Frank S. Besson, Jr.
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Frank Schaffer Besson Jr.,
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(May 30, 1910 – July 15, 1985) was a
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general.


Early life

Besson born on May 30, 1910 in
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...
. His father was a West Point graduate and a colonel in the Corps of Engineers.


Military career

Besson graduated seventh in his class from the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
in 1932 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. In 1935, he received an M.S. degree in civil engineering from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. His research project was a collaboration with Rush B. Lincoln Jr. and two other West Point classmates under the supervision of Glennon Gilboy. His early career was noted for the role he played in the development of portable military pipelines, steel landing mats for airplanes, and steel treadway bridges. He is credited with the studies leading to the army's adoption of the
Bailey bridge A Bailey bridge is a type of portable, pre-fabricated, truss bridge. It was developed in 1940–1941 by the British for military use during the Second World War and saw extensive use by British, Canadian and American military engineering units. ...
, used extensively in all theaters in World War II. Besson became Assistant Director of the Third Military Railway Service (with rank of lieutenant colonel) in 1943, and was promoted to Director (with rank of colonel) the following year. As Director of the Third Military Railway Service in Iran from 1944 to 1945, Besson ensured the flow of war materials to the Russian forces through the Persian Corridor. He was promoted to brigadier general, becoming, at just 34, the youngest general officer in the Army Ground Forces and Chief of the Railway Division. Toward the end of World War II, he was Deputy Chief Transportation Officer of the Army Forces in the Western Pacific and, when Japan's collapse was imminent, assumed full control of railroads in Japan. During the first year of occupation, Besson directed the rehabilitation of the Japanese rail system, moving more than 200,000 troops and 150,000 tons of supplies in the first two months. Subsequent assignments included a tour as Assistant Chief of Staff,
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) is the military headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) Allied Command Operations (ACO) that commands all NATO operations worldwide. ACO's and SHAPE's commander is t ...
(SHAPE), where Besson formulated logistics plans and overall programs to meet the complex requirements of the fifteen nations of the NATO alliance. His efforts in instituting a system for "costing out" five-year programs, thereby bringing force goals into consonance with available resources, earned him the first Army Distinguished Service Medal to be awarded at SHAPE headquarters. He was formally transferred to the Army
Transportation Corps The Transportation Corps is a combat service support branch of the U.S. Army. It is responsible for the movement of personnel and material by truck, rail, air, and sea. It is one of three U.S. Army logistics branches, the others being the Qua ...
on July 28, 1950. Besson introduced the
roll-on/roll-off Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their own wheels or using ...
technique for the rapid loading and discharge of wheeled and tracked vehicles. He further refined these concepts upon assuming command of the Transportation Center and School at
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in 1953. Besson was the Chief of Transportation, United States Army from March 1958 until April 2, 1962, when he took charge of the
United States Army Materiel Command U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the primary provider of materiel to the United States Army. The Command's mission includes the management of installations, as well as maintenance and parts distribution. It was established on 8 May 1962 and wa ...
. Besson was the first Commander of the Army Materiel Command, formed in 1962 during a major army reorganization. During his command, the mammoth logistical organization, with an annual budget exceeding $14 billion and an inventory of $21 billion, employed more than 160,000 civilian personnel, in addition to its military complement of 14,000. In November 1962, Besson assigned Col. John F. Sullivan as project officer for
Operation Flat Top Operation Flat Top was a United States Army project during the Vietnam War to convert , a World War II-era seaplane tender, into a forward theater, offshore helicopter repair facility. Helicopters had been used during the Korean War to ferry ...
, a program that involved conversion of a former seaplane tender, the '' USS Albemarle'' (AV 5), into a floating helicopter repair shop for use off the coast of Vietnam. In 1965, Besson permitted
Malcom McLean Malcolm Purcell McLean (November 14, 1913 – May 25, 2001; later known as Malcom McLean) was an American businessman. He was a transport entrepreneur who invented the modern intermodal shipping container, which revolutionized transport and inte ...
of
SeaLand SeaLand, a division of the Maersk Group, is an American intra-regional container shipping company headquartered in Miramar, Florida with representation in 29 countries across the Americas. The company offers ocean and intermodal services using ...
to develop a plan to improve U.S. military logistics in Vietnam. McLean would go on to recommend
containerization Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container Stuffing" or "Container Loading", which is the p ...
as a solution to logistical problems faced by the U.S. military. In 1966, Besson asked the
Military Sea Transportation Service Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all US m ...
to contract SeaLand to operate regular
container ship A container ship (also called boxship or spelled containership) is a cargo ship that carries all of its load in truck-size intermodal containers, in a technique called containerization. Container ships are a common means of commercial intermoda ...
routes between
Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
and
Okinawa, Japan is a prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 km2 (880 sq mi). Naha is the capital and largest city ...
. As the first AMC Commander, Besson was charged with consolidating six army technical service organizations into a single command without disrupting effective materiel support for the army. His success resulted in his receiving the Merit Award of the Armed Forces Management Association in 1963. On May 27, 1964, Besson became a full general. He was the first army officer to achieve that rank as head of a logistical organization in peacetime. In March 1969, Besson was appointed by
Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the ...
to be chairman of the Joint Logistics Review Board, formed to review logistic activities in support of the Vietnam War. In this role, Besson pushed for the centralization of logistical operations, the widespread use of
intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...
s, and the phasing out of
Conex box The CONEX box (Container, express) was a type of cargo container developed during the Korean War that was used to transport and store supplies during the Korean and Vietnam War, Vietnam wars. It was reinvented by Malcom McLean to form the standard ...
es. Besson, who left the review board in 1970, wrote about transportation and related problems in numerous professional journals. While in retirement, Besson was nominated by
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...
as one of the founding directors of the National Rail Passenger Corporation, which ran
Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
. On July 15, 1985, Besson died of cancer at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center The Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC)known as Walter Reed General Hospital (WRGH) until 1951was the United States Army, U.S. Army's flagship medical center from 1909 to 2011. Located on in the Washington, D.C., District of Columbia, it se ...
. Besson's awards and decorations include the Army Distinguished Service Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Legion of Merit with one Oak Leaf Cluster, the Iranian
Order of Homayoun Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of ...
, Honorary
Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
, and the Republic of Korea's Order of Military Merit, Second Class (Ulchi).


Personal life

Besson married Nancy Sessions Morris in 1935. They had three sons. After her death in 1974, he married Beatrice Veronica (O'Boyle) George, who had four children from her first marriage. His second wife died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1978. In 1980, Besson married Frances Rogers “Betty” (Howell) Wheeler, the widow of General Earle G. Wheeler. After his death, Besson was buried beside his parents and his first two wives at the
West Point Cemetery West Point Cemetery is a historic cemetery in the eastern United States, on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. It overlooks the Hudson River, and served as a burial ground for Revolutionary War soldiers and ear ...
on July 19, 1985.


See also

* ''General Frank S. Besson, Jr.'' class Logistics Support Vessel


References

*


External links


Generals of World War II
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besson, Frank 1910 births 1985 deaths United States Military Academy alumni Military personnel from Detroit United States Army Corps of Engineers personnel MIT School of Engineering alumni United States Army generals of World War II Recipients of the Legion of Merit United States Army generals Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (US Army) Honorary Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Order of Military Merit (Korea) Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. Burials at West Point Cemetery