George H. Weems

Brigadier General George Hatton Weems, chief of the United States Representation on the Allied Control Commission
for Hungary, Budapest, was born at Southside, Tennessee, on September 27, 1891. He attended Waverly High School
(Tennessee), and Southwestern Presbyterian University in Clarksville, Tennessee.

General Weems was graduated from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in the first war class, April 20, 1917,
just two weeks after the United States entered World War I. He was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry
and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on May 15, 1917. He was assigned as a temporary Captain on August 5, 1917.
He sailed for France in September of that year as commander of a machine gun company in the Ninth Infantry
of the Second Division.

Weems saw action at Verdun and Chateau Thierry sectors and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (D. S. C.)
after the capture of Vaux. During the latter part of the war he served as an instructor at the officer Candidate School at Langres,
France. He rejoined his regiment on December 13, 1918, and served with the Army of Occupation of Germany until July 19, 1919.
On May 5, 1919 he was promoted to the temporary rank of Major, which he accepted on May 6 of that year. He was promoted
to Captain in the Regular Army on September 9, 1919. On June 30, 1920 he was honorably discharged from his temporary rank,
and reverted back to the rank of Captain. In addition to the D. S. C. Weems was awarded the Silver Star,
French Croix de guerre with Corps Citation, and the order of the Crown of Italy.

Back in the United States he served at Camp Travis, Texas, for a short time and then went to the Infantry School at Fort Benning,
Georgia, as a student and instructor. He remained at the school for three years and in 1923 was assigned to Davidson College
(North Carolina) as professor of Military Science and Tactics. General Weems remained there four years after which he attended
and was graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in 1928.

Weems was assigned to West Point as an instructor in tactics during 1928 and 1929. From there he went to Langley Field, Virginia,
as an instructor in the Air Corps Tactical School. In 1932 he organized the G.H. Weems Educational Fund to aid
deserving students who are unable to finance their college education. He was promoted to Major on December 1, 1932 and
graduated from the Army War College in 1934. That year he also attended the Chemical Warfare School, Field Officer's Course.

From 1935-1939 he was Plans and Training Officer for the Second Division at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He was appointed
head of the United States Military Mission to Haiti in 1939 and was director of Haiti’s Military Academy for two years.
For his service he was awarded the Haitian Medal, Honeur et Merite, the highest medal of the Haitian Republic.

Weems was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on July 1, 1940. On January 9, 1941 he was promoted to the temporary rank
of Colonel in the Army of the United States (AUS), which he accepted on January 15. The position was vacated on
June 14, 1941. He was again promoted to temporary Colonel (AUS) on December 1941, which he accpeted on December 13.

In 1941 Weems was assigned to the command of the 22nd Infantry, Fourth Motorized Division, then at Camp Gordon,
and attended the Infantry School as Assistant Commandant in March 1942. As Assistant Commandant at the Infantry School,
Weems was instrumental in training more than 60,000 young Second Lieutenants of Infantry, as well as thousands of officers
and enlisted personnel. On September 10, 1942 he was given the temporary rank of Brigadier General (AUS).

During the winter of 1944-1945, General Weems was sent to the European theater on a special mission for the War Department.
He was in the Philippines in 1945 on another special mission for the War Department and was in Manila on V-J Day.
He was promoted to Colonel in the Regular Army on December 28, 1945.

Upon his return from the Philippines he headed the Board of Officers at Camp Blanding, Florida, to interview applicants
for the regular allied Control commission for Hungary where he succeeded his good friend Major General William S. Key.
From 1945-1947 Weems served as a member of the Allied Control Council for Hungary and as Provost Marshal of Germany.

In 1949 he was appointed Chief of the Georgia Military District. On September 30, 1951 Weems retired from the Regular Army
with the rank of Brigadier General. He died on February 25, 1957, at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

Other decorations held by General Weems are the Legion of Merit, the Order of Merit from Brazil,
and the Order of Condor of the Andes, Bolivia.

the Tennessee State Library and Archives, where the George Hatton Weems Papers, 1912-1957
are part of the State of Tennessee Department of State Collections.

Official Army Register 1941
Official Army Register 1944
Official Army Register 1949
Official Army Register 1951
Official Army Register 1958

The above graphic for George Hatton Weems illustrates his service from 1913 to 1920.

The following citations are from the Military Times Hall of Valor website,
and incorrectly give George Weems' middle name as "Hamilton".
His correct middle name is Hatton.

The obituary for George H. Weems,
published in the Stewart Houston Times,
Dover, TN. March 5, 1957.

From the Find A Grave website:

Find A Grave

The grave marker for Brigadier General Weems in Arlington Cemetery
photo by Russ Jacobs, from the Find A Grave website: Find A Grave