page_title: Lesley J. McNair
section_title: World War I
hierarchical_section_title: Lesley J. McNair / World War I
caption_attribution_description: English: Lesley J. McNair as an American Expeditionary Forces Brigadier General, 1919.
context_page_description: Lesley James McNair was a senior United States Army officer who served during World War I and World War II. He attained the rank of lieutenant general during his life; he was killed in action during World War II, and received a posthumous promotion to general.
  A Minnesota native and 1904 graduate of the United States Military Academy, McNair was a Field Artillery officer with a background in the Ordnance Department. A veteran of the Veracruz occupation and Pancho Villa Expedition, during World War I he served as assistant chief of staff for training with the 1st Division, and then chief of artillery training on the staff at the American Expeditionary Forces headquarters. His outstanding performance resulted in his promotion to temporary brigadier general; at age 35, he was the Army's youngest general officer.
  McNair's experience of more than 30 years with equipment and weapons design and testing, his administrative skills, and his success in the areas of military education and training led to his World War II assignment as commander of Army Ground Forces. In this position, McNair became the "unsung architect of the U.S.
context_section_description: In April 1917, the United States entered World War I. After his Leon Springs assignment, McNair was assigned to the 1st Division, then located at Camp Stewart, in El Paso County, Texas.  Assigned to the division headquarters as assistant chief of staff for training, McNair was given responsibility for the organization's pre-deployment mobilization, individual soldier training, and collective unit training.  When the division departed for France, McNair shared quarters aboard ship with the division's assistant chief of staff for operations, George Marshall. During their long ocean voyage, they forged a personal and professional bond that they maintained for the rest of their careers.
  McNair was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel in August 1917, soon after his arrival in France, and was assigned to the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) headquarters as chief of artillery training and tactics in the AEF staff's training division (G-5).  He was promoted to temporary colonel in June 1918, and temporary brigadier general in October; at age 35, he was the youngest general officer in the Army.  He continued to impress his superiors with his technical and tactical expertise, and at the end of the war he received the Distinguished Service Medal from John J. Pershing and the French Legion of Honor (Officer) from Philippe Pétain.
  In June 1919, McNair was named to the AEF board that was charged with studying the problem of how to provide adequate mobile indirect fire support to infantry during combat.  This panel, called the Lassiter Board after its chairman, Major General William Lassiter, was one of several formed by the AEF to review wartime plans and activities, and make recommendations for the Army's future equipment, doctrine, and training.
caption: McNair as an AEF brigadier general, 1919
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