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  • Father of US Armored Forces
  • Namesake : Chaffee M-24 US Army Light Tank
  • Namesake : Fort Chaffee, Arkansas
  • Major General of U.S.Army
  • Veteran - World War I

Biography

Maj Gen Adna Chaffee II was born 23 September 1884 in Junction City, Geary County, Kansas, United States to Adna Romanza Chaffee (1842-1914) and Annie Francis Rockwell (1846-1921) and died 22 August 1941 Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States of unspecified causes. He married Ethel Warren Huff (1888-1945) 15 December 1908 in Fort Riley, Geary County, Kansas.

Adna Romanza Chaffee Jr. was a major general in the United States Army, called the "Father of the Armored Force" for his role in developing the U.S. Army's tank forces.

Chaffee was born in Junction City, Kansas, on September 23, 1884 to his father, Lieutenant General Adna R. Chaffee, and mother, Annie Francis Rockwell. He was commissioned as a Lieutenant of Cavalry in 1906 following his graduation from the United States Military Academy. He was 31st out of 78 pupils in his class. Chaffee learned to ride on horseback from a young age, and would later receive recognition as "the Army's finest horseman".

Upon his father's death in 1914, he became an Hereditary First Class Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.

WWI Veteran

In World War I, he was an Infantry Major with the IV Corps during the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. As a Colonel, he later served with the III Corps throughout the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.


US Armored Forces

Following the war, he returned to his Regular Army rank of Captain of Cavalry and became an instructor at the General Staff School and the Army School of the Line at Fort Leavenworth. During the 1920s, he helped develop the armor concepts and doctrine of the future. He predicted in 1927 that mechanized armies would dominate the next war and assisted in the first program for the development of a U.S. Army armored force. Assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division in 1931, he continued to develop and experiment with armored forces, thus becoming the leading American advocate of mechanized warfare.

In 1938, he assumed command of the reorganized 7th Cavalry Brigade, the Army's only armored force. Chaffee battled continuously during the prewar years for suitable equipment and for establishment of armored divisions. With the collapse of the French Army in June 1940, Chaffee's 1927 predictions of the importance of armored forces in modern warfare were confirmed.

Chaffee died of cancer on August 22, 1941, in Boston, Massachusetts.


Children


Offspring of Maj Gen Adna Chaffee II and Ethel Warren Huff (1888-1945)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Adna Romanza Chaffee (1910-1978)



Siblings


Offspring of Adna Romanza Chaffee (1842-1914) and Lucinda Kate Haynie (1843-1869)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Baby Chaffee (1868-1869)
Baby Chaffee (1869-1869)


Offspring of Adna Romanza Chaffee (1842-1914) and Annie Francis Rockwell (1846-1921)
Name Birth Death Joined with
Kate Grace Chaffee (1876-1955)
Mabel Chaffee (1877-1878)
Adna Romanza Chaffee (1884-1941) 23 September 1884 Junction City, Geary County, Kansas, United States 22 August 1941 Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States Ethel Warren Huff (1888-1945)
Helen Valentine Chaffee (1888-)


References


Residences

Footnotes (including sources)

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