General Eisenhower's rise to fame during World War II was meteoric: a lieutenant colonel in 1941, he was a five-star general in 1945. As supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, he commanded the most powerful force ever assembled under one man. He is one of the few generals ever to command major naval forces; he directed the world's greatest air force; he is the only man ever to command successfully an integrated, multinational alliance of ground, sea, and air forces. He was responsible for the success of the Normandy invasion, and held together the Allied units through the European campaign that followed, concentrating everyone's attention on the defeat of Nazi Germany, completed on May 8, 1945. He was one of five World War II Army generals to achieve five-star rank.
General Eisenhower is wearing the M1944 Field Jacket. To the troops it was known as the "ETO" (European Theater of Operations) Jacket, or even more popularly as the "Ike Jacket." This olive-drab wool field jacket was fashioned after a British battle-dress jacket which Eisenhower admired and had reproduced for his personal use. The jacket was originally intended for winter wear; to be worn under the M1943 field jacket. In practice, the jacket was most frequently not worn in combat, but saved for wear in the rest areas. |
