Dwight D. Eisenhower was a career U.S. Army officer who desperately wanted to lead men into combat but who was destined to become a staff officer, whose strategic, logistical, and managerial aptitude caused his rapid elevation, during World War II, to the position of Supreme Allied Commander, Europe. "Ike" Eisenhower was born in Denison, Texas, and raised in Abilene, Kansas. Enrolled in West Point, he graduated in 1915 roughly in the middle of his class. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Eisenhower was not sent to France but was given command of a variety of stateside training missions. He quickly proved himself an extraordinarily efficient administrator and staff officer who worked very well with others and who was especially skilled at managing diverse and discordant personalities. By 1920, Eisenhower had achieved promotion to major, a rapid rise unusual for an officer who had not seen combat duty and downright exceptional in the peacetime army.

In 1922, Eisenhower was posted to Panama, returning to the United States two years later to attend the Command and General Staff School, from which he graduated at the top of his class in 1926. Clearly being groomed for high command, he graduated two years later from the Army War College. From 1933 to 1935, Eisenhower served under General Douglas MacArthur as his chief of staff. Although Eisenhower admired MacArthur, he was disturbed by the overbearing personality and flamboyance of his boss, and it was with some degree of reluctance that he accompanied MacArthur to the Philippines, where MacArthur took charge of building--on a shoestring--an army for the defense of the islands. In 1939, Eisenhower secured MacArthur's approval to return to the United States and what he hoped would be at long last a field command. Indeed, Eisenhower's performance in massive prewar maneuvers during the summer of 1941 earned him widespread notice as well as a promotion to temporary brigadier general in September 1941. A field command was briefly his, but when the United States entered World War II following the Battle of Pearl Harbor, he was recalled to Washington, D.C., as assistant chief of the Army War Plans Division under Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall.

From December 1941 to June 1942, Eisenhower, who was junior to nearly 400 other U.S. Army officers, was a key figure in planning overall U.S. strategy in the war. He was promoted to major general in April 1942 and was named to command the European theater of operations (ETO) on June 25, a promotion not only extraordinary because it was, again, over the heads of more senior commanders, but also because Eisenhower had yet to see any combat in his career. What Marshall and others recognized in Eisenhower, however, was his mastery of "big picture" strategy combined with administrative talent and a high degree of leadership skill. Not least among Ike's qualities was the aura of confidence and openness he projected. This would prove invaluable not only in leading American troops, but in working with Allied commanders at the highest level. Eisenhower's genius for juggling jarring egos and inducing diverse commanders to work well together would become increasingly evident. He recognized, without prejudice, where individual strengths and weaknesses lay, and he integrated operations in ways that maximized strengths while compensating for weaknesses. . .

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