Amos Fries Amos Alfred Fries was a general in the United States Army and 1898 graduate of the United States Military Academy . Fries was the second chief of the army ' s Chemical Warfare Service , established during World War I . Fries served under John J . Pershing in the Philippines and oversaw the construction of the roads and bridges in Yellowstone National Park . He eventually became an important commander in World War I . After he retired from the Army in 1929 , Fries wrote two anti - communist books . He died in 1963 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Early life . Amos Alfred Fries was born March 17 , 1873 in Viroqua , Wisconsin . His family moved to Missouri after he was born and then moved to Oregon . Fries earned an appointment to the United States Military Academy and graduated there in 1898 . Military career . After graduating West Point Fries joined the Army Corps of Engineers and served in the Philippines during the Philippine - American War . During that time he saw combat under the leadership of Captain John J . Pershing , later the American Expeditionary Force s ( AEF ) commander during World War I . From 1914 to 1917 Fries oversaw the construction of roads and bridges in Yellowstone National Park ; he gained some notoriety for that work . Fries arrived in Europe as World War I raged , he expected to do more engineering work but was instead thrust into heading the fledgling Gas Service Section , AEF . The Gas Service Section was mostly constituted by the 1st Gas Regiment ( originally the 30th Engineer Regiment ( Gas and Flame ) ) and Fries commanded the section . He became the chief of the Overseas Division of the Chemical Warfare Service in 1919 , and when William L . Sibert resigned in 1920 Fries became the first peacetime overall chief of the Chemical Warfare Service . He served at that post until he retired from the Army in 1929 . For his work with the Chemical Warfare Service he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal . Anti - communism . During the " interwar period " , the Chemical Warfare Service maintained its arsenal despite public pressure and presidential wishes in favor of disarmament . Fries viewed calls for chemical disarmament as a Communist plot . As CWS chief , Fries was assigned to a military intelligence unit monitoring domestic subversion . Fries accused the National Council for Prevention of War ( NCPW ) of being a Communist front . He also leveled similar accusations at Florence Watkins , the executive secretary of the National Congress of Parent Teacher Associations . The pressure generated by Fries ' accusations led to the National Congress of Parent Teacher Associations withdrawing its membership in the NCPW . The General Federation of Women ' s Clubs took the same action . In 1923 Fries ' office distributed a " spider chart " to " patriotic groups " across the United States . The chart intended to show that all women ' s societies and church groups be regarded with suspicion concerning links to radical groups and Communist leadership . The spider chart listed 21 individual women and 17 organizations , among them the Daughters of the American Revolution . Later in his life , Fries wrote two anti - communist books , " Communism Unmasked " , published in 1937 , and " Sugar Coating Communism " . Later life and death . Fries died on December 30 , 1963 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery .