Ewart G. Plank

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Ewart Gladstone Plank
Officer of the Legion of Honor
(France)
  • Distinguished Service Medal (Greece)

    • Major General Ewart Gladstone Plank (4 November 1897 – 2 September 1982) was a United States Army career officer who was a veteran of World War I and World War II. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he was ranked 44th in the class of 1920. He was commissioned in the Coast Artillery Corps, but later transferred to the Corps of Engineers. During World War II he commanded the Advance Section, Communications Zone (ADSEC).

    Early life

    Ewart Gladstone Plank was born in Garden City, Missouri, on 4 November 1897, the son of Ulysses and Emma Plank née Zeigler. He had an older sister, Elizabeth. The family moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he entered the University of Kansas in 1915, and joined the Kansas National Guard. In 1917, he was called to active duty for World War I, and served in the ranks in France with the 137th Infantry Regiment, part of the 35th Division.

    At West Point in 1920

    However, he returned to the United States on being appointed to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, which he entered on 17 June 1918. He became an editor of the annual yearbook, The Howitzer.[1][2]

    The class of 1920 was initially supposed to graduate after one year, but the end of the war led to it being extended. The class was given the option of graduating after three years instead of just two. None did however, and the entire class graduated on 15 June 1920.[3] Plank was ranked 44th in the class.[4]

    He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps on 2 July 1920, and promoted to first lieutenant the same day. To give seniority to reserve officers who had served overseas and wished to take a regular commission, the new graduates' commissioning had been delayed by seventeen days. The army paid them in the interim, despite a Government Accountability Office ruling that they were not entitled to it.[5]

    Between the wars

    Plank transferred to the

    McCook Field, Ohio, where he was involved in aerial survey and mapping.[4] If any members of the class of 1920 thought that things could not get worse, they were wrong; on 15 December 1922, the whole class was demoted to the rank of second lieutenant.[5]

    On 28 March 1925, Plank was promoted to first lieutenant again. He attended the Air Corps Primary Flying School at

    Fort Sam Houston, Texas, but moved to Fort Logan, Colorado on 5 August 1927. His next assignment was with the 11th Engineer Regiment in the Panama Canal Zone, and he was involved in survey work in Nicaragua.[4] He married Doris Reed from Denver at Corozal in the Panama Canal Zone on 2 December 1927. They had one child, a daughter, Jacqueline, who was born in 1935.[2]

    Returning to the United States in 1930, Plank was assigned to the Office of the District Engineer at

    captain on 1 August 1935.[6]

    World War II

    Airbase construction

    Between 1 September 1939 and 4 February 1940, Plank attended the

    Quartermaster Corps. Major Henry F. Hannis, a fellow member of the class of 1920 and a fellow graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, served as the liaison with the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC).[7][8][9]

    "When we took over the air force construction from the Quartermaster, it was just simple chaos," Plank later noted.[10] The Quartermaster Corps handed over blueprints and designs for airbases, but not basic engineering data and criteria for the design of paved runways, and designs for specialized Air Corps facilities was often lacking.[11] Plank had to build a new organisation from scratch; it grew to a hundred people in six months. The effort was made possible through decentralization, with Plank leveraging the Corps of Engineers' division and district offices, who were given permission to approve contracts of up to $500,000 and $100,000 respectively.[10] The head of the Air Corps' Building and Grounds Division, Colonel Frank M. Kennedy, had a policy of accepting tracts of land donated by local authorities for airbase construction. "How old do you have to be," Plank asked rhetorically, "to know what kind of land you get under those circumstances?"[12]

    Planned increases in the size of the size of the Air Corps expanded the program. A goal was announced of expanding the Air Corps to 84 groups, fed by a training program that would turn out 30,000 pilots a year. This necessitated the construction of two dozen new installations.[13] By November 1941 the airbase construction program had grown to $708 million and was 66 percent complete, and airmen were occupying new facilities at 96 stations.[14] On 16 December, all military construction, not just airbases, was assigned to the Corps of Engineers.[15] The former Quartermaster Construction Division was merged with the groups engaged in construction at the Corps of Engineers. Plank was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Army of the United States (AUS) on 11 December 1941,[16] and became the head of Air Corps Projects Section, and now reported to Colonel Leslie Groves.[7][17] That same day saw the German declaration of war against the United States, just four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

    European Theater

    On 9 May 1942, Plank became the deputy chief of staff of the new European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) Services of Supply, under the command of Major General John C. H. Lee. Plank was promoted to colonel (AUS) on 1 July 1942,[16] and on 20 August he became chief of staff of the Eastern Base Section in the UK, which, due to its relative flatness and proximity to Germany, was chiefly involved in the construction and support of airbases. He succeeded Colonel Cecil R. Moore as its commander on 16 September.[7][18] His permanent (Regular Army) rank of major was upgraded to lieutenant colonel on 2 July 1943.[16]

