General John Pershing
Biography

John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing

Conservative Hall of Fame

John J. Pershing is one of America's most famous Army officers. He was born on September 13, 1860. He graduated from West Point in 1886 and served in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines Insurrection, the Mexican Expedition and was the American Commander in Europe during World War I.

Pershing is the only person, while still alive, to rise to the highest rank ever held in the United States Army—General of the Armies—equivalent only to the posthumous rank of George Washington.

John Joseph Pershing died on 15 July 1948 in Washington, D.C.