A Preliminary Who’s Who of U.S. Army Military Intelligence Note: The word preliminary in the title not only acknowledges that much biographical work remains to be done, but offers the explanation that many MI worthies have yet to make their final contribution. A .....2 Q .....125 B .....8 R .....126 C .....23 S .....137 D .....33 T .....155 E .....42 U .....166 F .....46 V .....166 G .....51 W .....170 H .....59 X .....182 I .....72 Y .....182 J .....74 Z .....184 K .....77 L .....84 M .....92 N .....107 O .....111 P .....116 A Aaron, Harold R. Lt. Gen. [Member of MI Hall of Fame. Aaron Plaza dedicated at Fort Huachuca on 2 July 1992.] U.S. Military Academy Class of June 1943. Distinguished service in special operations and intelligence assignments. Commander, 5th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam; Deputy Chief of Staff, Intelligence, U.S. Army, Europe. Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Department of the Army; Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence Agency. Extract from Register of Graduates, U.S. Military Academy, 1980: Born in Indiana, 21 June 1921; Infantry; Company Commander, 259 Infantry, Theater Army Europe, 1944 to 1945 (two Bronze Star Medals-Combat Infantry Badge-Commendation Ribbon-Purple Heart); Command and General Staff College, 1953; MA Gtwn U, 1960; Office of Assistant Secretary of Defense, 1961 to 1963; National War College, 1964; PhD Georgetown Univ, 1964; Aide-de-Camp to CG, 8th Army, 1964 to 1965; Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1965 to 1967; (Legion of Merit); Commander, 1st Special Forces Group, 1967 to 1968; (Legion of Merit); Commander, 5th Special Forces Group, Republic of Vietnam, 1968 to 1969 (Distinguished Service Medal- Bronze Star Medal-two Air Medals-Combat Infantry Badge); Assistant Division Commander, 8th Division, 1969 to 1971; Chief of Staff, V Corps, Germany, 1971 to 1972; Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army, Europe, 1972 to 1973 (Legion of Merit); Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence, Department of the Army, 1973 to 1977 (Distinguished Service Medal); Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence Agency, 1977 to 1979 (Defense Distinguished Service Medal); retired in 1979 as a Lt. Gen.; Senior Staff Scientist with TRW, 1979; died at Fort Belvoir, 30 April 1980. Adams, Franklin Pierce. He was assigned to G2, AEF as a captain in July 1918. A journalist and radio personality known as F.P.A., he wrote syndicated columns and musical comedies. About his service with MID in World War I, he wrote: I didnt fight and I didnt shoot, but, General, how I did salute! Adams, William J., Specialist Five. Awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart. Died in Vietnam on 6 January 1968. Allison, Darrell G., Specialist Four. Awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Army Commendation Medal, and Purple Heart. Died in Vietnam on 12 February 1970. Ahern, George Patrick, Lt. Col. U.S. Military Academy Class of 1882. Extract from Register of Graduates, U.S. Military Academy, 1980: Born in New York; Infantry; Frontier duty, 1882 to 1991; Professor, Military Sciences and Tactics, Montana College, 1891 to 1994, Montana Agricultural College, 1897 to 1998; Santiago de Cuba Campaign (Silver Star Citation); retired (with disability), 1906 as a Captain; Org Bu Forestry, PI, 1900 to 1914; Active Duty, 1916 to 1919; assistant in MID in May 1917 as a retired major; retired in 1930 as a Lt. Col.; LLB Yale (Forestry); died in Washington, D.C., 13 May 1942, aged 83. Aiso, John F. Col. [Member of MI Hall of Fame. Aiso Library named for him at Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey.] John Fujio Aiso was born on 14 December 1909 in Burbank, CA. He earned distinction at Hollywood High School as a orator and was elected student body president, an important achievement in a west coast society that harbored racial resentment for Asians. A graduate of Brown University and Harvard Law School in 1934, he worked for a New York law firm and spent three years in Mukden, Manchuria, on their behalf. He was drafted in the U.S. Army in December 1940 and was assigned as a mechanic in a quartermaster battalion with the rank Private Second Class. He was rescued from that inappropriate job by Captain Kai Rassmussen, a Japanese-speaking officer who was trying to start a language school at Fourth Army headquarters at the Presidio of San Francisco with a $2,000 budget. He thought he would be discharged when the Army reported that it was releasing draftees over 28 years old. Aiso was 32. But he was convinced by Lieutenant Colonel John Weckerling, G2, Fourth Army, that his country needed him. He was assigned as the head instructor at the Japanese language school first opened at the Presidio of San Francisco. Because direct commissions were not yet authorized and he could not function