George Decker General George Henry Decker ( February 16 , 1902 – February 6 , 1980 ) was Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1960 to 1962 . General Decker was born in Catskill , New York and attended Lafayette College in Easton , Pennsylvania , receiving an economics degree in 1924 . He served in the U . S . Army from 1924 to 1962 . He married the former Helen E . Inman in 1926 . He died on February 6 , 1980 in Washington , D . C . Military career . According to his official U . S . Army biography , he was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in June 1924 , and began his Army service with the 26th Infantry Regiment , then stationed at Plattsburg Barracks in upstate New York . In 1928 , he was sent to Hawaii , where he served with the 35th Infantry Regiment until 1931 . He was promoted to first lieutenant in April 1930 . After attending advanced infantry training at the Infantry School at Fort Benning in 1932 , he remained at Fort Benning with the 29th Infantry Regiment until 1935 , followed by service at Vancouver Barracks , near Portland , Oregon with the 7th Infantry Regiment from 1935 to 1936 ( during which time he was promoted to captain , in August 1935 ) . In 1936 , he was sent to the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth , from which he graduated in 1937 . Subsequently , he served with the 10th Infantry Regiment at Fort Thomas , Kentucky and Fort McClellan , Alabama , and the 9th Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg , North Carolina . In 1940 he took command of Headquarters Company , I Corps , at Fort Jackson , South Carolina and was assistant supply and logistics officer , 1940 – 1941 . In 1941 came a flurry of promotions : to temporary major ( January ) , permanent major ( June ) , and temporary lieutenant colonel ( December ) . He was sent to Washington , D . C . to serve on the War Department General Staff , where he was assigned to the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Supply . He was promoted to temporary colonel in October 1942 and became deputy chief of staff of the Third Army , Fort Sam Houston , Texas . He was then sent overseas to the Southwest Pacific , where he became deputy chief of staff and then chief of staff of the Sixth Army , a position he held through the end of World War II . He had been promoted to temporary brigadier general in August 1944 and major general in June 1945 , and participated in Sixth Army operations in New Guinea , the Solomon Islands and the Philippines . General Decker returned to Washington in 1946 to Headquarters , Army Ground Forces and Headquarters , Army Service Forces , but soon went back to the Pacific as deputy commanding general and chief of staff of United States Forces , Middle Pacific , Hawaii from 1946 to 1948 . General Decker became commanding general of the 5th Infantry Division in 1948 , and in 1950 was assigned to the Office of the Comptroller of the Army as Chief of the Budget Division . Promoted to temporary lieutenant general in 1952 , he became comptroller of the Army from 1952 to 1955 . He was promoted to permanent brigadier general in April 1953 and permanent major general in July 1954 . In 1955 , he went to Germany as commanding general of VII Corps at Stuttgart , and was promoted to temporary general in May 1956 . From 1956 to 1957 , General Decker was deputy commander - in - chief of the United States European Command at its headquarters in Rocquencourt , outside Paris , France . From 1957 to 1959 he was commander - in - chief , United Nations Command , and commanding general , United States Forces , Korea and Eighth U . S . Army . General Decker was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the Army in 1959 , and on October 1 , 1960 became Chief of Staff of the Army , serving in that capacity until September 30 , 1962 . According to his Army biography , highlights of his tenure were supervising augmentations to meet the crisis in Berlin ( surrounding the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 ) , increasing special warfare forces , initiating new divisional and forward depot concepts , and expanding the Army to sixteen divisions . General Decker retired at the end of his tenure . Awards and decorations . General Decker ' s awards and decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal ( with one Oak Leaf Cluster ) , the Silver Star , the Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star .