National Football Foundation

Raised in a military family, Douglas MacArthur was valedictorian and starting quarterback at the West Texas Military Academy, and First Captain at West Point, where he graduated top of the class of 1903.  During the 1914 United States occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission, for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. In 1917, he was promoted from major to colonel and became chief of staff of the Rainbow Division. During World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times.

From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and then was assigned to the Philippines in 1924. A year later, he became the army’s youngest major general, and was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Army in 1930. He retired from the U.S. Army in 1937 to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines, but was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of United States Armed Forces in the Far East.

For his defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor. After more than two years of fighting in the Pacific, he fulfilled a promise to return to the Philippines. He officially accepted Japan's surrender in 1945, and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry Truman in 1951. MacArthur died in 1964 at the age of 84.