West Point 1915: Eisenhower, Bradley, and the Class the Stars Fell On Hardcover – October 17, 2014

A youthful Dwight Eisenhower poses in West Point cadet uniform for his graduation portrait. Popular among his fellow cadets, Eisenhower delighted in mischief and received a large number of demerits during his four years at the Academy. He ranked ninety-fifth in conduct and graduated sixty-first in the Class of 1915. US Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

and Museum.

Members of the 1912 West Point football team gather on the field with Cullum Hall looming in the background. Members of the class of 1915

include Dwight Eisenhower, second from left; Louis Merillat, seventh from left, wearing an A sweater; Omar Bradley, second from right; and Leland Hobbs at far right, wearing an A sweater. The 1912 football team finished the season with a 5–3 record, losing to Yale, Carlisle Institute, and Navy. Library of Congress.

Returning from mess, cadets march past the Academic Building on the campus of the United States Military Academy. Designed by Richard Morris Hunt, the foremost American architect of the nineteenth century, the structure is also referred to as the West Academic Building. Occupied in 1895, the Academic Building combines elements of the old library and barracks. Library of Congress.

Major Leland Hobbs was serving as a personnel officer in Washington, D.C., when he posed for this photograph in 1929. The 1915 Howitzer yearbook noted that Hobbs “gave no display of athletic ability” during his high school days. At West Point, however, Hobbs lettered in football, basketball, and baseball during each of his four years. He graduated forty-sixth in the class of 1915, rose to the rank of major general, and

commanded the 30th Infantry Division during heavy fighting in Normandy in World War II.

National Archives and Records Administration.

General Eisenhower (left) and US ground forces commander Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley (center) confer with Maj. Gen. J. Lawton Collins (right), commander of the US VII Corps, in France on July 4, 1944. At the time of the meeting,

Allied troops were engaged in fierce fighting against determined German resistance in Normandy. At the end of July, the Allies launched Operation Cobra, resulting in a breakout from the Norman hedgerow country. US Army, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum.

Commander of the US Eighth Army in Korea Gen. James Van Fleet is shown with his

four-star rank and the Eighth Army patch emblazoned on his helmet. Among the general’s prominent decorations are the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and the ribbons to the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. George C. Marshall Foundation.