Z 1852.000 Conner (Fox) Papers

Biography.

Fox Conner entered the Army Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1905, graduating in 1906. In 1907, he began a four-year assignment on the Army General Staff in Washington, D.C., that included teaching responsibilities at the Army War College. Conner graduated from the Army War College in 1908. He also has the distinction of being the first American military officer to be assigned to a French artillery regiment, serving from 1911 to 1912. Fox Conner was commissioned a major in 1916, a lieutenant colonel in 1917, a colonel (temporary) also in 1917, and a brigadier general (temporary) in 1918. He returned to the rank of colonel in 1920.

During World War I, Fox Conner was assistant chief of staff operations for the American Expeditionary Force from 1917 to 1919. He was also a leading military advisor of General John J. Pershing. Conner was later promoted to chief of staff, American Expeditionary Force; and during 1919 and 1920, he authored the American Expeditionary Force after-action report for World War I in which he stated that another war with Germany was probably inevitable. Fox Conner was permanently commissioned a brigadier general in 1921. He was ordered to Panama to command the Twentieth Infantry Brigade at Camp Gaillard. While in Panama, he recognized the extraordinary ability of Dwight David Eisenhower, and he began to groom him for higher military service. Eisenhower was later to become Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II. Conner served as assistant chief of staff for supply and deputy chief of staff for the United States Army in Washington, D.C., from 1924 to 1927. He was commissioned a major general in 1925. Conner served as commanding general, Hawaiian Division and Hawaiian Department, Hawaii, from 1927 to 1930. Fox Conner's last military appointment was as commanding general, First Corps Area, Boston, Massachusetts, from 1930 to 1938. He died in Washington, D.C., on October 13, 1951, and he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

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