Richard K . Sutherland Richard Kerens Sutherland ( 27 November 1893 – 25 June 1966 ) was a Lieutenant General of the US Army and General of the Army Douglas MacArthur ' s Chief of Staff in the South West Pacific Area during World War II . Early life . Sutherland was born in Hancock , Maryland on 27 November 1893 , the only son among the six children of Howard Sutherland , who later became a US Senator from West Virginia , and Etfie Harris Sutherland . He was educated at Davis and Elkins College , Phillips Academy , from which he graduated in 1911 , and Yale University , graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1916 . While at Yale , he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps . In 1916 , he enlisted as a private in the Connecticut National Guard . Great War . Later that year the National Guard was federalized and he served on the Mexican Border during the Pancho Villa Expedition . The future general soon accepted a National Guard commission as a second lieutenant in the field artillery . Soon after , he transferred to the Regular Army with a commission in the infantry . He was promoted to captain in 1917 . He served with the 2nd Division on the Western Front during World War I . He was a student at a tank school in England . Between the wars . Returning to the United States , Sutherland married Josephine Whiteside in 1920 . They had one child , a daughter named Natalie . Sutherland was an instructor at the United States Army Infantry School from 1920 to 1923 and professor of military science and tactics at the Shattuck School from 1923 to 1928 . He graduated from the Command and General Staff College in 1928 . Fluent in French , he attended the " École supérieure de guerre " in 1930 . From 1932 and 1933 he attended the U . S . Army War College . He then served with the Operations and Training Division of the War Department General Staff . In 1937 he went to Tientsin , China , in command of a battalion of the 15th Infantry ; however , he was not promoted to major until March 1938 , when he was assigned to the Office of the Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government ( Philippines ) , Manila , under General Douglas MacArthur with the " local rank " of lieutenant colonel . He was promoted to the rank in July of that year . Sutherland soon eased his superior , Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D . Eisenhower out of his position and became MacArthur ' s chief of staff . World War II . As tensions with Japan rose , Sutherland was promoted to full colonel , then to brigadier general in July 1941 and major general in 1941 . Following the fall of Manila , MacArthur ' s headquarters moved to the island fortress of Corregidor , where it was the target of numerous Japanese air raids , forcing the headquarters to move into the Malinta Tunnel . Sutherland was a frequent visitor to the front on Bataan . He was given a cash payment of $ 75 , 000 by President Quezon . In March 1942 , MacArthur was ordered by President Franklin D . Roosevelt to relocate to Australia . Sutherland selected the group of advisers and subordinate military commanders that would accompany MacArthur and flee the Philippines in four PT boats . Sutherland would remain MacArthur ' s chief of staff for the entire war . Sutherland attracted antagonism from subordinate American and Australian officers because of perceptions that he was high - handed and overprotective of MacArthur . Sutherland was often given the role of " hatchet man " . Bad news invariably came through Sutherland rather than from MacArthur himself . According to some sources he contributed to a rift between MacArthur and the first SWPA air forces commander , Lieutenant General George Brett . Major General George Kenney , Brett ' s successor , became so frustrated with Sutherland in one meeting , that Kenney drew a dot on a plain page of paper and said : " the dot represents what you know about air operations , the entire rest of the paper what I know . " Sutherland had been taught to fly in 1940 by US Army Air Corps instructors at the Philippine Army Training Center and had been awarded a civil pilot ' s licence by the Civil Aeronautics Association . Flying then became one of his favourite recreational activities and while in Australia he flew as frequently as possible . In March 1943 he asked to be formally recognised as a " service pilot " , a form of pilot restricted to non - combat duties . His request was turned down by the Commanding General of the U . S . Army Air Forces , General Henry H . Arnold on the grounds that he was over the age limit and not performing flying duties . However , Sutherland secured an official pilot ' s rating under Philippine Army regulations in 1945 . In 1943 Sutherland and Kenney took part in an effort to promote General MacArthur ' s candidacy for the Presidency , working with Senator Arthur H . Vandenberg of Michigan to get the War Department to rescind the order that prevented MacArthur from seeking or accepting political office . It was Sutherland who represented MacArthur before the Joint Chiefs of Staff on this and other occasions . Sutherland opened , read , and frequently answered all communications with MacArthur , including those addressed to him personally or " eyes only " . Some decisions often attributed to MacArthur were actually taken by Sutherland . For example , the decision to bypass Mindanao and move on directly to Leyte was taken by Sutherland on MacArthur ' s behalf , while MacArthur was traveling under radio silence . When MacArthur discovered that Eisenhower had promoted his chief of staff , Walter Bedell Smith , to the rank of lieutenant general in January 1944 , he immediately arranged for Sutherland to be promoted to the same rank . Affair with Elaine Clarke . During the time while MacArthur ' s GHQ SWPA was located in Melbourne , Sutherland met Elaine Clarke , a socialite whose husband , a British Army officer , was a prisoner of war in Singapore . When GHQ moved to Brisbane in July 1942 , Clarke moved with it , as did two other civilian women who worked as secretaries for Generals Kenney and Richard Marshall . Sutherland installed Clarke as the receptionist at the AMP Building , where MacArthur had his headquarters . When GHQ began planning to move forward to New Guinea , Sutherland requested personnel from the Women ' s Army Corps to replace civilian employees of GHQ who , by agreement between General MacArthur and the Prime Minister of Australia , John Curtin , could not be sent outside Australia . Sutherland further asked for direct commissions for Clarke and Kenney ' s and Marshall ' s secretaries . This exploited a loophole whereby enlistments in the Women ' s Army Corps were restricted to American citizens , but officer commissions were not . Major General Miller G . White , the U . S . Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel , and Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby , the commanding officer of the Women ' s Army Corps , were strongly opposed ; but they were overruled by Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph T . McNarney , on his being informed that the commissions were personally desired by General MacArthur as essential to the operation of his headquarters and the prosecution of the war . Clarke was commissioned as a captain , as was General Eisenhower ' s driver , Kay Summersby , while the other two women were commissioned as first lieutenant s . Although her rank was more a reflection of Sutherland ' s status rather than her own , Clarke became an assistant to the headquarters commandant , with duties commensurate with her rank , and moved with Advance GHQ to Hollandia . However , her presence there in contravention of his agreement with Curtin ultimately brought down the displeasure of General MacArthur , who ordered her to be returned to Australia , first from Hollandia , and later from the Philippines . That Sutherland defied MacArthur on this matter caused a rift between the two . Japanese surrender . At the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay on September 2 , 1945 , the Canadian representative , Colonel L . Moore Cosgrave , signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender underneath , instead of on , the line for Canada . The Japanese drew attention to the error . Sutherland leaned over the table and ran two strokes of his pen through the names of the four countries above the misplaced signatures and wrote them in where they belonged . The Japanese then accepted the corrected document . Later life . Sutherland retired from the Army shortly after the Japanese surrender . Returning home , he confessed his affair to Josephine and was ultimately reconciled with her . Letters from Clarke were intercepted and destroyed by Natalie . After the death of Josephine on 30 December 1957 , he married Virginia Shaw Root in 1962 . Sutherland died at Walter Reed Army Medical Center on 25 June 1966 . His funeral was held at the Fort Myer , Virginia chapel on 29 June 1966 and he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery along with other family members .