James Van Fleet

James Van Fleet — James Alward Van Fleet — four-star U.S. Army general who commanded troops in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, died at his ranch near Polk City, Florida, on September 23, 1992. He was one hundred. Born March 19, 1892, in Coytesville, New Jersey, and raised in Florida, he graduated from West Point in the class of 1915 — the same legendary cohort that produced Eisenhower and Bradley — and spent a career that stretched from Meuse-Argonne trenches to the hills above the 38th parallel. In Europe he led the 8th Infantry Regiment onto Utah Beach and later commanded the III Corps and other formations through the breakout from Normandy and into Germany. In Greece after the war he advised the government during the civil conflict; in Korea he took command of the Eighth Army in 1951 and pressed a grinding war of ridgelines and artillery until armistice talks reshaped the mission. Soldiers remembered a direct commander who visited the line and disliked theatrical briefings. Polk City and the Florida citrus country were the quiet last chapter after decades of maps and cables. He lived to see the Cold War end and still answered mail about Korea with the bluntness of a man who had walked the ground. He died near Polk City on September 23, 1992. Unit histories still carry his name across three American wars. Van Fleet's gift was durable field command — holding cohesion when campaigns turned from parade to attrition. Notice Nearby keeps the death date so September 23 remembers the New Jersey-born, Florida-raised general who served from the Great War to Korea and lived a full century.