Carter Bowie Magruder (3 April 190014 March 1988) was a

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

general who served concurrently as Commander in Chief,

United Nations Command United Nations Command (UNC or UN Command) is the multinational military force established to support the South Korea, Republic of Korea (South Korea) during and after the Korean War. It was the first attempt at collective security by the U ...

/Commander,

United States Forces Korea The United States Forces Korea (USFK) is a Unified Combatant Command#Subordinate Unified Command, sub-unified command of United States Indo-Pacific Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM). USFK was initially established in 1957, and e ...

/Commanding General,

Eighth United States Army The Eighth Army is a U.S. field army which commands all United States Army forces in South Korea. It is headquartered at the Camp Humphreys in the Anjeong-ri of Pyeongtaek, Pyeongtaek, South Korea.

Early life and education

Magruder was born in

London, United Kingdom London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where his father, Dr. George Mason Magruder, was serving with the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services which manages public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The assistant s ...

. Magruder's later returned to the U.S. and settled in Albemarle, Virginia, where young Carter graduated from the high school. At the time of the U.S. entry into World War I, he was attending the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. He dropped out of college and after period of training at the Officers Training Camp in

Plattsburgh, New York Plattsburgh is a city in and the county seat of Clinton County, New York, United States, situated on the north-western shore of Lake Champlain. The population was 19,841 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. The population of the sur ...

, he was commissioned an infantry second lieutenant on September 16, 1918. With the end of the war, Magruder accepted an appointment to the

United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...

. Upon graduation in 1923, he was commissioned in the field artillery. Later he attended

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

and received a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1932. Prior to World War II, he served at various posts and assignments and also attended the

Command and General Staff College The United States Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC or, obsolete, USACGSC) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military ...

and Army War College.

World War II

In June 1941, Magruder was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for logistics (G-4), War Department General Staff in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where he served under then-Major General Brehon B. Somervell. During his service there, Magruder was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 21 December 1941. Upon the creation of

Army Service Forces The Army Service Forces was one of the three autonomous components of the United States Army during World War II, the others being the Army Air Forces and Army Ground Forces, created on 9 March 1942. By dividing the Army into three large comman ...

under General Somervell in March 1942, Magruder was appointed Director of Planning Division, Army Service Forces and was promoted to colonel on 12 December 1942. While in this capacity, he planned and supervised the logistic support from the United States for overseas operations and gained the reputation of Army's top logistician. Magruder was present at the

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Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, and

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conferences and later was decorated with

Army Distinguished Service Medal The Distinguished Service Medal (DSM) is a military decoration of the United States Army that is presented to soldiers who have distinguished themselves by exceptionally meritorious service to the government in a duty of great responsibility. ...

for his service in this capacity. Following the promotion to brigadier general on 13 August 1944, Magruder was ordered overseas and assumed duty as Assistant Chief of Staff for logistics (G-4) on the staff of Commanding General,

Mediterranean Theater of Operations The Mediterranean Theater of Operations, United States Army (MTOUSA), originally called the North African Theater of Operations, United States Army (NATOUSA), was a military formation of the United States Army that supervised all U.S. Army for ...

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionar ...

. He was in charge of supply, transportation, and construction in that theater, stationed in

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and was promoted to major general on 24 March 1945. Magruder later received his second

for his service in the Mediterranean and also was decorated by the governments of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and

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Postwar service

In November 1945, Magruder was transferred to the

European Theater of Operations The European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) was a Theater (warfare), theater of Operations responsible for directing United States Army operations throughout the European theatre of World War II, from 1942 to 1945. It command ...

and assumed duty as Chief of Staff,

Services of Supply The Services of Supply or "SOS" branch of the Army of the USA was created on 28 February 1942 by Executive Order Number 9082 "Reorganizing the Army and the War Department" and War Department Circular No. 59, dated 2 March 1942. Services of Supp ...

under Lieutenant General

John C. H. Lee John Clifford Hodges Lee (1 August 1887 – 30 August 1958) was a career US Army engineer, who rose to the rank of lieutenant general (United States), lieutenant general and commanded the Communications Zone (ComZ) in the European Theater of Oper ...

