| Frank S. Besson, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| 1910 – 1985 (aged 74–75) | |
 General Frank S. Year 1910 ( MCMX) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Year 1985 ( MCMLXXXV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar) Besson, Jr. |
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| Place of birth | Detroit, Michigan |
| Place of death | Walter Reed Army Medical Center |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1932-1970 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | U. The Walter Reed National Army Medical Center (WRAMC is the United States Army's medical center on the east coast of the United States. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The United States Army is a military organization whose primary mission is to "provide necessary forces and capabilities. S. Army Materiel Command |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Other work | Director, National Rail Passenger Corporation |
Frank Schaffer Besson, Jr. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including was born on May 30, 1910 in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a West Point graduate and an officer in the Corps of Engineers . The United States Army Corps of Engineers ( USACE) is a federal agency and a major Army command made up of some 34600 Civilian and 650 Military personnel Frank S. Besson, Jr. graduated second in his class from the United States Military Academy in 1932. "USMA" redirects here For other uses see USMA (disambiguation The United States Military Academy (also known as USMA, In 1935, he received a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His early career was noted for the role he played in the development of portable military pipelines, steel landing mats for airplanes, and steel treadway bridges. He is credited with the studies leading to the Army 's adoption of the Bailey Bridge, used extensively in all theaters in World War II. The Bailey bridge is a portable pre-fabricated Truss Bridge, designed for use by Military engineering units to bridge up to 60 m (200 ft gaps
As Director of the Third Military Railway Service in Iran during 1944 and 1945, Besson ensured the flow of war materials to the Russian forces through the Persian Corridor. He was promoted to brigadier general, becoming, at 34, the youngest general officer in the Army Ground Forces. Toward the end of WWII, he was Deputy Chief Transportation Officer of the Army Forces in the Western Pacific and, when Japan's collapse was imminent, assumed full control of railroads in Japan. During the first year of occupation, General Besson directed the rehabilitation of the Japanese rail system, moving more than 200,000 troops and 150,000 tons of supplies in the first two months.
Subsequent assignments included a tour as Assistant Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), where General Besson formulated logistics plans and overall programs to meet the complex requirements of the fifteen nations of the NATO alliance. Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe ( SHAPE) is the central command of NATO Military forces His efforts in instituting a system for "costing out" five-year programs, thereby bringing force goals into consonance with available resources, earned him the first Distinguished Service Medal to be awarded at SHAPE headquarters.
General Besson stimulated both military and commercial adoption of containerization and improved water terminal practices. He introduced the roll-on/roll-off technique for the rapid loading and discharge of wheeled and tracked vehicles. See also Merchant ship Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro Ships are ferries designed to carry wheeled Cargo such as He further refined these concepts upon assuming command of the Transportation Center and School at Fort Eustis, Virginia in 1953. Fort Eustis is a United States Army military installation located in Newport News Virginia. General Besson was the Chief of Transportation, U. S. Army from March 1958 until April 2, 1962, when he took charge of the U.S. Army Materiel Command. The United States Army Materiel Command (AMC is an army command responsible for materiel readiness to include technology acquisition support materiel development logistics power projection
General Besson was the first Commander of the Army Materiel Command, formed in 1962 during a major Army reorganization. During his command, the mammoth logistical organization, with an annual budget exceeding $14 billion and an inventory of $21 billion, employed more than 160,000 civilian personnel, in addition to its military complement of 14,000. As the first AMC Commander, General Besson was charged with consolidating six Army technical service organizations into a single command without disrupting effective materiel support for the Army. His success resulted in his receiving the Merit Award of the Armed Forces Management Association in 1963. On May 27, 1964, 53-year-old Frank Besson became the 75th officer in the U. S. Army's 189-year history to wear the four stars of a full general. He was the first Army officer to achieve that rank as head of a logistical organization in peacetime.
In March 1969, General Besson left AMC to become chairman of the Joint Logistics Review Board, formed to review logistic activities in support of the southeast Asia conflict. He retired in July 1970 and was promptly recalled to active duty to establish procedures to implement the board's recommendation. He permanently retired in October 1970. While in retirement, General Besson was nominated by President Richard M. Nixon as one of the founding directors of the National Rail Passenger Corporation, which ran Amtrak. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Doing business as Amtrak, is a Government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Doing business as Amtrak, is a Government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971 He was also director of the Services National Bank in Alexandria and of ECR International. On July 15, 1985, General Besson died of cancer at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The Walter Reed National Army Medical Center (WRAMC is the United States Army's medical center on the east coast of the United States.
His awards and decorations include the Army Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Legion of Merit with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Iranian Order of Homayoun Star, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and the Republic of Korea's Order of Military Merit, Second Class (Ulchi). This article concerns the United States Army Distinguished Service Medal The Legion of Merit is a military decoration of the United States armed forces that is awarded for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. [1]
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References
This article incorporates text from [1], a public domain work of the United States Government. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone A work of the United States government, as defined by United States copyright law, is "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U
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