Wallace M. Greene Jr.

Wallace M. Greene

Wallace Martin Greene junior (born December 27, 1907 in Waterbury , Vermont , † March 8, 2003 in Alexandria , Virginia ) was a general in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Pacific theater during World War II . Greene was involved in planning the invasions of the Marshall Islands , Tinian and Saipan . In the 1950s, he was the deputy commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division , and commander of MCRD Parris Island and MCB Camp Lejeune . From 1960 he was chief of staff at the headquarters of the Marine Corps before he was appointed 23rd Commandant of the Marine Corps (1964-1967). During his term of office, the increase from 178,000 to approx. 300,000 active soldiers and the “MarCor 85” study fell.

Life

Early years and interwar period

Wallace Martin Greene was born on December 27, 1907 in Waterbury , Vermont, United States. One of his ancestors is Nathanael Greene , a general in the American War of Independence . After graduating from Burlington High School in 1925, he attended the University of Vermont for a year before enrolling at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis , Maryland . After graduating from the academy on June 5, 1930, Greene received his officer license as a second lieutenant in the US Marine Corps. After attending Basic School at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in June 1931, he served at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard . After training for sea service, Greene spent the next several months with the Marine Corps Department aboard the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43) before returning to the United States in March 1934. His next posts were in Pensacola , Florida , Quantico , Virginia and Lakehurst , New Jersey , where he was promoted to first lieutenant in November .

With the exception of a course on chemical warfare in Edgewood , Maryland , Greene remained stationed in Lakehurst until March 1936. He was then transferred to San Diego , California , where he was preparing for his upcoming overseas assignment. In the following October he came to the Pacific island of Guam before he was transferred to the 4th Marine Regiment in Shanghai , the so-called China Marines , in June 1937 . There his unit was subordinated to the 2nd US Marine Brigade and Greene was promoted to captain in September . With his unit he protected the International Quarter of Shanghai in the turmoil of the Second Sino-Japanese War and returned to the United States in August 1939.

Second World War

After completing a course at the Marine Corps Schools based in Quantico, Greene became company commander of the "Chemical Company " in May 1940 in the 1st US Marine Brigade, which was also stationed in Quantico. Due to the threat of war, the brigade was transferred to Guantánamo Bay in Cuba in November , where it trained intensively on amphibious landings under its commander, Holland M. Smith . There it was increased and finally transferred to the 1st US Marine Division in the following February . The division was stationed from April in Quantico and later in New River, North Carolina , (now MCB Camp Lejeune ), where Greene became assistant operations officer on the command of the association.

In November 1941 Greene was transferred to Europe, where he worked as an observer with the British Royal Navy . After the US entered the Second World War on the side of the Allies , he graduated from the British Amphibious Warfare School in Inveraray, Scotland and the Royal Engineer Demolitions School in Ripon , England. There Greene received his promotion to major in January 1942 and returned to his home country a month later.

As Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations (G-3) of the 3rd Marine Infantry Brigade, Greene went to Upolu , Western Samoa , where he was named Lieutenant Colonel a few months later . In November 1943 he took up the post of Deputy Chief of Staff of Tactics Group 1 of the V Amphibious Corps in Pearl Harbor , Hawaii , where he was awarded the Legion of Merit for planning and executing the invasion of the Marshall Islands . After the group disbanded in March, Greene became Deputy Chief of Staff of the 2nd Marine Division and took part in the battles for Saipan and Tinian . Because of his outstanding performance he was awarded another Legion of Merit. Greene stayed with the 2nd Division until September 1944 and then became Deputy Chief of Staff of the Planning and Tactics Department at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC He held this post until July 1945, before becoming deputy head of Human Resources.

post war period

In April 1946 Greene was ordered to Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek near Virginia Beach , Virginia, where he worked in the amphibious training center of the US Atlantic Fleet until mid-1948 . There Greene was promoted to colonel . For the next two years he served as deputy chief of staff of the Fleet Marine Force Pacific before becoming chief of armaments and later also of the planning and evaluation departments of the Marine Corps Schools in Quantico. Between August 1952 and June 1953 he graduated from the National War College and then worked as an advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on matters with the National Security Council . As part of this work, Greene received his promotion to Brigadier General , which took place on September 1, 1955. In the same month he became deputy commanding general of the 2nd Marine Division based at Camp Lejeune .

In May 1956, Greene was summoned to MCRD Parris Island to investigate the circumstances of the so-called Ribbon Creek tragedy . On the previous April 8th, six recruits drowned in a night march in the riverbed of Ribbon Creek, intended as a disciplinary punishment. Greene then took over command of the recruit training center and reformed the basic training concept and declared such punitive measures to be illegal. In March 1957 he was commander of the entire base, but was transferred the following July and appointed commanding general of Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. At the beginning of 1958, Greene was transferred to the headquarters of the US Marine Corps, where he served as deputy chief of staff and between March and December 1959 as chief of the planning department. He received the rank of major general in August 1958, and that of lieutenant general on January 1, 1960, at the same time as the post of chief of staff at the headquarters of the US Marine Corps.

Commandant of the US Marine Corps

On September 24, 1963, Greene was nominated by then US President John F. Kennedy as the 23rd Commandant of the Marine Corps and confirmed by the US Senate on October 17. On January 1, 1964 , Greene , who was promoted to general , succeeded his predecessor General David M. Shoup as commander in chief of all US marines. During these four years of service, the presence of US military units in Southeast Asia increased sharply due to the renewed outbreak of the Vietnam War . While there were only a few thousand US Marines in this area in 1964, it was 1968 with the III. Marine Expeditionary Force already more than 100,000. In relation to the entire corps, the active staff increased from approximately 178,000 to approximately 300,000 during Green's tenure.

Together with a handful of officers, Greene considered the future of the US Marine Corps. The study “MarCor 85” arose not least from the experience of the parallel war in Vietnam. It included revolutionary and utopian-sounding methods for the time, such as u. a. the target marking with the help of satellite-supported coordinates.

retirement

Greene retired on December 31, 1967 and spent many years in the village of McLean , Virginia. He died of multiple myeloma in Alexandria , Virginia, aged 95, on May 8, 2003 , and was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Greene was married to Vaughan Hemsley Emory Greene (born June 29, 1912, † March 26, 2001) since 1931 and had a son, Lieutenant Colonel ret. D. Wallace M. Greene III, and a daughter, Vaughn E. Greene.

Awards

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

• Navy Distinguished Service Medal (x2)
• Legion of Merit (x2)
• Navy Unit Commendation
• Grand Cross of the Brazilian Order of the Southern Cross

Web links

Commons : Wallace M. Greene, Jr.  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

• Official Biography of the US Marine Corps (English)
• Biography on arlingtoncemetery.net (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wallace Martin Greene, Jr. - General, United States Marine Corps. In: Arlington National Cemetery website. Retrieved May 24, 2008 .