He graduated from there on April 20, 1917, two weeks after theĪmerican entry into World War I, and received his commission as a second lieutenant in the Infantry Branch of the United States Army. At West Point he served as a manager of the football team. Ridgway failed the entrance exam the first time due to his inexperience with mathematics, but after intensive self-study he succeeded the second time. He later remarked that his "earliest memories are of guns and marching men, of rising to the sound of the reveille gun and lying down to sleep at night while the sweet, sad notes of 'Taps' brought the day officially to an end." He graduated in 1912 from English High School in Boston and applied to United States Military Academy at West Point because he thought that would please his father (who was a West Point graduate). He lived in various military bases all throughout his childhood. Ridgway was born March 3, 1895, in Fort Monroe, Virginia, to Colonel Thomas Ridgway, an artillery officer, and Ruth Starbuck (Bunker) Ridgway. 6.2 International and foreign orders, decorations and medals.6.1 United States badges, decorations and medals.6 Orders, decorations, medals and badges.2.7 Chief of Staff of the United States Army.His long military career was recognized by the award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 12, 1986, by President Ronald Reagan, who stated that: "Heroes come when they're needed great men step forward when courage seems in short supply." Ridgway died in 1993 at the age of 98. Eisenhower to refrain from direct military intervention in the First Indochina War to support French colonial forces, thereby essentially delaying the United States' Vietnam War by over a decade. Several historians have credited Ridgway for turning the war around in favor of the UN side. Ridgway held several major commands after World War II and was most famous for resurrecting the United Nations (UN) war effort during the Korean War. He held the latter post until the end of the war in mid-1945, commanding the corps in the Battle of the Bulge, Operation Varsity and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Although he saw no service in World War I, he was intensively involved in World War II, where he was the first Commanding General (CG) of the 82nd "All American" Airborne Division, leading it in action in Sicily, Italy and Normandy, before taking command of the newly formed XVIII Airborne Corps in August 1944. ![]() ![]() ![]() General Matthew Bunker Ridgway (Ma– July 26, 1993) was a senior officer in the United States Army, who served as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (1952–1953) and the 19th Chief of Staff of the United States Army (1953–1955).
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