Lemuel C. Shepherd junior

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Lemuel C. Shepherd, Jr.

Lemuel Cornick Shepherd junior (born February 10, 1896 in Norfolk , Virginia - † August 6, 1990 in La Jolla , California ) was a general in the United States Marine Corps . He was deputy commander of the 1st Marine Division during Cape Gloucester operations in the Pacific War and led the 6th Marine Division in the Battle of Okinawa . From 1952 to 1955 he was the 20th Commandant of the Marine Corps and the first Marine in the Joint Chiefs of Staff . He then became involved in the Inter-American Defense Committee .

Life

Early years and World War I

Shepherd graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington and then received his officer license on April 11, 1917 as a Second Lieutenant in the US Marine Corps. His first post was on May 19 of the same year in the Marine Barracks of Port Royal , South Carolina .

However, since the United States had been at war with the Central Powers since April 6, Shepherd was ordered to France with the 5th Marine Regiment of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). He spent the turn of the year with his regiment near Verdun and fought in the Château-Thierry area during the German spring offensive . In June 1918 he was wounded twice in the course of the Battle of Belleau Wood , for which he received awards. After weeks in the hospital, Shepherd rejoined the regiment in August and took part in the fighting for St. Mihiel and in the final Meuse-Argonne offensive of the US forces in Champagne , where he was wounded a third time. After recovering, he was transferred to the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division . During the war it was a mixed association of members of the US Army and mostly of the Marine Corps .

After the armistice with the German Empire on November 11, 1918, the current captain remained with the division assigned to the occupation army.

Interwar period

In July 1919, Shepherd's unit was relocated back to the United States and demobilized. However, he returned to France in September to create relief maps of the battlefields on which the 4th Marine Brigade fought during the war. He did this job until December 1920 and was then transferred to Washington, DC , where he worked as secretary in the White House and as adjutant to the then Commandant of the Marine Corps Major General John A. Lejeune , who was also the last commander of the 2nd US Infantry Division prior to being relocated back to the States. In July 1922 Shepherd was commander of an honorary company that was to take part in a parade in Rio de Janeiro on the occasion of the centenary of Brazil's independence from Portugal on September 7, with delegations from the other branches of the armed forces .

In June of the following year, Shepherd commanded the Navy detachment aboard the battleship USS Idaho (BB-24) and subsequently the Sea School in Norfolk, Virginia. From April 1927 to 1929 he was assigned to the 3rd US Marine Brigade, which was stationed in Tientsin and Shanghai during this time . After completing the officers course at the Marine Corps Schools in Quantico , Virginia , another assignment abroad with the Garde d ' Haiti followed , where he served as district commander for four years. After the withdrawal of all US forces from Haiti in 1934, Major Shepherd was assigned to the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC, where he served as registrar and deputy director of the Marine Corps Institute. With his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel in 1936 , Shepherd was appointed to study at Naval War College in Newport , Rhode Island , which he graduated in May of the following year. He then became commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 5th U.S. Marine Regiment of the newly formed Fleet Marine Force -Atlantic, which dealt intensively with new tactics and materials for amphibious warfare .

In June 1939, Shepherd became a staff member of the Marine Corps Schools and was subsequently director of the Distance Learning Institute, head of the planning department, class commander and assistant school principal.

Second World War

Shepherd (left) with LtGen Simon Buckner (2nd from right), the commander of the 10th US Army , to which the 6th Marine Division was subordinate, in Okinawa.

Four months after the United States entered World War II , Colonel Shepherd was appointed commander of the newly established 9th Marine Regiment at Camp Elliot, San Diego , California . The 3rd Marine Division was formed around his regiment in the following months , under the command of Major General Charles D. Barrett . Shepherd remained regimental commander and led his unit for education and training purposes to Auckland , New Zealand , and from June 1943 to the previously hard-fought Solomon Islands island of Guadalcanal . There he was promoted to Brigadier General four weeks later and was named deputy commander of William H. Rupertus ' 1st Marine Division . In this function he accompanied the unit between December and March 1944 as part of Operation Dexterity to New Britain .

The following May, Shepherd was given command of the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade and commanded this unit during the retake of the Mariana Island of Guam , which had surrendered to the Japanese superiority on the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor . Due to the fast and successful company, Sheperd was named Major General .

Shepherd's Provisional Brigade was increased to division level and renamed the 6th Marine Division on September 7, 1944 . After training on Guadalcanal, the association was subordinated to General Roy S. Geiger's III Amphibious Corps , which together with associations of the US Army carried out the invasion of Okinawa from April 1945 . After the Okinawa victory, Shepherd's division moved to Guam to prepare for the invasion of the main Japanese islands . The landing on the main island of Honshu , planned for March 1946 , was never carried out because the Japanese Empire capitulated in September. The 6th Marine Division was sent to Tsingtao, mainland China, to receive the surrender of the Japanese regional forces on October 25th.

Korean War

After his division in China was disbanded in late March 1946 , Shepherd returned to the United States and organized the training command of the amphibious forces of the US Atlantic Fleet at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek near Virginia Beach . In November he became assistant to Commandant Alexander A. Vandegrift and held this post until April 1948. He then became Commander of the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico.

During the Korean War , which escalated in late June 1950 , General Shepherd was the commanding general of the Pacific Fleet Marine Force , headquartered in Pearl Harbor , Hawaii . His area of ​​responsibility included the landing at Incheon in mid-September 1950 and the successful evacuation of UN troops and civilians from the North Korean port city of Hŭngnam as a result of the lost battle for the Chosin reservoir . About 100,000 soldiers and material as well as 100,000 North Korean civilians reached South Korea by sea over several weeks until Christmas 1950. This was one of the largest evacuations of UN forces and North Korean civilians during the entire war.

Commandant of the Marine Corps and retirement

On January 1, 1952, Shepherd was appointed by US President Harry S. Truman to succeed Clifton B. Cates as Commandant of the Marine Corps . In the course of his tenure, he initiated a number of projects that were intended to significantly increase the military capabilities of the corps. With the passage of Public Law 416 by the 82nd United States Congress on June 28, 1952, the Commandant became a voting member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for matters directly affecting the US Marine Corps. Shepherd was thus the first Marine on the Joint Chiefs, and remained in that capacity until his retirement on January 1, 1956. Fifty years later, General Peter Pace will become the first Marine to preside over the Joint Chiefs.

Two months later, Shepherd was recalled to active duty and appointed chairman of the Inter-American Defense Committee by President Dwight D. Eisenhower . In this position he distinguished himself through his leadership skills and diplomacy and thereby brought about a big step towards a common defense doctrine of the American continent. Shepherd achieved military solidarity among the various armed forces of the Western Hemisphere . On September 15, 1959, he finished his work in this committee and could now finally take his retirement.

General Lemuel Cornick Shepherd, Jr. died of complications from bone cancer on August 6, 1990 in La Jolla , California, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, DC. His wife Virginia Tunstall Driver Shepherd (* May 2, 1898, † November 29, 1989), who died before him, was buried next to him.

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of Military Awards :

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Shepherd, Lemuel C. junior
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Shepherd, Lemuel Cornick junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American military, general and 20th commandant of the US Marine Corps
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Norfolk , Virginia , USA
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1990
Place of death La Jolla , California , USA