Smith, Walter Bedell "Beetle"

Date of birth:: October 5th, 1895 (Indianapolis/Indiana, United States)
Date of death:: August 9th, 1961 (Washington, D.C., United States)
Buried on:: Arlington National Cemetery
Plot: 7. Grave: 8197A.
Service number:: 0-10197
Nationality:: American

Biography

Walter Bedell Smith, during WW2 served as Chief-of-Satff bij General Eisenhower'Allied Forces Headquarters and later Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.

He entered service with the Indiana National Guard in 1911 and during WW1 served on the front in France. Between both wars he was Staff Officer and Instructor with the U.S. Army Infantry School and became Secretary with the General Staff.

After WW2 Smith became the U.S. Ambassador in the SOviet Union and later became head of the CIA. He retired in 1954 as Under Secretary of State and passed away in 1961.

Promotions:
1911: Private (National Guard);
November 27th, 1917: 2nd Lieutenant;
September 1918: 1st Lieutenant;
September 1929: Captain;
January 1st, 1939: Major;
May 4th, 1941: Lieutenant Colonel;
August 30th, 1941: Colonel;
February 2d, 1942: Brigadier General;
January 1944: Lieutenant General.

Career:
?: Saint Peter School;
?: Saint Paul School;
?: Oliver Perry Morton School;
?: Emmerich Manual High School;
?: National Motor Vehicle Company;
?: Butler University;
1911: Company D, 2nd Indiana Infantry, Indiana National Guard;
1917: Officer Training, Officer Candidate Training Camp, Fort Benjamin Harrison;
?: Staff Indiana National Guard;
1918: Company A. 1st Battalion, 39th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division;
?: Military Intelligence Division, General Staff, U.S. Department of War;
1919: Intelligence Officer, 379th Infantry Regiment;
February 1919: Camp Dodge, Iowa;
March 1919: 2nd Infantry Regiment;
1922: Aide de Camp Brigadier General George Van Horn Moseley;
1925 - 1929: Bureau of the Budget;
1929: Staff 45th Infantry Regiment, Philippines;
March 1931: U.S. Army Infantry School, Fort Benning;
June 1932: Instructor U.S. Army Infantry School, Fort Benning;
1933: Command and General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth;
? - 1937: U.S. Army War College;
September 1939: Assistant Secretary General Staff;
September 1st, 1941: Secretary General Staff;
January 23rd, 1942: Secretary Joint Chiefs of Staff;
1942: Secretary Combined Chiefs-of-Staff;
September 15th, 1942: Chief-of-Staff Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ);
1943: Chief-of-Staff Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF);
1946: U.S. Ambassador, Soviet Union;
March 1949: Commanding Officer U.S. First Army;
1950: Director Central Intelligence, CIA;
January 14th, 1953: Under Secretary of State;
October 1st, 1954: United Fruit Company;
?: President / Chairman Board of the Associated Missile Products Company and AMF Atomics Incorporated;
?: Vice Chairman American Machine and Foundry (AMF);
?: Director RCA and Corning Incorporated;
1955 - 1956: Consultant Special Projects Office (Disarmament), Executive Office of the President;
1955 - 1957: National Security Training Commission;
1957 - 1957: President's Citizen Advisors on the Mutual Security Program;
1956 - 1959: National War College board of consultants;
1957 - 1958: Office Defense Mobilization Special Stockpile Advisory Committee;
1958: President's Committee on Disarmament;
1958 - 1961: Chairman Advisory Council of the President's Committee on Fund Raising;
1960 - 1961: Member George C. Marshall Foundation Advisory Committee.