US Marine Corps General. His military career spanned World Wars I and II and served as Commanding General of the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific Theater during the Marshall Islands campaign and the Battle of Saipan, and as Commanding General of the 5th Amphibious Corps during the battles of Tinian and Iwo Jima. After completing high school, He attended Nebraska State Normal College before entering the US Marine Corps as a 2nd lieutenant in August 1909. After receiving training at the Marine Officers' School at Port Royal, South Carolina, he was assigned to the Marine Barracks, Guam, Mariana Islands in January 1911. While attached to this station, he accompanied an expeditionary force to Chefoo, China. In October 1912, he was ordered to duty in the Philippines where he remained until detached to the US in April 1913. After a tour with the Recruiting Service in Minnesota, a tour of duty at the Marine Barracks, New Orleans, Louisiana, and temporary duty at Veracruz aboard the battleship USS Kearsarge, he was ordered to sea duty aboard the battleship USS Oklahoma in May 1916. The following year he served on the armored cruiser USS Montana and was part of the ship's landing force at Guantanamo, Cuba the following two months. In September 1918 he returned to shore duty for the next two years at the Marine Barracks, Norfolk, Virginia, followed by another tour of sea duty in June 1920, as Commanding Officer of the Marine Detachment aboard the battleship USS Tennessee. From August 1922 to May 1926, he was a member of the Marine Corps Schools at Quantico, Virginia, first as a student, then as an instructor. He followed this with a year as a recruiter at St. Paul, Minnesota, a six-month tour of foreign service with the 6th Marine Regiment in China, and one and one-half years with the 2nd Marine Brigade in Nicaragua as Brigade Intelligence and Operations Officer. In June 1932. He was then assigned to duty with the Paymaster Department and served variously at Headquarters, Marine Corps in Washington DC, with the Department of the Pacific in San Francisco, California, the 4th Marine Regiment in Shanghai, China, and again with the Department of the Pacific. In June 1937 he was assigned to the 2nd Marine Brigade and departed with his unit for Shanghai in August of that year as Chief of Staff and served in that capacity until detached to the US in February 1938 and was assigned to Headquarters, Marine Corps as Executive and Personnel Officer of the Paymaster Department in July 1938. In January 1942, after the US entry into World War II, he was appointed Assistant to the Commandant of the Marine Corps, where he served until ordered to the Pacific Theater as Commanding General of the 4th Marine Division, which he assumed in August 1943. He led them in the seizure of the island of Roi-Namur in the Battle of Kwajalein and in the battle for Saipan, on the Mariana Islands. In July 1944 he assumed command of the 5th Marine Amphibious Corps and led them in the assault and capture of Tinian Island of the Marianas, as well as the Battle of Iwo Jima, codenamed Operation Detachment, from February through March 1945. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945 that officially ended World War II, he commanded the 5th Marine Amphibious Corps in the occupation of the Japanese homeland. In February 1946 he returned to the US and became commander of the Marine Training and Replacement Command, San Diego Area, California, serving in that capacity until he retired in July 1948 with 39 years of continuous military service. Among his military and foreign decorations and awards include the Navy Cross, the Navy Distinguished Service Medal (with 2 award stars), the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Navy Presidential Unit Citation (with 1 service star), the Navy Unit Commendation Medal, the Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal (with 2 service stars), the Mexican Service Medal, the Yangtze Service Medal, the World War I Victory Medal (with Convoy & Escort clasps), the Nicaraguan Campaign Medal (1933), the China Service Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal (with 3 service stars), the World War II Victory Medal, the Nicaraguan Medal of Distinction with Diploma, and the Nicaraguan Medal of Merit (with silver star). He was then promoted to the rank of general on the retired list for having been especially commended in combat in accordance with an Act of Congress passed on February 23, 1942 (colloquially known as a "tombstone promotion"). He died at the age of 81.