Note: This story was writen in 1994 as a school report. I was only in 7th grade so pardon the not so easy flow of it. Most of the information was obtained from books and some from word of mouth. Edgar Eisenhower is my Great Grandfather. Enjoy.
Ike was born in Denison, Texas on October 14, 1890. His father had moved there from Kansas in the hopes of finding work. But work was scarce and David Eisenhower's family convinced him to return to Kansas. He moved his wife Ida and three sons, Arthur, Edgar, and Dwight back to Abilene, Kansas. In Abilene four more Eisenhower brothers would be born. One of them, Paul, would die at the age of two.
Abilene was divided by the railroad tracks. The wealthy people lived on the north side and the poor people, including the Eisenhowers, lived on the "wrong side of the tracks." The Eisenhower boys stuck together. In October of 1903, when Ike was thirteen, he fought Wes Merrifield. Ike's older brothers had been the street champions before him so it was family pride that led him to this fight. They fought for two hours until a truce was called by Wes. Both of them were exhausted and battered as the fight ended. It took Ike three days before he was in good enough condition to return to school.
Shortly after this fight Ike scraped his knee in a fall. Blood poisoning set in; his left leg began to burn and ache unbearably. The doctor was called, but the leg grew worse, swelling and turning black. The doctor said that it was necessary to amputate the leg to save his life, but Ike refused.
By the forth or fifth day the pain was so terrible that it brought on attacks of delirium. The blackness crept up his leg toward his abdomen. Ike continued to refuse to have his leg amputated. Ike made his older brother Edgar promise to not let the doctor amputate the leg. With tears streaming down his cheeks, Edgar promised. For two days and two nights Edgar stood guard at the door refusing to let the doctor do anything but give Ike medicine. At night he slept in front of the door, blocking it with his body. The whole family prayed.
Ike fell unconscious with a high fever. The doctor warned that if the swelling reached Ike's pelvis death would follow, but Edgar remained loyal to his oath. For tense hours Ike hovered over the delicate line between life and death. Then his fever broke and the swelling and blackness began to subside. Three weeks later he walked out of his room, pale and shaken. To survive on his own terms or not at all, he had defied death. And he won.
Ike and Edgar made another pact. They both wanted to go to college but the family was too poor to help them in any way. They had to help each other. The agreement was that one would go the college one year while the other one worked then they would switch. Edgar went to college at the University of Michigan while Ike worked for a year. Ike discovered that he could receive a free college education by enrolling in West Point. He was 21 when he enrolled at West Point in 1911. He was an excellent football quarterback while he was at West Point. His football career was ended by a knee injury. He graduated in 1915. He was then commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to Fort Sam Houston in Texas. While he was at Fort Sam Houston he met Mamie Doud whom he married in 1916. She was from a wealthy Denver, Colorado family which was quite a contrast from the way Ike was raised.
Eisenhower requested, but did not receive, an overseas combat assignment during World War I. Instead he established himself as a first-rate organizer and trainer of men by serving at several training camps. One of those camps was Camp Colt in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He was to command a new tank training center for ten thousand men. Camp Colt was miserable. Ike was indignant when he found the men hungry because rations had not arrived, and freezing in snowbound tents without stoves. Angrily ordering campfires built, he sent officers out on foraging parties to buy food from the neighboring farmers, along with straw. As a farm boy he knew straw would be warmer to sleep on than cots. His men quickly sensed his real concern for them.
He soon had the camp in trim shape in every way except one. He was expected to teach tank warfare without a single tank, only wooden models. But he did such an outstanding job, and the team spirit of his men was so high, that temporary promotions began to come swiftly. By October, although only 28, Ike had been made a lieutenant colonel. Ike continued to beg his superiors for an overseas assignment but, it was not to happen. He spent all of World War I in the United States.
Ike's next major assignment was as executive officer to General Fox Conner, military commander of the Panama Canal Zone from 1922 through 1924. With Conner's help, he was admitted to the Command and General Staff School, graduating first in his class. He was on the Battle Monuments commission under General John J. Pershing, studied at the Army War College and had a tour of duty in the office of the Assistant Secretary of War (1929-1933).
With the outbreak of World War II, Ike moved rapidly through several staff and command positions. In June 1942 he was sent to England as the U. S. commander in Europe. He led the invasion of North Africa in November of 1942 and on June 6, 1944 he led the Allied invasion of Normandy. Ike was promoted to a five star general, the highest rank in the army, on December 15, 1944, the day before the Battle of the Bulge. On May 8, 1945, the Germans surrendered.
After World War II, Ike retired from the army. He entered civilian life as the President of Columbia University. During the years that followed he was constantly asked to run for President of the United States. At first he declined. Then he decided that there was a job that needed to be done for his country and he was the best person to do it so, he decided to run.
As a Republican Ike felt that he had a better chance of winning the American vote. He was elected by a landslide victory in 1952. In 1953 he was inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States. He was elected for a second term in 1956. Ike considered himself as a middle-of-the-roader. He obtained the passage of two massive public work projects--the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the Interstate Highway system. The economic problems during the eight years Ike was President, damaged confidence in the Republican party but did little damage to the President's own popularity.
Ike retired in 1961 to his farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania where he wrote several books and enjoyed painting. In the winter months he went to Palm Springs, California where he enjoyed golf. During his retirement he received many calls from JFK and Lyndon Johnson asking Ike for advice. The one thing that annoyed Ike the most was the Vietnam War. The war was a political war and not a military strategy war. Soldiers would be told to take a hill and when they had taken it they would be told to leave. Later on they would have to take the same hill again. Ike was asked many times what to do during the war. He would give his advice, but it wouldn't always be taken. He passed away in March of 1969.
Any comments or corrections are welcome.
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