Matthew Ridgway

Matthew Bunker Ridgway
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1917–1955
Rank	General
Commands held	15th Infantry Regiment (United States) 82nd Airborne Division XVIII Airborne Corps 8th US Army
Battles/wars	World War I{not overseas} Banana Wars World War II *Operation Overlord *Battle of the Bulge Korean War
Awards	Distinguished Service Cross Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Legion of Merit Presidential Medal of Freedom

Matthew Bunker Ridgway (March 3, 1895–July 26, 1993) was a United States Army general. He held several major commands and was most famous for salvaging the United Nations war effort in the Korean War.

Early life and career

Born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, he graduated West Point in 1917, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. After returning to West Point as an instructor in Spanish the year after he graduated, Ridgway completed the company officers' course at the United States Army Infantry School in Fort Benning, Georgia, after which he was given command of a company in the 15th Infantry. This was followed by a posting to Nicaragua, where he helped supervise free elections in 1927.

In 1930, he became an advisor to the Governor General of the Philippines. He graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1935 and from the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania in 1937. During the 1930s he served as Assistant Chief of Staff of VI Corps, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Second United States Army, and Assistant Chief of Staff of the Fourth United States Army. General George Marshall was impressed with his performance and he assigned Ridgway to the War Plans Division shortly after the outbreak of World War II in Europe in September 1939. He served in the War Plans Division until January 1942, and was promoted to brigadier general that month.

World War II

In August 1942, Ridgway was promoted to major general and was given command of the 82nd Airborne Division, upon Omar N. Bradley's assignment to the 28th Infantry Division. The division was selected to become one of the army's five airborne divisions, based in no small part on Ridgway's skill as a trainer, and flexibility of thinking compared to his peers. At that time, the airborne division concept was an experiment for the US Army.

General Ridgway and staff outside of Ribera, Sicily on July 25, 1943.

Ridgway helped plan the airborne invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and commanded the 82nd in combat there. During the planning for the invasion of the Italian mainland, the 82nd was tasked with taking Rome by coup-de-main in Operation Giant II. Ridgway strongly objected to this unrealistic plan, which would have dropped the 82nd on the outskirts of Rome in the midst of two German heavy divisions. The operation was cancelled only hours before launch.

In 1944, Ridgway helped plan the airborne operations on Operation Overlord. In the Normandy operations, he jumped with his troops, who fought for 33 days in advancing to St-Sauveur near Cherbourg (St Sauveur le Vicomte, in the middle of the Cotentin Peninsula, was liberated on June 14th 1944). In September of 1944, Ridgway was given the command of the XVIII Airborne Corps and led his troops into Germany. In June 1945 he was promoted to lieutenant general. He jumped with the 17th Airborne Division in Operation Varsity and was wounded in the shoulder by German grenade fragments on March 24, 1945. At war's end, Ridgway was on a plane headed for a new assignment in the Pacific theater, under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, with whom he had served while a captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Post World War II

He held a command at Luzon for some time in 1945, before being given command of the US forces in the Mediterranean Theater, also gaining the title of Deputy Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean. He was given command of US forces in the Caribbean in the late 1940s, before being given the position of Deputy Chief of Staff, under Army Chief of Staff General J. Lawton Collins.

Korean War

Ridgway's most important command assignment occurred in 1950, upon the death of Lieutenant General Walton Walker. Upon Walker's death, he received command of the 8th US Army, which had been deployed in South Korea upon the invasion of North Korea in June of that year. At the time Ridgway was serving on the Army staff in the Pentagon as deputy chief of staff for operations and administration, yet he was knowledgeable about conditions in Korea and the Far East, and had a strong and dynamic personality. Both proved invaluable for the task ahead. When Ridgway took command, the army was still in a tactical retreat, after a strong foray into North Korea had been met with an unexpected and overwhelming Communist Chinese advance. Ridgway's success in turning Eighth Army’s morale around, using little more than a magnetic personality and bold leadership, is still a model for the Army for how the power of leadership can dramatically change a situation.

Perhaps another reason he was chosen was because Ridgway was not fazed by the Olympian demeanor of General Douglas MacArthur, then overall commander of UN forces in Korea. MacArthur in turn gave Ridgway a latitude in operations he had not given his predecessor. After Ridgway landed in Tokyo on Christmas Day 1950 to discuss the operational situation with MacArthur, the latter assured his new commander that the actions of Eighth Army were his to conduct as he saw fit. Ridgway was encouraged to retire to successive defensive positions, as was currently under way, and hold Seoul as long as he could, but not if it meant that Eighth Army would be isolated in an enclave around the city. In a foreshadowing of his aggressive nature, Ridgway asked specifically that if he found the combat situation "to my liking" whether MacArthur would have any objection to "my attacking"? MacArthur answered, "Eighth Army is yours, Matt. Do what you think best."

