In 1910, Pvt. 1 Alvan Gillem Jr., took the oath of enlistment at Fort McPherson. In 1950, two world wars and several commands later, Gillem retired from the Army as a lieutenant general at Fort McPherson.
For this distinguished war hero, service to his country, from the lowest enlisted rank to one of the highest officer ranks, had literally come full circle, at Fort McPherson.
In 1974, one year after Gillem’s death, his military career was capped off when the Atlanta Army Depot was renamed in his honor.
At the ceremony marking the inactivation of the Army supply depot and the activation of Fort Gillem, Forces Command Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. W.K. Bennet paid homage to Gillem.
“Beginning with his football days as a quarterback at the University of the South and throughout his life, Alvan C. Gillem demonstrated he “would tackle any task, relentlessly pursing his goal until success was attained,” Bennet said.
Gillem was born in Nashville, Tenn., Aug. 8, 1888. He was the son of an Army cavalry colonel and the grandson of a general in the Union Army during the Civil War.
After graduating from high school in 1908, Gillem briefly attended the University of Arizona at Tucson, then transferred to the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn., where he played as an end and quarterback on the 1909 team that won the championship of the South.
The next year, Gillem entered active duty as a private, serving with the 17th Infantry at Fort McPherson for a year. In 1911, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and was assigned to Fort Oglethorpe, Ga. He later transferred to the Philippines for duty with the 12th Infantry at Fort William McKinley.
He and the rest of his machine gun company joined Gen. John. J. Pershing’s brigade on the Mexican border 1914. When war broke out overseas, Gillem deployed to command the “doughboys” in the trenches. During World War I, he served with the 8th Infantry Division in France and the 27th Infantry (Wolfhounds) in Siberia as part of the Allied Expeditionary Force.
In 1926, Gillem was graduated from the Army War College and served tours of duty as a military instructor at the University of Montana in Missoula, Mont., the University of Maryland in College Park, Md., and the Infantry School at Fort Benning.
At this point, Gillem began a period of rapid assignment changes. While at Fort Benning, he assumed command of the 66th Infantry, the Army’s only tank regiment at the time. Eleven months later, he became the commander of the 2nd Armored Brigade at Camp Polk, La. Five months after that, he was appointed commanding general of the 3rd Armored Division, also at Camp Polk.
At his request, Gillem was given tactical command of the XIII Corps in December 1943 and immediately started training his troops for a tank campaign in North Africa. In 1944, he brought his corps to Europe, and within 180 days, his unit had pierced the Germany army and reached the Elbe River in April 1945. He was then within 50 miles of Berlin, the closest American troops came to the Nazi capital before V-E Day.
Gillem’s 300- mile push from Holland to Germany greatly contributed to the Allied victory. Within two weeks of reaching the Elbe, Gillem’s unit linked up with the Soviets and Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies.
After the war, Gillem returned to the Pentagon to become the chairman of the board on the Utilization of Negro Manpower and was highly regarded as one of the earliest champions of equal opportunity in the armed forces.
In 1946, Gen. George Marshall personally summoned Gillem to be his deputy on the Presidential Mission to China. Their task was to try to end the civil strife raging in the country.
Gillem went on to serve there as a special assistant to the commander, U.S. Forces in Nanking, commander of the China Service Command and as the American commissioner in Peking.
After returning to the United States in May 1947, Gillem assumed command of Third U.S. Army at Fort McPherson, a position he held until his retirement in 1950.
After leaving the Army, Gillem became active in the Atlanta community, including serving as the executive director of the National Foundation for the March of Dimes.
After an illustrious military and civil career, Gillem died on Feb. 13, 1973, 16 months after the south of Atlanta military post was given his name.
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