Harry Kinnard Harry William Osborne Kinnard II ( May 7 , 1915 – January 5 , 2009 ) was an American military officer who , during the Vietnam War , pioneered the airmobile concept of sending troops into battle using helicopters . Kinnard retired from the military as a Lieutenant General . Kinnard grew up in Dallas , Texas . After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1939 , he entered military service . Military service . On December 7 , 1941 , Kinnard was stationed at Pearl Harbor , and manned a machine gun to defend the base on the morning of the Japanese attack . He parachuted into France in the early hours of the Normandy Landings in June 1944 , and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism during Operation Market Garden , as part of the Allied airborne attack against German forces in the Netherlands in September 1944 . Nuts ! In December 1944 , during the Battle of the Bulge , German forces surrounded the town of Bastogne , a town in Belgium then held by the 101st Airborne Division and located at a crossroads that could have allowed the Germans to break through the American lines and reach their goal of retaking the port city of Antwerp . With the American forces surrounded , short on supplies and suffering the effects of the bitter cold weather , two German officers approached the American lines with a demand that the U . S . forces surrender or face destruction . Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe was serving as acting division commander and was handed the German demand . Kinnard , then a Lieutenant Colonel serving as the division ' s operations officer , recounted that McAuliffe laughed and said " Us surrender ? Aw , nuts . " After considering the German demand , McAuliffe said he didn ' t know what to say in response , to which Kinnard replied , " That first remark of yours would be hard to beat . " As recounted by " The New York Times " in his 2009 obituary , " McAuliffe said , ' What do you mean ? ' I answered , ' Sir , you said , ' Nuts . ' All members of the staff enthusiastically agreed . McAuliffe then wrote down : ' To the German Commander , Nuts ! The American Commander . ' " McAuliffe ' s response was passed on to the two German officers who didn ' t understand its meaning . Colonel Joseph Harper , who had delivered the message , explained to the Germans , " If you don ’ t know what ' nuts ' means , in plain English it is the same as ' go to hell . ' " General McAuliffe asked Kinnard to compose a message that he delivered to the troops in Bastogne on Christmas Day , 1944 . The message has been variously recorded as : What ' s merry about all this , you ask ? Just this : We have stopped cold everything that has been thrown at us from the North , East , South and West . We have identifications from four German Panzer divisions and one German parachute division . The Germans surround us , their radios blare our doom . Their commander demanded our surrender , and received the following reply . . . ' NUTS ! ' We are giving our country and our loved ones at home a worthy Christmas present , and , being privileged to take part in this gallant feat of arms , are truly making for ourselves a Merry Christmas . With improving weather allowing air support to assist the troops , the American forces were able to hold Bastogne , with " nuts " coming to symbolize the American determination to overcome against the odds . Twenty years after the Battle of the Bulge , Kinnard drew criticism from members of the 101st Airborne Division for his comments in a newspaper interview where he said " We never felt we would be overrun . We were beating back everything they threw at us . We had the houses , and we were warm . They were outside the town , in the snow and cold " . Many members of Easy Company sent Stephen Ambrose the article containing the comments with their own opinion , the mildest comment by a member of E company was " What battle was he in ? " . Airmobile . Building on his paratroop service , Kinnard helped develop the airmobile concept , by which troops would be flown into battle by helicopter . He was able to develop this approach while commanding the 11th Air Assault Division ( Test ) at Fort Benning in 1963 . This unit evolved into the First Cavalry Division ( Airmobile ) . Kinnard commanded an operation in October 1965 , in which 5 , 000 troops took control of the Suai Ca Valley , which placed the crop - rich valley under South Vietnamese control . Associated Press reporter Bob Poos described the innovative use of the " Sky Cavalry " , combining light infantry on armed helicopters , as constituting ' an exercise in sustained terror " . General Kinnard was in command in November 1965 during the unit ' s first major operation in the Pleiku Campaign . During this action , the division conducted 35 days of continuous airmobile operations . The opening battle , the Battle of Ia Drang , which resulted in heavy North Vietnam ese casualties at the cost of 300 American deaths , was described in the book " We Were Soldiers Once … And Young " , which was also the basis of the subsequent Mel Gibson film " We Were Soldiers " . The unit also earned the first Presidential Unit Citation ( US ) presented to a division during the Vietnam War . Kinnard retired in 1969 from the armed forces . Honours and awards . On November 14 , 1946 by Royal Decree , Kinnard was knighted by Queen Wilhelmina , with the rank of Knight 4th class of the Military William Order . The Order is the highest and oldest honour of the Kingdom of the Netherlands , which is bestowed for " performing excellent acts of Bravery , Leadership and Loyalty in battle " . It is an extremely prestigious award , comparable to the French Légion d ’ honneur or the American Medal of Honour , but far less frequently awarded . Kinnard in Museums . WWII memorabilia from Kinnard can be seen in Belgium where he fought during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944 , at December 44 Museum , La Gleize . Kinnard Mission Training Center , a digital systems training complex at Fort Campbell , Kentucky is named for him . His awards , decorations and several historical items of interest relating to him are on display in its lobby . Personal . Kinnard died at age 93 on January 5 , 2009 in Arlington , Virginia . He was survived by his wife , Libby ; two sons , three daughters , a stepson , 2 stepdaughters , 16 grandchildren and 15 great - grandchildren .