To Major General Stephen O. Fuqua1

#1-311 To Major General Stephen O. Fuqua1 November 18, 1932 Fort Screven, Georgia

Dear General: I am much embarrassed by a situation which has developed suddenly as a result of the new Leavenworth policy and my recent service at Benning. Members of the faculty at the Infantry School who served me well and now are eligible for consideration, naturally look to me to indorse them, especially since their new Chief is not familiar with the special services they may have rendered during the past two or three years. I, myself, understand that such details are figured out impersonally from the efficiency records on file in your office, and I have submitted efficiency reports on these men. But, I am not now in the position to put a special indorsement on their applications for a specific detail. Recently I have received letters from some unusually fine fellows asking, in effect, if there was not some way in which I might express my views on their particular qualifications for the Leavenworth detail. It would be presumptuous for me to write letters to your office requesting special consideration for this or that man, yet I feel a pressing obligation on me in the case of some of these men, to do something to help them because of the unusually fine service they rendered the Infantry School, in general and me in particular, in developing and improving the courses there. For this reason, and with a disturbing understanding of the delicacy of my position, I have decided to list for your eye the men I am referring to, with a statement regarding their recent services at Benning. I hope you will not feel that I am intruding, and that you will understand the motive which has caused me to do this.

Captain W. S. Paul: Instructor in supply. Superior officer. He contributed in a variety of ways and in a superior manner to the development of the supply course and to questions of supply before the Infantry Board. He is vigorous physically, tactful to a marked degree and popular. Temperamentally, physically and mentally he displays the qualities which mark him as unusually adapted for higher command and staff training.

1st Lieut. Julien E. Raymond: Instructor in signal communication-radio specialist. A superior officer, very bright and alert. An outstanding instructor at Benning. Capable of performing any task with high efficiency. One of the best and most deserving lieutenants I have met in the Army. Admirably adapted for higher training. A marked example of the junior officer of great ability submerged by the promotion situation. The kind who should be allowed to progress where the law does not forbid.

Captain Russel B. Reynolds: Very able machine gun instructor. Ambitious, hard working, dependable, strong character.

1st Lieut. Fremont B. Hodson Book Shop Officer. Unusual business ability, largely responsible for vigorous development of Book Shop business, and greatly increased profits which enabled us to buy much expensive machinery. A hustler. Tactful, reliable, aggressive. He will be forty in February 1934.

Other officers have appealed to me, but I have confined myself to the most deserving. They will not be informed of the action I have taken.2 Faithfully yours, G. C. Marshall, Jr.

Document Copy Text Source: Records of the Chiefs of Arms (RG 177), 210.632, Chief of Infantry, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D.C. Document Format: Typed letter signed. 1. Fuqua had been chief of Infantry since March, 1929.

2. In the margin of Marshall’s letter, someone in the Office of the Chief of Infantry wrote “not on list” beside Raymond’s, Reynolds’s, and Hodson’s names, and “10th alternate” beside Paul’s name.

Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 1, “The Soldierly Spirit,” December 1880-June 1939 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), pp. 381–383.