McNair, Lesley James

McNair, Lesley James (1883–1944) U.S. army officer. Born in Minnesota, McNair graduated from West Point in 1904 with a commission in the artillery. He took part in the occupation of Veracruz in 1914 and the Mexican Punitive Expedition. He finished World War I as a temporary brigadier general on the staff of General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces. After a tour as commandant of the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, he took a position on the army staff responsible for the training, organization, and mobilization of the expanding force. When the army command structure was reorganized in March 1942 Lt. Gen. McNair became commander of Army Ground Forces, where he was responsible for many key training and organizational innovations that shaped the American Army that fought in World War II. In June 1944 he went to England as commander of an imaginary army group as part of the deception plan for the Normandy invasion. He was killed by a short American bomb while observing the air attack that launched Operation Cobra and the breakout from Normandy, the highest ranking American officer ever killed in action. He was promoted posthumously to full general in 1945.