Blackjack
Brigadier General John J. Pershing is seen above with his staff, crossing the Santa Marie River at El Valle, Mexico on 29 August 1916. At that time, Pershing was leading the Army’s punitive expedition into Mexico to pursue Pancho Villa. A month after this photo was taken, Pershing received his second star. He would go on to lead the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during the First World War. Eleven years prior to this photo being taken, Pershing had been promoted from captain to brigadier general by President Theodore Roosevelt, ahead of 835 other officers of higher seniority. A move that shocked the Army establishment. However, it worked out for Pershing and the Army because in 1919, Pershing became the only active duty Army General Officer to be promoted to General of the Armies, the equivalent of a six star rank. The only other officer to also attain that rank was George Washington, posthumously in 1976.
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