Generals will be Generals: The Youngest 3 Star General: Lieutenant General James M. Gavin

Lieutenant General James M. Gavin

Today is the day that formally starts the second half of the year 2010. And time for some straight talking about what makes an outstanding General. We've heard enough Obama firing General McChrystal and installing General Petraeus to take command of US Armed Forces in Afghanistan. We've heard enough from the skeptics as to why we are fighting this counter-insurgency. We've heard enough about what our departure (the President's 'exit strategy') in July 2011 'really' means.

What we have not heard enough about is how Top Generals are made and get to maintain their status and jobs for extended periods of time.

One such officer was General James Maurice Gavin known as "Jumpin' Jim" (March 22, 1907-February 23, 1990) who was the Commanding Officer of the 82nd Airborne Division that parachuted into Normandy on D-Day 1944;he was also a prominent Major General in the United States Army during World War II and went on to became a three star General (grade of Lieutenant General, the number two officer under the General) at age 48 capping an illustrious career.

The secret to his success lies in humble beginnings and the will to overcome each and every adversity and thus gradually ladder his way--rung by rung-- to achieve his passion. Then, of course he had the good fortune in having strong mentors, whom he chose to follow.

He was the son of an unwed Irish immigrant and was raised in a New York City orphanage from the age of two; he remained there until adopted in 1909 by a coal mining family, Martin and Mary Gavin, from Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. His father was a coal miner who had a hard time making ends meet and Gavin began working at age 12 to help support the family .

Realizing the limited opportunities for him in Mount Carmel--he definitely did not want to follow his dad's path to work in the mines--he ran away from home on his 17th birthday in March, 1924 and took the night train to New York City. He showed up at the US Army Recruiting office to enlist ; knowing that he was one year underage, he lied and told the recruiter his was an orphan whereupon he was sent to a lawyer who declared himself his guardian and signed the parental consent form for him.

The rest is the 'history'--of a determined energetic young brave warrior-to-be. He was admitted into West Point in the summer of 1925, but only after being stationed in Panama, then Belize and despite a seventh grade education, studied at an army school, grinding away religiously for 4 months studying algebra, geometry English and history from 8AM until noon. His mentors included Sergeant McCarthy who guided him while Gavin served as crewmember of a 155mm gun. An American Indian named "Chief" Williams, his first Sergeant, was another instructor he looked up to.

Once at the Point, he again lied that he was 21, to hide the fact he was 17 at the time of his enlistment. He had to rise daily at 4:30 to catch up with his basic studies he needed to fill in the course work he had missed out. He studied in the bathroom, the only place that had enough light at this early hour. With such perseverance and single-minded purpose, he graduated West Point 4 years later.

We fast forward his career to 1939, right after the German Blitzkrieg began to conquer Europe and Gavin was ordered back to West Point to become a Tactics Instructor where his assignment was to analyze the German tactics, vehicles and armaments (his students judged him to be the best instructor they had). For the first time, he wrote about Airborne forces:

"From what we had seen so far, it was clear the most promising area of all was airborne warfare, bringing the parachute troops and the glider troops to the battlefield in masses, especially trained, armed and equipped for that kind of warfare."

After training at the Airborne School in Fort Benning in July 1941, he went on to lead parachute assaults in Sicily, and Salerno Bay, Italy in 1943 ; when George Marshall heard that a Major was doing the work of a General, he quickly promoted Gavin to Brigadier General (One Star General) overnight.

Gavin then went on to jump with the parachute assault section on the first night of the Normandy Invasion of June 5-6 1944. Troops from his division helped secure and hold the town of Sainte-Mere-Eglise and guarded river crossings on the flank of the Utah Beach landing area.

Gavin was later made Major General (two star General) at age 37, the youngest officer to do so (the other officer was George Armstrong Custer). During the operations in the Netherlands, he commanded the 82nd Airborne Division and later fought in Germany until the Germans surrendered in 1945.

In the 1950's Gavin was head of Army research and development. After his retirement in 1958, he served as ambassador to France (1961-63) and was a strong critic of the Vietnam war. He is the author of numerous books.