 Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Walter Mathaw. Omar Nelson Bradley, one of our very great soldiers, has been described as a quiet gentleman who might pass for a professor. But there is an unmistakable quality of greatness in his simple manner, his straightforwardness, and his deep concern for humanity. Recognized as a master strategist, he was given command of the forces that spearheaded and carried through to victory the campaigns and the invasion of Hitler's Europe. While the headlines and popular applause fell to others, it was Bradley, the quiet infantryman in his old trench coat trudging through the scot battlefields who held the fate of his soldiers in his hands. When it was over, a grateful chief of staff saluted him with this simple statement, all our confidence in you has been justified. It is with great pride that we present the story of General Omar Nelson Bradley. Years after liberation, flags of many nations stand in harmony with the Palais de Chio, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff arrives to take part with other world leaders in a program of peace based on a union of Western strength, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, soft spoken, honest in his opinion. To his intimates, he is known simply as Brad. To everyone, he is Bradley the soldier, the soldier's general, the personification of a great army, a great nation. With all that he stands for, he has a great destiny in his makeup. He never had it. Even when he moved along the broken paths of mankind's greatest war, he moved as a soldier with a soldier's determination. The strategist, perhaps the greatest in modern warfare, quiet dignity, but he had a punch that packed a terrific wallop. He smashed ahead with a force of almost a million and a quarter men. No American general ever had exercised direct field command over so many combat troops. Here we see him at Berchtesgaden, the mountain retreat of a tyrant who had felt destiny driven to rule the world. With a soldier's determination, Omar Nelson Bradley had won a brilliant campaign. He had come a long way, this general, geographically and otherwise. From the heart of America, from a state that had known many famous Americans, Mark Twain, Champ Clark, George Graham Vest, General Pershing, President Truman. He was to serve as general under not one president, but three. In addition to Harry S. Truman seen here at Potsdam, Germany, there was Dwight D. Eisenhower, his former wartime chief, wartime president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 50 miles from the Missouri River on the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Omar Bradley was born into the home of a poorly paid country school teacher. The year was 1893. In countries such as this, he learned to fish and quail. He became an expert marksman. He was the only child. The name Omar came from a family friend, not the Persian poet. Bradley idolized his father, acquiring from him a way of life. To patch up the family budget, the elder Bradley did some farming. From such roots, the boy learned the meaning of patience. The patience that comes with fishing. Bradley was only 14 when his father died. After high school, what? It was hard to say. He sold newspapers, worked at the Wabash Railroad shops at 17 cents an hour, but a Sunday school teacher suggested West Point. And West Point, it became. The United States Military Academy. Here had studied Lee, Grant, Pershing. The class of 1915 Brad's class was to furnish 56 generals. One could say of Bradley that as the Hudson, a trait that was duly noted by his class biographer. True merit is like a river. The deeper it is, the less noise it makes. This was Bradley. Further of him, his most prominent characteristic is getting there. Just how much prophecy was in this remark. Let us see. In World War I, he commanded an infantry company at the Butte Montana Copper Mines. His own evaluation ruined. The result of the fight. 1920, ordered to West Point as an instructor in mathematics. From 1924 to 1939, Army schools routine duty periods with troops in the United States and Hawaii. Then on to general staff in Washington. Finally, in the early part of 1941, commandant of the infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia. Was he getting there? He was acquiring the reputation of a fine infantry officer. These men did that Bradley couldn't or wouldn't do, for he had great physical endurance. Bradley was in Florida training a division for duty overseas. World War II was in its second year for the United States, and Bradley was to be included in the fight. Word finally came to report to French North Africa, 32 years as a soldier, General George C. Marshall, who had been watching this great infantryman for years. Now as deputy commander and commander of the U.S. Second Corps, he helped push the Tunisian campaign to victory. Commander General Sir Alexander says, well done. Book a soldier's story. Was he getting there? As they would say out in Bradley's country, he fought to beat the band. After Africa, the invasion of Sicily finally took Second Corps into Sicily under General George S. Patton's command. Plans for the channel assault on France were well underway. When General Marshall sent word to Eisenhower, my choice has been Bradley. He meant for Bradley to lead the American forces for the great Normandy invasion. Operation Overlord. Because after the first Allied units hit the Normandy beaches, a man who in the words of General Marshall was fit for any command in the army. Forces together in a beach head 42 miles wide. Climb objective, the port of Cherbourg. First Army pushed ahead. Happy Frenchmen began to breathe the first fresh air of liberation and we began to feel at home. But from getting a harbor, a suitable port for our supplies. For once Bradley made up his mind, he moved swiftly, relentlessly. Was he getting there? Following the battle of Sandlow, he headed the 12th Army Group. As American forces plowed ahead, they moved out of the peninsula. Then toured and beyond Paris. 