General Dwight E. Beach

General Dwight E. Beach commanded the US Army, Pacific from September 1966 to July 1968. He gained his commission in 1932 into the Field Artillery. He served in World War II in the Pacific theater, participating in four amphibious assaults, as well as in the Korean War.

Beach attended the University of Michigan for two years before transferring and graduating from the US Military Academy. He also attended the Armed Forces Staff College and the Army War College. He was later an instructor of tactics at West Point.

Major command assignments for Beach include Commanding General, 45th Infantry Division, of the Eighth Army in Korea in 1954. Later he served as Commanding General for the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. During the escalation of US involvement in Vietnam, he served as Commanding General for the US Army Combat Developments Command in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and then as Commander in Chief of the United Nations Command, Commander of US Forces in Korea and Commanding General of the Eighth Army in Korea.

Additional major duty assignments for Beach were Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff for the Eighth Army in Korea, and Director of Special Weapons Development at Fort Bliss, Texas. He later served as Deputy Chief and Chief of Research and Development for the Department of the Army in Washington, DC.

Awards and decorations for General Beach include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the Occupation of Japan Medal, the Korean Service Medal, the United Nations Service Medal, and the Philippine Liberation Ribbon.