Alvan Cullom Gillem Jr.

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Alvan Cullom Gillem Jr. (August 8, 1888 – February 13, 1973) was a U.S. Army lieutenant general who served in World War I, the Russian Civil War, and World War II. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he studied at the University of Arizona and Sewanee before joining the Regular Army in 1910. He became a second lieutenant in 1911 and fought in the Philippines and on the Mexican border under Pershing in 1916. In World War I he served with American forces in Siberia (1918–1919).

Between wars he attended the Command and General Staff College (1923) and the Army War College (1925) and taught military science at the University of Maryland (1930–1935) and at the Infantry School.

Promoted to brigadier general in 1941, he commanded the 2nd Armored Brigade and became the first commander of the 3rd Armored Division, the “Spearhead” division. He later held key armored and corps commands, including II Armored Corps (later XVIII Corps) and the Armored Command at Fort Knox. From September 1944 to September 1945 he led the XIII Corps of the Ninth Army in Europe, and in June 1945 he was promoted to lieutenant general. His corps traveled within about 50 miles of Berlin.

After World War II he chaired the Board for Utilization of Negro Manpower (Gillem Board) from 1945 to 1946, which supported segregation but urged equal opportunity. He testified before the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services (1949–1950). He commanded the U.S. Third Army from 1947 and helped with postwar duties in China before retiring in 1950.

In the 1960s he worked as executive director of the March of Dimes. Gillem died in Atlanta in 1973 at age 84 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. He was married to Virginia Harrison; they had three children, including Alvan II, a lieutenant general in the Air Force. His grandfather, Alvan Cullem Gillem, was a Civil War general.