Laurence B . Keiser Major General Laurence B . " Dutch " Keiser ( 1895 – 1969 ) was an American general who served in World War I , World War II , and the Korean War . Early life . Laurence Bolton Keiser was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , on June 1 , 1895 . He graduated from West Point along with J . Lawton Collins , Matthew B . Ridgway , and Mark W . Clark in 1917 . Military career . Dispatched to France with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I , Keiser was appointed to command of a battalion in the 5th Division . He was awarded the Silver Star for actions on the Western Front . Keiser had an uneventful peacetime career and he was a colonel when the U . S . went into World War II . He served for a time as VI Corps chief of staff during the Italian campaign , and at the conclusion of World War II , he was a brigadier general and the chief of staff of the Fourth Army , which was based in the continental United States . With his former VI Corps and Fourth Army commander , Major General John P . Lucas , he spent part of the postwar period in China with the United States Military Advisory Group to the Nationalist Chinese Government . Korea . In November 1948 , Keiser was made assistant divisional commander of the 2nd Infantry Division . In February 1950 , his former West Point classmate Joe Collins gave him command of the division , together with a promotion to major general . Following the outbreak of the Korean War , the 2nd Division was the first United States army unit to arrive in Korea from mainland United States . From August to September , the division disembarked at Pusan and moved to the Naktong Bulge to assist the 24th Infantry Division , which was then struggling to restore its front line following the crossing of the Naktong River by the North Korean 4th Division . When the North Koreans launched the Great Naktong Offensive , four divisions faced the 2nd . Some units of the 2nd Infantry Division did not perform well on first contact with the enemy , and Keiser displayed lack of knowledge of his division ' s situation when he was confronted by Lieutenant General Walton Walker , the commander of the Eighth Army . Keiser was already considered by some officers to be slightly too old for an outstanding division commander . The 2nd Division was involved in the breakout from the Pusan Perimeter , pushing north west towards Kunsan , together with the 25th Infantry Division . The division would advance well into North Korea , close to the border with Manchuria . In late November 1950 , a large Chinese force crossed over the Yalu River and launched a surprise attack on the United Nations forces in what was to be known as the Battle of the Ch ' ongch ' on River . The 2nd Division had been advancing on the right flank of IX Corps , which was then pushing to the Yalu River , and was positioned north of Kunu - ri , with the 25th Infantry Division on its left flank . In a swift week long attack , the Chinese threatened to envelop the Eighth Army , with the 2nd Division exposed on the right and bearing the brunt of the enveloping movement . The 25th Division was able to withdraw to Anju , but Keiser was unable to obtain permission from Major General John B . Coulter to follow . The 2nd Division was eventually cut off and forced to fight its way through the Chinese to safety at Sunchon . Following the Battle of the Ch ' ongch ' on River , during which 2nd Division suffered crippling losses of approximately 4 , 000 men , Keiser met with Major General Leven C . Allen , the chief of staff of the Eighth Army , in Seoul . He was relieved of his command and replaced with Major General Robert B . McClure , supposedly for medical reasons , although he felt he was being made a scapegoat for the reverses suffered by the United Nations following the Chinese intervention in the war . Returning to the United States in February , 1951 , he assumed command of the 5th Infantry Division at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation ( IGMR ) an infantry basic training camp in Pennsylvania near Hershey and Harrisburg . [ Public Information Office , IGMR , 1951 ] Later life . On October 20 , 1969 , Major General Laurence B . " Dutch " Keiser died in San Francisco , California . He is buried at West Point .