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LTC Bob Thompson
to remember
Keyes, Geoffrey, LTG USA(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Fort Bayard
Last Address Washington, DC
Date of Passing Sep 17, 1967
Location of Interment U.S. Military Academy West Point Post Cemetery (VLM) - West Point, New York
Geoffrey Keyes was born at Fort Bayard, New Mexico, on 30 October 1888. The son of a Cavalry officer, his forebears had a long and distinguished history of service and accomplishment, from the settling of the West, through the Civil War, and on back to the Revolutionary War.
He grew up along the Mexican border and in Mexico, entering the Academy from California. Always athletic, he excelled in numerous sports while a cadet, earning from Marty Maher the accolade of being "the only man who could stop Jim Thorpe.” Later, he coached the football team in a season of seven wins and one loss.
His military service spanned early assignments in the Cavalry pattern through the Service schools, the Ecole Superieure de Guerre in Paris, a shift to Armor, and then to World War II.
Landing with the Western Task Force in Morocco, he participated actively in the Sicilian campaign, where his Provisional Corps of the Seventh Army sped across the island and captured Palermo.
His longest combat service was in the bitter, grinding struggle up the Italian peninsula, commanding II Corps from September 1943 to June 1945. Any student of this campaign would appreciate his triumphs and disappointments. The complex interplay of the politics and personalities involved in the Italian campaign was formidable and frustrating. Nevertheless, with complete professional loyalty, he applied to it all of his military skill, reserving his personal feelings to his private papers.
In post-war Germany, he commanded first the Seventh Army, and later the Third Army, before moving to Austria early in 1947. In Vienna, he served as U.S. High Commissioner for three and one-half years, earning the respect and devotion of the Austrians by his benevolent efforts on their behalf in the face of Soviet intransigeance during the period of the Berlin blockade and the protracted negotiation of the Austrian State Treaty.
Retiring in late 1950, he was recalled in 1951 to serve another three years as Director of the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group.
Upon his subsequent retirement, he and Leila found their way to Tucson, returning to the Southwest where he had begun his life. Those were happy, peaceful years among close friends of long standing. Every spring, he left Tucson for a brief visit with each of his five children and their total of twenty-six grandchildren, always stopping at West Point, where Leila was buried in 1956.
His military credentials were distinguished. General Patton rated him "the most tireless worker, most loyal subordinate, and possessed of the soundest judgment and best tactical mind of any officer I know,” and later described him as "the only officer that I have ever rated ‘Superior’ in all categories.” But it is as a warm and human person that he made his greatest impression on others. A deeply religious man, he was never sanctimonious; he practiced what some merely preach. Possessed of great dignity, he was never arrogant. He gained loyalty and respect on the basis of his own ability and integrity, never relying on his rank. He used a keen sense of humor to make others comfortable or to relieve tension, never at the expense of others' feelings or dignity. He had the courage to show compassion, and over the years he earned the devoted friendship of many, in high stations and low, not because he courted them but because they were drawn to him.
A truly sensitive and remarkably perceptive picture of the man emerges in the book Rome Fell Today, by R. H. Adleman and G. Walton.
He died of leukemia at Walter Reed, and even in his final illness was concerned more about others than himself. He was indeed one of our best.
Other Comments:
LTG Keyes was also the USMA (West Point) Head Football Coach in 1917 with a 7-1 record.
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.