    Experience in Italy demonstrated the value of a logistical agency that worked closely with the army it was supporting, so in December 1943 an

    First Army, and would later take over the operation of base areas, supply dumps and communications from the First Army as it moved forward.[19] Plank was promoted to brigadier general (AUS) on 24 February 1944,[20][16] and was awarded the Legion of Merit for his services as commander of the Eastern Base Section.[21]

    As the commander of ADSEC, Plank supported the operations of the First Army and then the

    Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, it ran the Red Ball Express.[27] When the Germans attacked in the Ardennes Offensive, ADSEC removed supplies from dumps and depots that were threatened, and supported the Third Army's counter-offensive.[28] By this time, ADSEC was supporting over a million soldiers.[29] "I do not care who is right or who is wrong," Plank told his troops, "the point is that we have to satisfy our customers and do so in a way which pleases them."[30]

    For his service as commander of ADSEC, Plank was awarded the

    Officer of the Legion of Honor by France.[7][31]

    Post-war

    Plank was promoted to

    Fort Eustis, Virginia. His last command was of the New York Port of Embarkation, from 7 June 1946 to 31 May 1949, when he retired. He was reduced in his Regular Army rank to brigadier general on 24 January 1948[16] but was promoted to major general again in retirement on 1 June 1949.[7][16][32][33]

    In retirement, Plank became the deputy director of the Department of Finance, Support and Administrative Services of the

    Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University.[34]

    Dates of rank

    Insignia Rank Component Date Reference
    		Second lieutenant Coast Artillery Corps 2 July 1920 [4]
    		First lieutenant Coast Artillery Corps 2 July 1920 [4]
    		First lieutenant Corps of Engineers 4 September 1920 [4]
    		Second lieutenant Corps of Engineers 15 December 1922 [4]
    		First lieutenant Corps of Engineers 28 March 1925 [4]
    		Captain Corps of Engineers 1 August 1935 [6]
    		Major Corps of Engineers 1 July 1940 [6]
    		Lieutenant colonel Army of the United States 11 December 1941 [7]
    		Colonel Army of the United States 1 July 1942 [7]
    		Lieutenant colonel Corps of Engineers 2 July 1943 [7]
    		Brigadier general Army of the United States 24 February 1944 [7]
    		Major general Army of the United States 7 June 1945 [7]
    		Brigadier general Regular Army 24 January 1948 [7]
    		Brigadier general Retired List 31 May 1949 [7]
    		Major general Retired List 1 June 1949 [7]

    Notes

    1. ^ Ancell & Miller 1996, p. 260.
    2. ^
      ISSN 1041-2581
      . Retrieved 22 July 2020.
    3. ^ Binder 1997, pp. 30–31.
    4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cullum 1930, pp. 1565–1566.
    5. ^ a b Binder 1997, pp. 34–35.
    6. ^ a b c d Cullum 1940, p. 461.
    7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cullum 1950, p. 342.
    8. ^ Cullum 1930, pp. 1552–1553.
    9. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, pp. 267–268.
    10. ^ a b Fine & Remington 1972, pp. 440–441.
    11. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, p. 444.
    12. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, p. 443.
    13. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, p. 451.
    14. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, p. 459.
    15. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, p. 476.
    16. ^ a b c d e f g "Biography of Major General Ewart Gladstone Plank (1897−1982), USA". generals.dk.
    17. ^ Fine & Remington 1972, p. 486.
    18. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 73, 86, 101, 169.
    19. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 211–213.
    20. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, p. 220.
    21. ^ a b c "Ewart Plank – Recipient". Military Times. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
    22. ^ a b Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 393–396.
    23. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 444–445.
    24. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 544–547.
    25. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, p. 552.
    26. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 500–501.
    27. ^ Ruppenthal 1953, pp. 558–563.
    28. ^ Ruppenthal 1959, pp. 181–186.
    29. ^ Ruppenthal 1959, p. 189.
    30. ^ Ruppenthal 1959, p. 350.
    31. ^ "Recommendation for Award for Plank, Ewart G Rank: Brigadier General". The National Archives. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
    32. ^ Plank & Lastayo 1948, pp. 7–10, 45–46.
    33. ^ "An Act To provide for the elimination of Regular Army and Regular Air Force officers and for the retirement of officers, warrant officers, and enlisted men of the Regular Army and the Regular Air Force, and to provide retirement benefits for members of the Reserve components of the Army of the United States, the Air Force of the United States, United States Navy and Marine Corps, and Coast Guard" (PDF). Library of Congress. 29 June 1948. Retrieved 31 July 2020.
    34. ^ "Overview of the Ewart G. Plank papers". Online Archives of California. Retrieved 29 July 2020.

    References

    External links
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