United States Army General. He began his military career when he left his home in Steuben County, Indiana, to join the National Guard. There he won election to First Lieutenant just as his unit was called for duty in 1916 along the Mexican border. In October of 1917 he was promoted to Captain in the Guard, but was commissioned in the regular Army in 1920. He entered the Command and General Staff School in August of 1931, despite the loss of vision in his left eye from being struck by a mallet during a polo match in 1927. He completed study at the Army War College in 1933 and reported for duty as Secretary to the Joint Army and Navy Selective Service Committee in 1936. His first assignment was planning for a possible wartime mobilization of manpower. One result of his committee's work was passage of the Selective Training and Service Act in 1940. In July 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt apppointed him, (now a Brigadier General), to be Director of the Selective Service System, a position he held for nearly 30 years. Under his system, 13 million men were drafted during World War II. After the war when the draft laws expired, he, (now a Major General), remained as Director of Selective Service Records and dedicated himself to the planning of future mobilization. Because of threats by the Soviet Union and other potential adversaries, the Selective Service System was reestablished in 1948 and did not again expire during his tenure in the Army. The large scale drafting of young men was renewed during the Korean War in the early 1950s, but it was not until the escalation of the war in Vietnam in the mid-1960s that his position became controversial. Then in his midseventies, his support for restricted deferments, his advanced age, and his strong support of the Vietnam War made him an issue in the 1968 presidential campaign. Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey threatened to fire him and Republican Richard Nixon considered the General a political liability. After Nixon was elected, he removed him as Director of the Selective Service but named him a presidential advisor on manpower and promoted him to full General. This promotion made him the first full General never to have served in combat. Because he refused to retire on his own, the army retired him in April 1973 after 62 years of active duty. He died four years later.