Five-Star General Omar Bradley died APRIL 8, 1981.
Born
1893, in a cabin near Clark, Missouri, Omar Bradley would walk to
school with his father, and would help provide food for his family
through hunting and fishing.
He became a star player on his high school baseball team.
In his autobiography,
A General's Life (1983), Omar Bradley wrote:
"The editor of the 1909 yearbook wrote of me, 'a good ball player, if he does not look like one.'"
Omar Bradley worked for Wabash Railroad.
He wrote in
A General's Life-An Autobiography by General of the Army Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair (Simon & Schuster (February 1983, p. 20-24):
"Father
was raised in the Church of Christ, baptized by immersion at about age
15 and called a 'Christian.' Mother, like all the Hubbards, was a
Baptist, but she converted to the Christian Church. We walked to the
Church of Christ every Sunday, wearing our finest clothes...
Although
mother was not a devout woman, she was a regular Sunday churchgoer, as
was I. We joined the Central Christian Church, an impressive new stone
structure with a soaring steeple and a large congregation."
Omar Bradley's
church attendance was providential, as it was his Sunday School
superintendent at Central Christian Church in Moberly, Missouri, who
recommended he apply to West Point.
President Eisenhower said, April 29, 1954:
"I thank
General Bradley, my old comrade in arms, my classmate from West Point, my great associate in World War II."
Bradley commanded the 2nd Army Corps in North Africa, was Senior Commander of U.S. Ground Forces for the invasion of France.
General Omar Bradley wrote of being on the
USS Ancon during the invasion of Sicily, July of 1943,
(A General's Life-An Autobiography by General of the Army Omar N. Bradley and Clay Blair (Simon & Schuster, 1983, p. 181):
"Paratroopers
left him with no immediate reserves ashore to call on. Allen's sector
was thus a potential weak link in the beachhead chain.
And yet I
counted our blessings. All our forces had got ashore with negligible
casualties and were displaying remarkable aggressiveness.
Surveying
the chaotic beaches with binoculars from the bridge of the Ancon I
offered a silent prayer of thanks to God. The Allies had returned to
Europe to stay."
In August 1944, G
eneral Omar Bradley led the 12th Army Group in France and Germany, consisting of a million men in four armies.
General Omar Bradley was quoted in Edgar F. Puryear's
19 Stars: A Study in Military Character and Leadership (1981):
"Dependability,
integrity, the characteristic of never knowingly doing anything wrong,
that you would never cheat anyone, that you would give everybody a fair
deal.
Character is a sort of an all-inclusive thing. If a man
has character, everyone has confidence in him. Soldiers must have
confidence in their leader."
Get the book, America's God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations
President Johnson stated, May 23, 1964:
"
General Bradley, you were the field commander of more American fighting troops than any commander in any era."
General Omar Bradley was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, 1948-49, and first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1950.
President Gerald Ford remarked upon presenting
Omar Bradley with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, January 10, 1977:
"Military
hero, courageous in battle, and gentle in spirit, friend of the common
soldier, General of the Army, first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, he embodies the best of the American military tradition with
dignity, humanity, and honor."
General Omar Bradley stated in an Armistice Day speech, November 10, 1948 (published in
Omar Bradley's Collected Writings, Volume 1, 1967):
"To ignore the danger of aggression is simply to invite it... We shall doom our children to a struggle that may take their lives...
We
know that unless free peoples stand boldly and united against the
forces of aggression, they may fall wretchedly, one by one, into the web
of oppression."
General Omar Bradley stated:
"We have men of science, too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.
The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants...
If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner."
In contrast to totalitarian dictators he fought against,
General Omar Bradley stated in his Armistice Day Address, November 10, 1948:
"In the United States it is THE PEOPLE who are SOVEREIGN...
The Government is THEIRS - to speak THEIR voice and to voice THEIR will."
No comments:
Post a Comment