Lee S. Gerow
United States general (1891-1982)
Lee Saunders Gerow (March 29, 1891 – May 19, 1982) was a decorated brigadier general in the United States Army who served in World War I and World War II. He was the younger brother of Leonard T. Gerow. During World War II, he was the assistant division commander of the 85th Infantry Division from 1943 to 1945, serving with it in the Italian campaign.
Early military years
Lee Saunders Gerow was born in Petersburg, Virginia, on March 29, 1891, the son of Leonard Rogers Gerow, a railroad conductor, and Annie Eloise Saunders. He had three brothers, including Leonard Townsend Gerow, and a sister. He attended the Virginia Military Institute and graduated in 1913 with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering. Like his older brother Leonard in 1911, Gerow was class valedictorian.
Despite his class standing, Gerow failed to secure an appointment in the Regular Army, and went to work for an engineering firm in Florida. He then received an offer of a teaching position at the Columbia Military Academy in Columbia, Tennessee. While there he met his future wife, Margaret. When Congress created an additional 200 officer positions in the Regular Army, Gerow passed the qualifying examination and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch on November 30, 1916.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lee S. Gerow” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.