from the horse to the tank and to other armored and mechanized farces.
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Following a period from 1939 to 1941 when he was Assistant Chief of Staff, G3, II Corps Area, at Governorâ??s Island, New York, he returned to Fort Knox to command the 1st Armored Regiment of the 1st Armored Division. One of his classmates wrote; "Jack bad one virtue which, above all else, above every other trait of character, was honestyâ??sheer native honesty. This was such a fetish with him that it was transmitted habitually to the men of his command who took such a fierce pride in their commander and their command that it was an inceptive acceptance by them all.â??
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Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Jackâ??s unit was ordered to the Port of Embarkation. Unfortunately for bis command (fortunate for the Germans), he developed an illness that was to prevent his sailing. Instead, he was assigned to the 6th Service Command in Chicago as Chief of Staff, where he served until August 1944. From then until his retirement as a brigadier general in May 1952, Jack served in various capacities on
the War Department staff in the Pentagon, on General Mac Arthurâ??s staff in Tokyo, at Fort Knox, and in the District of Columbia Military District.
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For several years after retirement, jack worked for the Magnesium Company of America in Washington. In April 1955 he retired for good so that he and Aileen could enjoy their lovely home at 2355 King Place, N,W., in Washington.
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It is seldom that one finds a man that got more out of life than Jack did. He worked hard .and he played hard. He loved people, and everyone whom he came in contact with immediately became his friend. He particularly enjoyed sports and participated whenever possible. The horse was one of his principal loves* whether as part of his military career or part of his off-duty life.
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During his entire life Jack was a man of enormous wit and humor; there was never an occasion when he did not have an appropriate story that he would tell in his own inimical way. He had a full life, devoted to his family, his country, and to God. A good man, a good soldier, and always a true gentleman,
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His decorations included the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster. In 1946 he received an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Laws) from Texas A&M.
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Among the papers Jack left behind we found the following which sounds like something he might have written himself:
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â??I cannot make it seem a day to dread
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When from this dear earth I shall journey out
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To that still dearer country of .the dead,
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And join the lost ones so long dreamed about.
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I loved this world, yet shall I love to go
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And meet the friends who wait for me,
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I knowâ??
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â??Extracted from BEYOND by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
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Jack was buried with Aileen in Arlington National Cemetery. lie is survived by his sons, both West Point graduates, Colonel John F. Davis Jr. (Retired) and Colonel William D. Davis (Retired) and four grandchildren.
Description The United States of America declared war on the German Empire on April 6, 1917. The U.S. was an independent power and did not officially join the Allies. It closely cooperated with them militarily but acted alone in diplomacy. The U.S. made its major contributions in terms of supplies, raw material and money, starting in 1917. American soldiers under General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), arrived in large numbers on the Western Front in the summer of 1918. They played a major role until victory was achieved on November 11, 1918. Before entering the war, the U.S had remained neutral, though it had been an important supplier to Great Britain and the other Allied powers. During the war, the U.S mobilized over 4 million military personnel and suffered 110,000 deaths, including 43,000 due to the influenza pandemic. The war saw a dramatic expansion of the United States government in an effort to harness the war effort and a significant increase in the size of the U.S. military. After a slow start in mobilising the economy and labour force, by spring 1918 the nation was poised to play a role in the conflict. Under the leadership of President Woodrow Wilson, the war represented the climax of the Progressive Era as it sought to bring reform and democracy to the world,[citation needed] although there was substantial public opposition to United States entry into the war.
Although the United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, it did not initially declare war on the other Central Powers, a state of affairs that Woodrow Wilson described as an "embarrassing obstacle" in his State of the Union speech.[26] Congress declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire on December 17, 1917, but never made declarations of war against the other Central Powers, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire or the various Co-belligerents allied with the central powers, thus the United States remained uninvolved in the military campaigns in central, eastern and southern Europe, the Middle East, the Caucasus, North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
The United States as late as 1917 maintained only a small army, smaller than thirteen of the nations and empires already active in the war. After the passage of the Selective Service Act in 1917, it drafted 2.8 million men into military service. By the summer of 1918 about a million U.S. soldiers had arrived in France, about half of whom eventually saw front-line service; by the Armistice of November 11 approximately 10,000 fresh soldiers were arriving in France daily. In 1917 Congress gave U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans when they were drafted to participate in World War I, as part of the Jones Act. In the end Germany miscalculated the United States' influence on the outcome of the conflict, believing it would be many more months before U.S. troops would arrive and overestimating the effectiveness of U-boats in slowing the American buildup.
The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and submarines to help guard convoys. Several regiments of Marines were also dispatched to France. The British and French wanted U.S. units used to reinforce their troops already on the battle lines and not to waste scarce shipping on bringing over supplies. The U.S. rejected the first proposition and accepted the second. General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) commander, refused to break up U.S. units to serve as mere reinforcements for British Empire and French units. As an exception, he did allow African-American combat regiments to fight in French divisions. The Harlem Hellfighters fought as part of the French 16th Division, earning a unit Croix de Guerre for their actions at Château-Thierry, Belleau Wood, and Séchault.
Impact of US forces on the war
On the battlefields of France in spring 1918, the war-weary Allied armies enthusiastically welcomed the fresh American troops. They arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, at a time when the Germans were unable to replace their losses. After British Empire, French and Portuguese forces had defeated and turned back the powerful final German offensive (Spring Offensive of March to July, 1918), the Americans played a role in the Allied final offensive (Hundred Days Offensive of August to November). However, many American commanders used the same flawed tactics which the British, French, Germans and others had abandoned early in the war, and so many American offensives were not particularly effective. Pershing continued to commit troops to these full- frontal attacks, resulting in high casualties against experienced veteran German and Austrian-Hungarian units. Nevertheless, the infusion of new and fresh U.S. troops greatly strengthened the Allies' strategic position and boosted morale. The Allies achieved victory over Germany on November 11, 1918 after German morale had collapsed both at home and on the battlefield.
