General of the Army Douglas MacArthur

[Karl Welteke]

There is no thread on this bulletin board dedicated to him, I did search! This page is dedicated to him!

He was a great American and he is admired by many. Yes, some are critical of him. But he should have his own page on this Board!



Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia. The statue is a duplicate of the one at West Point. The base houses a time capsule which contains various MacArthur, Norfolk and MacArthur Foundation memorabilia. This picture is copied from Wikipedia


GENERAL MACARTUR’S HONOR GUARD.

Yesterday, a comrade arranged a meeting of like minded friends at a great watering hole in Subic Bay, called “Sit n Bull”.
One of the people around the table was David J. Valley, a former member of Gen. MacArthur’s Honor Guard. He is 83 years young and was visiting the Philippines. He has a Philippine connection in that a son resides here in the Philippines.
We had a great conservation!

He was the Chairman of the Gen. MacArthur Honor Guard Association for many years. Many of the honor guard members are old now and they had their last reunion in 2011. But their web page is still active and here it is:

generalmacarthurshonorguard.com/wordpress/

Here are some pictures from their page:



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David J Valley was a proud member of the Gen. MacArthur Honor Guard and admires the General very much. He not only served for many years as the chairman of the association he also wrote some books about him. If you search his name in connection with the Honor Guard you will come across many items about him:


Gen. MacArthur’s two famous final speeches, to Congress and the Corps, the Corps and the Corps:

[okla]

Hey Karl...I, at one time, worked with a lady, who as a young woman, during the late 1940s, was assigned to General MacArthur's HQ in the Dai Ichi Building. She was a Corporal in the WAC and claimed to have performed her duties (as a steno/typist)in very close proximity to the illustrious General's office. Anyhow, she, even after many years, was still under the "spell" that he was so adept at casting over others. This woman, absolutely, worshiped the ground he walked on. She was still assigned to the Dai Ichi when the General was relieved of his Command by President Truman in 1951.

[Registrar]

Generally accepted to be the most neutral biographer of MacArthur is D. Clayton James' three volume work "the Years of MacArthur". James does make a point of saying that those persons who were critical of MacArthur seem to have been those who never met him or who never worked closely with him over a period of time. He relates instances about persons who have, prior to meeting with MacArthur, been critical of him and who, after spending time with him, or working with him, appeared to have changed their views entirely.

I will quote an instance not from MacArthur's biographer, but from Bull Halsey's biographer, E. B. Potter. Halsey, prior to meeting MacArthur had been an outspoken critic of MacArthur whom he had concluded was a "self-advertising Son of a pregnant dog". I'll let Admiral Halsey finish the story:-

"Five minutes after I reported, I felt as if we were lifelong friends. I have seldom seen a man who makes a quicker, stronger, nnore favorable impression. He was then about sixty-three years old, but he could have passed as fifty." "I liked him from the moment we met." "The respect that I conceived for him that afternoon grew steadily during the war and continues to grow as I watch his masterly administration of surrendered Japan. I can recall no flaw in our relatonship. We had arguments, but they always ended pleasantly. Not once did he, my superior officer, ever force his decisions upon me. On the few occasions when I disagreed with him, I told him so, and we discussed the issue until one of us changed his mind. My mental picture poses him against the background of these discussions; he is pacing his office, almost wearing a groove between his large bare desk and the portrait of George Washington that faced it; his corncob pipe is in his hand (I rarely saw him smoke it); and he is making his points in a diction I have never heard surpassed."

By way of contrast, a similar thing could hardly be said about Adm. King.

So it would be true to say that those with bias against the man never met him. And there's no shortage of members of the MacArthur Kicker's Club!  

So Okla, I'm hardly surprised that this lady felt the way she did.

My father, who performed a minor function within MacArthur's GHQ through Brisbane-Hollandia-Tacloban-Manila, and whose COIC office duties included preparing a range of top secret documents, reports and communiques, always spoke in the highest terms of "His Nibs." I asked him if he'd ever had a chance to speak to him, and his response was "Oh no, you never spoke with God!"

I am presently compiling a book which touches upon the aftermath of the Battle of Manila 1945, and am using my father's letters home to add context to many of the images which the book is to contain. Here's a teaser:

Now, here's a treat for our members in Manila this week. 

