Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born on October 14, 1890, in Denison, Texas. His parents, David Jacob Eisenhower and Ida Stover Eisenhower, were a deeply religious couple who belonged to a Protestant sect called the River Brethren. Dwight had two older brothers, Arthur and Edgar, and three younger ones, Roy, Earl, and Milton. As a baby, his family moved to Abilene, Kansas where Dwight’s father worked in a creamery. During that time, the sons raised and sold vegetables and found a variety of other jobs to contribute to household expenses (2, Ambrose). Dwight, often nicknamed “Little Ike'; to distinguish him from “Big Ike';, his brother Edgar, impressed his fellow students. Predictions that appeared in their high school yearbook saw Dwight becoming a history professor and Edgar, interestingly, President of the United States (146, Richardson).

After high school, Dwight worked full-time at the creamery and helped pay for some of Edgar’s college expenses (12, Ambrose). Dwight never thought about a higher education until a friend persuaded him to apply to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He received an appointment to the academy by Senator Joseph Bristow of Kansas where later he played for the academy’s football team (16, Ambrose). A knee injury forced him to quit and end his hopes of being a star halfback. In 1915, Eisenhower graduated from the academy and the Army assigned him to Fort Sam Houston, where he held the rank of second lieutenant.

While coaching sports teams when off duty at Fort Sam Houston, he met Mamie Geneva Doud, a visitor from Denver, and started taking her to social gatherings at the base. On July 1, 1916, the day of his promotion to first lieutenant, Dwight and Mamie were married. The young couple had their first son, Doud Dwight Eisenhower, died of scarlet fever at three years old. Later, the Eisenhowers had a second son, John Sheldon Doud Eisenhower who later became an Army officer and diplomat (147, Richardson).

In Eisenhower’s commission, he directed tank training programs for officers and recruits at Camp Colt, located at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After World War I, Eisenhower served as one of Brigadier General Fox Conner’s staff officers. Conner’s self-discipline and attention to detail impressed Eisenhower. Conner supported Eisenhower in his admission to the Army’s “leadership factory.'; In 1926, Eisenhower graduated first in his class of 275 top Army officers who survived a highly demanding training in tactics and various other military skills.