. He later succeeded Lee and upon the reorganization of postwar allied forces, Magruder assumed duty as Assistant Chief of Staff for logistics (G-4),

United States European Command The United States European Command (EUCOM) is one of the eleven Unified Combatant Command, unified combatant commands of the United States military, headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany. Its area of focus covers and 51 countries and territori ...

under General Joseph T. McNarney. While in this capacity, Magruder was stationed in

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and was charged with the destruction of German equipment and fortifications, the repatriation of slave labor and displaced persons and the release of prisoners of war. He later served as Chief of Staff of the European Command under General Lucius D. Clay until March 1949, when he returned to the United States for duty at

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. Magruder served as deputy to the

Assistant Secretary of the Army Assistant Secretary of the Army is a title used to describe various civilian officials in the United States Department of the Army. Present Assistant Secretaries of the Army At present, there are five offices bearing the title of Assistant Secret ...

, Tracy Voorhees. Magruder then served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics until November 1953, when he was ordered to the

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for duty as commanding general, 24th Infantry Division and in 1954 was promoted to lieutenant general. He then assumed command of IX Corps and returned to the United States in 1955 for duty as Assistant Chief of Staff of the Army for Logistics, the highest logistics position in the Army. Promoted to full general in 1959, Magruder returned to Korea to command all United Nations and U.S. forces. During his command, a

military junta A military junta () is a system of government led by a committee of military leaders. The term ''Junta (governing body), junta'' means "meeting" or "committee" and originated in the Junta (Peninsular War), national and local junta organized by t ...

led by

Park Chung-hee Park Chung Hee (; ; November14, 1917October26, 1979) was a South Korean politician and army officer who served as the third president of South Korea from 1962 after he seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961 until Assassination of Park Chung ...

overthrew the elected premier, John Chang. Magruder was publicly criticized by retired General

James Van Fleet General (United States), General James Alward Van Fleet (19 March 1892 – 23 September 1992) was a United States Army officer who served during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. Van Fleet was a native of New Jersey, who was raised i ...

for ordering South Korean officers to stay loyal to the civilian government. Van Fleet, who supported the coup, said that Magruder "acted illegally", and:

Those ROK generals who refused to go along with the coup should have disobeyed his order ... It's all right to talk about representative government, but except in great countries like the U.S. and Great Britain, such a system lets elements get into the government and destroy it in underdeveloped countries where the enemy is lurking.

Magruder retired from the Army in June 1961 after almost 43 years of active service and received his third

for his service as commanding general, United Nations Command in Korea.

Later life and death

After retiring from the Army, Magruder worked as a logistics consultant to the Department of Defense and private industry. He settled in

Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati ...

, and was a member of the Army-Navy Country Club and the

Society of the Cincinnati The Society of the Cincinnati is a lineage society, fraternal, hereditary society founded in 1783 to commemorate the American Revolutionary War that saw the creation of the United States. Membership is largely restricted to descendants of milita ...

. He died at the age of 87 of lung ailments on 14 March 1988, at

Walter Reed Army Medical Center The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), officially known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951, was the United States Army, U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in Washington, D.C., it served more ...

and was buried in

Arlington National Cemetery Arlington National Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the United States National Cemetery System, one of two maintained by the United States Army. More than 400,000 people are buried in its 639 acres (259 ha) in Arlington County, Virginia. ...

. His wife, Luella Johnson Magruder (1907–1991) was buried with him in 1991.Burial Detail: Magruder, Carter B
– ANC Explorer

Decorations

Here is the ribbon bar of General Magruder:

Notes

External links

at ArlingtonCemetery.net, an unofficial website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magruder, Carter B. 1900 births 1988 deaths United States Army generals United States Army personnel of the Korean War Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Commanders of the Legion of Honour American recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Order of the Crown (Italy) United States Military Academy alumni Purdue University College of Engineering alumni United States Army Command and General Staff College alumni United States Army War College alumni Burials at Arlington National Cemetery Commanders, United States Forces Korea United States Army generals of World War II