Stanley Dunbar Embick Stanley Dunbar Embick ( January 22 , 1877 - October 23 , 1957 ) was a Lieutenant General in the United States Army . Biography . Embick was born in Greencastle , Franklin County , Pennsylvania on January 22 , 1877 . He attended Dickinson College before enrolling at the United States Military Academy in West Point , New York , from which he graduated in 1899 . Commissioned a Second Lieutenant of Artillery , he served in Cuba during the Spanish - American War . After the war he served in a variety of assignments , including the staff of the Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe , Virginia and Assistant to the Chief of Artillery in Washington , D . C . During World War I he served on the staff of the Supreme War Council , and then the Commission to Negotiate Peace , for which he received the Distinguished Service Medal . In December , 1919 he was assigned to the staff of the War Department ' s War Plans Division , where he served until attending the Army War College . After serving as a War College instructor , Embick served in the Philippines , afterwards returning to Washington to serve as Executive Officer of the War Plans Division . In 1930 he became commandant of the Coast Artillery School . In 1932 he was appointed commander of harbor defenses in the Philippines as a Brigadier General , where he was responsible for constructing Corregidor ' s Malinta Tunnel , which was used as a bomb - proof storage and personnel bunker and hospital during World War II , and is now the venue for a historical audio - visual presentation about the war . Embick became Director of the War Plans Division as a Major General in 1936 , and later that year was named the Army ' s Deputy Chief of Staff . He was appointed IV Corps commander in 1938 , and later the same year took command of the Third Army as a Lieutenant General , where he served until his 1940 retirement . Embick was recalled for World War II , serving as Chief of the Joint Strategic Survey Committee , Chairman of the Inter - American Defense Board , and a delegate to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference that created the United Nations . He retired again in 1946 , receiving a second Distinguished Service Medal . In the late 1940s he served on the commission that proposed reforms to America ' s military and intelligence agencies , including creation of the Department of Defense by merging the War and Navy Departments . General Embick died at Washington , D . C . ' s Walter Reed Army Hospital on October 23 , 1957 , and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery . He was the father in law of General Albert Coady Wedemeyer . Citation of first Distinguished Service Medal : The President of the United States of America , authorized by Act of Congress , July 9 , 1918 , takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel ( Signal Corps ) Stanley D . Embick , United States Army , for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States , in a duty of great responsibility during World War I . As a member of the American Section of the Supreme War Council , by his sound military judgment , qualifications , his breadth of vision , and his sound military judgment , Colonel Embick has rendered invaluable aid in solving the many complex problems that have come before the Supreme War Council . Service : Army . Rank : Colonel . War Department , General Orders No . 69 ( 1919 )