Allen J. Greer

Medal of Honor He was awarded the Medal of Honor on March 10, 1902, for his action on July 2, 1901, during the Philippine Insurrection, when he charged alone against an insurgent outpost with his pistol, killing one, wounding two, and capturing three, with their rifles and equipment. The action took place near Majada, Laguna Province. Infantry After his graduation from college, Greer, with J. Walter Canada, raised sixty volunteers for duty in the Spanish–American War (Company L), and he was made their lieutenant. The company, also known as the 4th Tennessee Volunteer Infantry, did duty in Cuba under Captain Cordell Hull. It was composed of the members of Greer's college graduating class. During the Philippine Insurrection he commanded a company of Philippine Scouts in Cavite Province. In 1904, as a lieutenant, Greer moved from the 4th Infantry to the 28th Infantry, and in 1908, he was a recruiting officer with the 12th Cavalry Regiment, stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Greer was an honorary graduate of the Army School of the Line in 1912. and in August 1914, he was stationed in or near El Paso, Texas, with that regiment. Greer was a graduate of the Army Staff College in 1915, He served with John J. Pershing in the Punitive Expedition in Mexico in 1916. In the American Expeditionary Force in Europe, Colonel Greer was chief of staff of the 92nd Infantry Division, composed of black troops, except for higher officers. Military historian Robert H. Ferrell wrote that Greer "took assignments because of the opportunity for promotion and perhaps opportunity to move out of the division to more attractive" positions. He was a graduate of the Field Artillery School Advanced Course in 1923, and he graduated from the Army War College in 1925. Legal duties In 1908 Greer was named an Army judge advocate. He was sent to Mindanao, Philippines, as part of the 28th Infantry. He was later transferred to the 7th Infantry. In 1910, he was ordered to St. Louis, Missouri, where he was to be acting judge advocate in the Department of the Missouri. Around 1913 Greer was detailed to attend a military law school at Fort Leavenworth, after which he was selected to defend Colonel Lewis E. Goudier, who was accused of interfering with the administration of the Army's aviation school in San Diego, California. Civilian Conservation Corps In May 1933, Greer was appointed commandant of Group or District 4 of the Civilian Conservation Corps in Tompkins County, New York. Retirement In April 1940, the "Army Orders" stated that "Col. Allen J. Greer, Field Artillery, [is] relieved from Fort Hayes, O., and, for the convenience of the government[,] will proceed to his home and await retirement." "Army Orders" stated in September 1940: "By direction of the President, Col. Allen J. Greer, Field Artillery, upon his own application[,] is retired from active service effective Sept. 30, 1940." ==Opinions and persuasion==

Cavalry In 1915, Captain Greer, as an instructor at the Presidio training camp, paid tribute to the horse as a still-valid tool in twentieth-century warfare. In a class lecture, he said that despite the advent of the airplane, the cavalry was still best for gathering information, patrolling, reconnoitering, and harassing the enemy. The leader any given horse-mounted scouting unit had to be equipped with a compass, a map, field glasses, pencil and notebook, message blanks, and a watch. He noted the importance of the "getaway man" on the battlefield, a rider who would be detached from the scouting party but still be in touch with it. According to historian Robert H. Ferrell, Greer also sent letters to "officers he thought might enlighten the department on the use of African-American troops" in the Army. Historian Ferrell wrote: But what was surprising was his [Greer's] animus against African-Americans on the rape question. One might well ask how he could have said such things. On this point, he provided no answers, only statements. . . . The colonel blamed black misconduct of this sort entirely on black officers. In regiments of engineers and artillery where supervised by white officers there had been only a single case of rape. The League for Democracy, an organization of Negro officers, wrote an objection to Secretary of War Newton D. Baker, stating: "We cannot permit our descendants to read this letter [Greer's] in future histories and look upon our graves with scorn and contempt. . . . In this matter our slogan is 'Greer must be tried and the race vindicated.'" Oath of allegiance Lieutenant-Colonel Greer was a prosecutor in the noted June 1922 court-martial of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who was convicted of violating the 96th Article of War in publishing an open letter to President Warren G. Harding critical of the Army's high command. Wheeler-Nicholson based his defense on freedom of speech, but, as The New York Times put it, Greer argued "that when an officer or soldier took the oath of allegiance [,] he waived these rights. He said he would sum up the whole history of the case in the words of a song, 'Everybody's Out of Step but Jim,' referring to Major Nicholson." Greer said that the Army way of doing things might not be perfect but constructive criticism was always welcome. He said of Nicholson's stance: "[A]ny attempt to restrain him has been tyranny. Any orders applying to him which he does not like are styled Prussianism. The service at large apparently meant nothing to him." Type of cannon According to Greer, while serving under Gen. Douglas MacArthur after 1927, Greer promoted the use of the 105 mm cannons over the 75 mms by writing an article which drew the support of his commander-in-chief." "I knew I was right or I would not have written the article," he told MacArthur. ==Personal life==

Birth and education Allen Greer was born August 11, 1878, in Memphis, Tennessee, the son of Judge James M. Greer of Mississippi and Betty Buckner Allen of Lexington, Kentucky. He had two brothers, Autrey and Rowan Adams. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tennessee in 1898, a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Minnesota in 1907, and a Master of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1938. Marriages and children First marriage Greer, who in 1903 was described as one of the "social lions" of San Antonio, Texas, The two returned to the United States the next year aboard the USAT Thomas. It was reported they had "quarreled and separated." Upon landing, Greer went to the Palace Hotel and his wife to the California Hotel. Second marriage In 1913, Captain Greer was again a husband. His wife was costumed as a "colonial girl" at a dress ball presented by the Presidio Officers' Club. By 1914, they had a son, Allen, In 1919, Greer lived at 2701 Green Street, near the San Francisco Presidio. At the time of the 1920 census Greer was single and living on a military base in Germany. In 1933, Greer broke his collarbone when he and his daughter were in an automobile accident in Valparaiso, Indiana, as he drove her back to the University of Wisconsin. Third marriage In 1927, Greer met Mary Owings Smith of Olympia, Washington, when he was stationed at Fort Lewis in that state. Later that year, he was living in San Francisco, at 2640 Van Ness Avenue. Colonel Greer, 51, and Smith, 25, were married November 30, 1929, in San Francisco. They sailed the succeeding week for the Philippines, where Greer was to be stationed. Civilian life After leaving the Army, Greer wrote for the North American Newspaper Alliance. He said he was a military analyst for the Buffalo Evening News in Europe and Japan during World War II and that he wrote about the Bikini atomic-bomb tests in 1946. Greer died on March 16, 1964, in Orange, California, at the age of 85. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. ==See also==