Upon taking control of the battered Eighth Army, one of Ridgway's first acts was to restore soldiers' confidence in themselves. To accomplish this he aggressively went about finding other leaders in Eighth Army who were not defeatist or defensive oriented, despite the hard knocks of November and December, and put them in charge. He was quick to reward commanders who shared his sentiments, and just as quick to relieve those officers at any level who did not. For example, during one of his first briefings in Korea at I Corps, Ridgway sat through an extensive discussion of various defensive plans and contingencies. At the end he asked the startled staff where their attack plans were. The corps G–3 (operations officer) responded that he had no such plans. Within days I Corps had a new G-3 and the message went out: Ridgway was interested in taking the offensive. In furtherance of this goal, he established a plan to rotate out those division commanders who had been in action for six difficult months, and replace them with fresh leaders who would be more interested in attack and less in defense. He also sent out guidance to commanders at all levels that they were to spend more time at the front lines and less in their command posts in the rear. The men had to see their commanders if they were to have confidence that they had not been forgotten. All these positive leadership steps had a dramatic effect almost from the first. Eighth Army was in Korea to stay.

Still, with the entry of China, the makeup of the Korean War had changed. Political leaders, in an attempt to prevent expansion of the war, would not allow UN forces to bomb the supply bases of the Chinese Army that were in China, nor the bridges across the Yalu river. Thus the American Army had to move from being always aggressive, to fighting protective, delaying actions until the supply lines of China had been extended enough to allow equilibrium. Under Ridgway's leadership, the Chinese offensive was slowed and finally brought to a halt at the battles of Chipyong-ni and Wonju. He then led his troops in a subsequent counter-offensive in the spring of 1951.

When General Douglas MacArthur was relieved of command by President Harry Truman in April, Ridgway was promoted to full general, assuming command of United Nations forces in Korea. As commanding general in Korea, Ridgway gained the nickname, "Old Iron Tits," for his habit of wearing hand grenades attached to his load-bearing equipment at chest level. {Photographs however show he only wore one grenade on one side of his chest; the so-called "grenade" on the other side was in fact a first-aid packet}.

Military historians generally credit Ridgway with leadership that helped restore the Eighth Army as an aggressive fighting force, allowing it combat the overwhelming masses of troops from the People's Republic of China to a standstill, and eventually driving them out of South Korea across the 38th parallel. Ridgway's personal example, as well as his thorough knowledge of basic military operational principles, set a leadership standard few in US Army history could match.

Chief of Staff

Gen. Ridgway

In May 1952, Ridgway replaced General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR). However, he upset other European military leaders by surrounding himself with American staff, and returned to the U.S. to replace General Collins as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. President Eisenhower asked for his assessment of US military involvement in Vietnam in conjunction with the French. In response, Ridgway prepared a comprehensive outline of the massive commitment that would be necessary, which dissuaded the President from intervening. However, the experience sorely tested the relationship Ridgway had enjoyed during World War II with Eisenhower, who wanted to intervene, and he retired from the US Army in 1955, succeeded in the Chief of Staff post by his one time 82nd Airborne Division Chief of Staff Maxwell D. Taylor. In the opinion of a number of military historians, Ridgway's stand as Chief of Staff delayed US intervention in Vietnam for around ten years.

Retirement

Ridgway had been forced to retire earlier than he planned, but he was secure in the belief he had served his nation to the best of his ability. The year after his retirement, he published his autobiography, Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway.

Ridgway's success in the military was not matched by success in his personal life. He married three times. For a while, he held the position of chairman of the board of trustees of the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. According to his friends and colleagues, Ridgway was never the same after his son died in a camping accident in 1971, becoming increasingly depressed and morose. On 5 May, 1985 he was a key player in the controversial Ronald Reagan visit to Kolmeshöhe Cemetery near Bitburg, when former Luftwaffe ace Johannes Steinhoff in an unscheduled act firmly shook his hand in an act of reconciliation between the former foes.

Ridgway died at his home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Fox Chapel at age 98 in March 1993 of cardiac arrest, holding permanent rank of General in the United States Army. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, and a street "Ridgway Court" was named after him in Pittsburgh, the avenue serves as the entrance to the Soldiers and Sailors National Military Museum and Memorial located in the city's University District.

Awards and decorations

General Ridgway was awarded numerous times including the:

• Distinguished Service Cross with oak leaf cluster,
• Distinguished Service Medal,
• Silver Star Medal with oak leaf cluster,
• Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster,
• Bronze Star Medal with "V" device for valor, the
• Combat Infantryman Badge[1] and
• Parachutist Badge.[2]

• In 1986, Ridgway was awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom. The citation said: "Heroes come when they are needed. Great men step forward when courage seems in short supply. WWII was such a time, and there was Ridgway."
• In 1991, he received the Congressional Gold Medal by General Colin Powell, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
• In 1996, the National Infrantry Association awarded him the Order of Saint Maurice (Primicerius) and their annual Doughboy Award.

Also, he appeared on the April 30, 1951 and May 12, 1952, covers of the LIFE Magazine and the March 5, 1951, and July 16, 1951 editions of TIME Magazine.

External links

• Matthew Ridgway at Find a Grave