as head instructor as an enlisted man, he was returned to civilian status. Later, when Brig. Gen. Clayton Bissell, Chief of Army Intelligence, visited the school at Fort Snelling in 1944, he arranged for Aiso to be commissioned a major in the Army of the United States, an act that was not possible before the Battle of Midway due to an Army policy forbidding Japanese-Americans from becoming officers. Officially opening on 1 November 1941, the language school graduated its first class in May 1942 and then moved to Camp Savage in suburban Minneapolis where it was enlarged and renamed the Military Intelligence Service Language School. It was now under the operational control of the Military Intelligence Division of the War Department. In 1944 it moved down the road to Fort Snelling where the school added Chinese and Korean classes. By wars end, it had graduated 4,500 Nisei, 1,500 Caucasians, and a few Chinese and Korean students. The role they played in the war in the Pacific is well known. Besides the critical work of prisoner of war interrogation, they translated captured documents, plans, diaries, and letters. According to Maj. Gen. Charles Willoughby, Mac Arthurs G2, the men that Major Aiso trained shortened the war by two years. In October 1945, Aiso was transferred to the Civil Information Section of the G2 Section, Far East Command. Arriving in Tokyo in February 1946, he assumed investigative and enforcement duties in connection with the Political Purge called for by the Potsdam Declaration. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in May 1947 and transferred from Military Intelligence to the Judge Advocate Generals Corps. Resuming his civilian law career, he received several judicial appointments in California, eventually serving as Justice Pro Tem of the California Supreme Court. He received the Legion of Merit for his World War II service and was decorated by the Japanese government in 1984 with the Third Class Order of the Rising Sun. He was a leader in the Military Intelligence Service Club of Southern California until his death in 1987 at the age of 78. Akin, Spencer B., Maj. Gen. He was Chief, Signal Intelligence Service/Division from July 1939 to May 1941. During World War II, Akin was General MacArthurs Chief Signal Officer in the Southwest Pacific Area and was three times cited for bravery, earning a Distinguished Service Cross and two Silver Stars. From 1947 to 1951 he was the chief signal officer of the U.S. Army. Akune, Harry M., Technician 3rd Grade. [Member of MI Hall of Fame.] He entered the U.S. Army on 12 December 1942 from the Amache relocation camp, Colorado. He and his family had been relocated as part of the governments action to remove 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. After graduating from the MI Service Language School, he served as a translator and interpreter for the U.S. 33d Infantry Division in British New Guinea. In November 1944, he was attached to the 503d Parachute Regimental Combat Team. He provided intelligence services for the amphibious invasion of Mindoro Island which became a vital base for the aerial war against the main Japanese forces in the Philippines on the island of Luzon. The 503d Parachute RCT became the lead unit in retaking the fortress of Corregidor. It was the key to Manila Harbor and the site of the surrender of U.S. and Filipino forces in 1942. Without formal parachute training, on 16 February 1945 Akune was among the first Americans to land among the splintered tree stumps, rubble and enemy fire on the heavily defended island fortress. As with most parachute operations, the initial period required everyone to fight as an infantry soldier, and Akune did that with distinction. Shortly after landing, he was able to extract timely and valuable intelligence from the prisoners taken and documents he translated. Akune demonstrated that a human intelligence capability is essential for success in a wide variety of combat situations. The after-action report recommended the permanent assignment of an intelligence specialist to every combat operation. His commander stated many times that his personal bravery and truly outstanding actions allowed our forces to take rapid and effective offensive action against a larger enemy force, thereby shortening the duration of the campaign and significantly reducing the number of American casualties. Alajajian, Jerry A., Special Agent. Joining the Army in 1942, he picked the CIC because of his Armenian language background, but, after training at the Chicago school and Holabird, he found himself going in the opposite direction to Australia. There he attended jungle warfare school and reported to the 41st CIC Detachment with the 41st Division at Hollandia. He participated in a dangerous landing with his detachment on the island of Biak. On Luzon, in the Philippines, he worked with the Philippine guerrilla units.