JIM ZOBEL, Historian and Archivist of the MacArthur Memorial, will be giving a lecture "DID MACARTHUR DEFEND THE PHILIPPINES? OR TAKE AN EXIT?" at

Ortigas Library, 

2nd flr., Ortigas Building, 

Meralso corner Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City 

6:00 PM December 5, 2013. 

Admission Free, but they are accepting used books to help replenish libraries destroyed by Typhoon Yolanda. (I will try, but my own library here was destroyed by Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy).

[victor]

Looks like a copy of the orders re-transcribed in 1949 as it was de-classified?



Zg061. Orders to Gen MacArthur to transfer to Australia to take command of the reconstituted ABDA Area.
The picture was watermarked by Photobucket and was replaced, unmarked, in Jan. 2023 by Karl.




Zg062. Zoomed in upper half of Orders to Gen MacArthur to transfer to Australia to take command of the reconstituted ABDA Area.
The picture was watermarked by Photobucket and was replaced, unmarked, in Jan. 2023 by Karl.




Zg063. Zoomed in lower half of Orders to Gen MacArthur to transfer to Australia to take command of the reconstituted ABDA Area.
The picture was watermarked by Photobucket and was replaced, unmarked, in Jan. 2023 by Karl.




Zg064. Page 2 of the Orders to Gen MacArthur to transfer to Australia to take command of the reconstituted ABDA Area.
The picture was watermarked by Photobucket and was replaced, unmarked, in Jan. 2023 by Karl.




Zg065. Zoomed in page 2 of the Orders to Gen MacArthur to transfer to Australia to take command of the reconstituted ABDA Area.
The picture was watermarked by Photobucket and was replaced, unmarked, in Jan. 2023 by Karl.

[dmether]

Za278. List of Decorations and Service Medals Awarded to Douglas MacArthur from demether


6th Oct. 2017 this pictures is reposted this date from a different server. It was blocked by Photobucket.



Awards he was authorized.


David

[Karl Welteke]

More pictures of a great American General

These pictures came from Wikipedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons is a great source of images, this is the URL:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images



V177. Gen. MacArthur decorates Jesus Villamor. Photo: courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.



V178. General Douglas MacArthur meets American Indian troops WWII. Photo: courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.



V179. General Douglas MacArthur and General Horace H. Fuller, on the beach at Humboldt Bay, New Guinea, 22 April 1944. Photo: courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

[Karl Welteke]

7 More pictures of Gen. MacArthur.

These pictures came from Wikipedia Commons. For the search I used the name “General of the Army MacArthur” and the Wikipedia Commons came up with 281 items. These pictures were selected from the option: “View he first 100”. This is the URL for Wikipedia Commons:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Images

These pictures are small you can find larger copies in the above URL!



V257. (4.) General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and Lieutenant General Jonathan Wainwright greet each other at the New Grand Hotel, Yokohama, Japan, August 31, 1945, in their first meeting since they parted on Corregidor more than three years before.



V258. (5.) General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, U.S. Army (second from right). With other senior Army officers, upon his arrival at Atsugi airdrome, near Tokyo, Japan, 30 August 1945. Among those present are: Major General Joseph M. Swing, Commanding General, 11th Airborne Division, (left); Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland (3rd from right); General Robert L. Eichelberger (right). Aircraft in the background is a Douglas C-54.



V259. (6.) The U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief, UN Command, greeting President Harry S. Truman upon his arrival at Wake Island for their conference.



V260. (7.) ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET EARL MOUNTBATTEN OF BURMA, Portraits: Admiral Louis Mountbatten with General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. July 1944.



V261. (8.) Authorization by the U.S. Senate to appoint General of the Army Douglas MacArthur as General of the Armies of the United States.



