Walter Short

Walter Campbell Short (March 30, 1880 – September 3, 1949) was a lieutenant general (temporary rank) and major general of the United States Army and the U.S. military commander responsible for the defense of U.S. military installations in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Short was born in 1880 in Fillmore, Illinois. The son of a doctor, he graduated from the University of Illinois in 1901. He then taught mathematics for a year at a military academy. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in the U.S. Army on March 13, 1902, and assigned duty at the Presidio of San Francisco. He served in the Philippines and later Alaska, and took part in the expedition into Mexico with the 16th Infantry Regiment in 1916. During World War I, he served on the general staff of the 1st Division and as assistant chief of staff for the 3rd Army. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts during the war. The citation for the medal reads: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Infantry) Walter Campbell Short, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. Attached to the Fifth Section, General Staff, General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, Colonel Short rendered conspicuous service in inspecting and reporting upon front-line conditions pertaining to the work of his section. During the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne operations of the 1st Army Corps, he efficiently directed the instruction and training of machine-gun units at every available opportunity during rest periods.