43 divisions were to be deployed under Bradley's command. The 12th Army Group included General Courtney H. Hodges First Army, General George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army, General William H. Simpson's Ninth Army, and General Leonard T. Jarrows 15th Army. No sit back at headquarters type of general. Bradley inspected a battle in person. Traveling in an ordinary jeep. He was a soldier. He was a soldier. He was a soldier. Traveling in an ordinary jeep. There wasn't a bit of glamour or fanfare in his whole tall, lanky frame. He got the most out of his men by patient goodwill. Through every division commander by his first name. When an officer performed as he expected him to, he gave him a free hand. When he hesitated, he tried to help him. And when he failed, Bradley relieved him and all respected him. Even Patton, Bradley's chief in French North Africa and Sicily, in fact, George S. Patton became one of his closest friends and vice versa. There was a mutual trust. Stout-hearted and confident of result was the way the chief described Bradley. Many battles justified faith in Bradley, but one especially was the big breakout and the breakthrough from a peninsula. One of the most decisive battles of Bradley's military career. The Nazi Wehrmacht, freedom soil, a way to Paris. As he fell, the liberation of France lay only days away. That the Bradley breakthrough work was due to a soldier's determination. He looked like that. He had waited for his chief. Bradley was to receive many decorations as well as honorary degrees from universities. Someone has said of Bradley that he always behaves as though he were a civilian among men in uniform. Even as Paris celebrated, something was happening. After the fastest splits of modern war we had to apply the brakes. Logistics that age-old problem of supplying a mighty fighting force on the offensive had run into difficulties. We had lost momentum. Winter set in. Bradley refused to move back. He reasons such a move could destroy confidence. Inification general, from stars down solid proof was needed these trying days that you were not a Nazi disguised as an American came into view. Much more to it after this. When the war started, which had swept a relatively unknown general into great prominence had blasted asunder the myth of Nazi invulnerability. From the Omaha beach head to Berlin a stunned enemy wondered how it could have happened. Was he getting there? Through to American tradition the job helped make the man and the man made history and he never once lost his humility. Was there room for a fifth star? With a soldier's determination but no with the determination of a man enjoying the softer moments of peace. Bradley a top notch golfer scores high on the fairway. Gippon a jump from the fairway was busy Washington and in post-war America Bradley played a big role in world affairs. Affairs as they pertained to our survival as a nation. We see him here in the fall of 1948 as army chief of staff. Prior to becoming the army's chief he had spent two years as veterans administrator. With him are Air Chief Hoyt Vandenberg and Navy Chief Louis E. Denville. In Bradley's characteristic way he considered his job another opportunity to serve his country and American needed him. For a new type of world jitters had set him. The Cold War modeled by the Kremlin. For example the great airlift of 1948 to 1949. Starved the people of West Berlin came orders from Moscow. So the Red Army imposed a blockade of all overland transport between Berlin and the west. All trade stopped. Paralysis threatened West Berlin but not for long. The air was still free and from the free nations poured fabulous supplies for the people of West Berlin. Type of war called for a reassessment of our military objectives and that's where Bradley fit into the picture. He became a globetrotter a sort of soldier diplomat. Here we see him arriving in Germany his mission to discuss plans for collective security with member nations of the North Atlantic Alliance. This was to be insurance against aggression by Soviet Russia. The story of Omar Bradley would not be complete without mentioning the former Mary Elizabeth Quail who married Bradley a year after his graduation from West Point. Here she watches Bradley being sworn in as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by Defense Secretary Johnson. Pried Mrs Bradley will tell you that Omar is a considerate husband and father. As chairman of the Joint Chiefs America's top soldier took his seat at the first meeting of the Defense Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization held in Washington. Resist aggression. That was the keynote. Yes there was Rome for a fifth star by act of Congress and the deep respect and admiration of a fellow Missourian who troubled with the pin but both Bradley and the President this is early in 1951 at a security council meeting. He sits beside the man who along with his father signalized his ideals in life. General Marshall at this time Secretary of Defense and again at the White House with ministers of defense and military advisors of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Bradley paid almost 300 visits to the White House many of them to brief the President on the progress in Korea. Again he visited war roles this time under the banner of the United Nations. As a global military strategist Bradley believed that we should not press our military advantage too far in this one area of communist aggression. From June 1950 to July 1953 State was our global prestige Our voice in the free world was a new type of Soviet aggression where the Kremlin directed a conflict in the front yard of Corian Hall. As in World War II Bradley helped direct Allied forces close to the battle lines and so it came to pass from the year 1915 a West Point classmate of Bradley's hike by name went places too becoming President of the United States He is playing host here to our top soldier of the nation and other members of the class of 15 time May 1953 shortly before Bradley's active assignments. It seemed fitting at this time to name an American town after Bradley To quote Bradley no boy ever came out of an army camp with any more or any less moral fiber and any more or less courage than he had when he left his family fireside Bradley West Virginia on US Route 21 between Beckley and Mount Hope Well seems like there's more to do Mission to help in military organization. He has come a long way this general from the humble roots of America to enrich our heritage of service to mankind and love of country a living monument among the truly great men of history