V262. (9.) Surrender of Japan, Tokyo Bay, 2 September 1945
General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander, reading his speech to open the surrender ceremonies, on board USS Missouri (BB-63). The representatives of the Allied Powers are behind him, including (from left to right):
• Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser, RN, United Kingdom;
• Lieutenant General Kuzma Derevyanko, Soviet Union;
• General Sir Thomas Blamey, Australia;
• Colonel Lawrence Moore Cosgrave, Canada;
• General Philippe Leclerc, France;
• Admiral Conrad E.L. Helfrich, The Netherlands and
• Air Vice Marshal Leonard M. Isitt, New Zealand.
• Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, U.S. Army, is just to the right of Air Vice Marshal Isitt.
• Off camera, to left, are the representative of China, General Hsu Yung-chang, and the U.S. representative, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, USN.
Framed flag in upper left is that flown by Commodore Matthew C. Perry's flagship when she entered Tokyo Bay in 1853.



10. Memorandum from Kenneth C. Royall, Secretary of the Army, informing President Harry Truman that he could restore General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to the active list. 1948-07-08

[cbuehler]

Like him or not, he was the man for his time; perhaps more so than any other American in the Pacific. His military and political skills extended well beyond ww2 as we well know.
His grasp and understanding of the Philippines was unmatched by anyone at the time. He knew how to deal with the people, its politics and nuances.
He also knew that Japan would become most important to the future of America as a Pacific nation and left a legacy and relationship with them that still stands today despite the brutal war. Perhaps he was the only one who could have achieved that.

CB

[Karl Welteke]

3 pictures of Gen. MacArthur from LIFE photo archive hosted by Google.

These pictures came from LIFE photo archive hosted by Google, this is the URL:

images.google.com/hosted/life



V271 (14) After you open the above URL, you got to follow the instruction and depending what combination of words you use with Gen. MacArthur you get different selection of pictures every time. The three pictures I present here, I could not find them again.

The 3 pictures were uploaded small but maybe you can find larger copies in the above URL! They portrait the former President Sergio Osmena, Carlos P. Romulo with General MacArthur in 1961.Carlos P. Romulo became an important Philippine Diplomat later and was the driving force of the “Voice of Freedom” from Corregidor during the Corregidor Siege. I wonder how often they got together to discuss their situation in those dark hours in 1942.

Note from Karl: I uploaded these 4 pictures about Gen. MacArthur into the wrong thread – History Trip 2012 Oct 14 to 16 to Cavite etc – and I correct that today.







V272 (11). Gen. Douglas MacArthur revisiting the fortress island of Corregidor which he was evacuated from in 1942 when it was overrun by Japanese troops during WWII. 1961. Life Magazine, Photographer Carl Mydans. Photo courtesy of LIFE photo archive hosted by Google.



V273 (12). Former President Sergio Osmena (C) with Gen. Douglas MacArthur during his visit to the Philippines. July 1961. Life Magazine, Photographer Carl Mydans. Photo courtesy of LIFE photo archive hosted by Google



V274 (13). Former President Sergio Osmena (R) with Carlos P. Romulo(L) and Gen. Douglas MacArthur (C) during his visit to the Philippines. July 1961. Life Magazine, Photographer Carl Mydans. Photo courtesy of LIFE photo archive hosted by Google

[Karl Welteke]

General MacArthur and Lieutenant General Krueger Oct.1944

This picture came from this web page:

USS Hornet (CV-12) – A Father’s Untold Story – Nov.-Dec. 1944

afatherswarstorynevertold.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/uss-hornet-cv-12-a-fathers-untold-war-story-november-december-1944/

This is a nice picture essay of the Mindoro Island Landing 15th Dec. 1944.




Z069. General MacArthur and Lieutenant General Krueger discuss the progress of the Philippine campaign aboard a PT boat in October 1944. This picture came from this URL:
afatherswarstorynevertold.wordpress.com/2014/01/01/uss-hornet-cv-12-a-fathers-untold-war-story-november-december-1944/

I have a personal memory of my own Mindoro Landing in 1962. As the assault boat coxswain (Seaman, E-3) of our only LCVP on the USS Belle Grove LSD-2, I made an assault landing with troops during an Amphibious Exercise on the northern coast of Mindoro. I scored some points for my ship. Two things I remember forever, - elderly ladies were smoking thin, dark and long cigarettes called cigarillos. The other remembrance was that a Navy Beach-Master with his shirt off, sported a huge Swastika tattooed on his back, as a recent immigrant from Germany that struck me odd, somewhat (understatement).