Wilton Persons

Wilton Burton Persons was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on January 10, 1896, one of five brothers. He was educated at Starke University School in Montgomery, and Alabama Polytechnic Institute, where he studied electrical engineering, and from which he graduated in 1916. He then went to work for the Western Electric Company in Lynn, Massachusetts. == World War I ==

Persons volunteered for service in World War I, but was initially rejected because he only weighed , four pounds below the minimum acceptable weight. However, as an honor graduate, he was commissioned into the Coast Artillery Corps, and served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France in the Signal Corps. == Between the wars==

After the war Persons remained in the Army as a professor of military science and tactics at the University of Minnesota from 1924 to 1929. He graduated from Harvard University with a Master of Business Administration in 1931. He met Major Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight D. Eisenhower that year while on duty in the Office of the Secretary of War in Washington, D.C. == World War II ==

After graduating from the United States Army Command and General Staff College in 1938, Persons served in the Office of the Chief of Staff as a liaison officer to Congress from 1939 to 1941. Although war was imminent, Congress was still reluctant to approve armament programs, especially for weapons that it regarded as "aggressive". He was able to secure funding for the secret work on radar by showing Congressmen the work being done by the Signal Corps at Fort Monmouth. A major triumph was persuading Congress to extend the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, the first peacetime draft in the United States, which was ultimately passed by 203 votes to 202. Persons was Chief of the legislative division in the Office of the Chief of Staff from 1942 to 1948. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in June 1942, by which time the country had entered World War II, and major general in November 1944. Eisenhower requested that Persons be assigned to his Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), but the request was turned down on the grounds that Persons was essential in Washington. == Post war ==

After the war Persons headed the office of legislative liaison for the Department of Defense between 1948 and his retirement in 1949 with the rank of major general. For his services, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. Awards from other countries included the Grand Officer of the Cross of the Sun and the Medal of War from Brazil, Order of Abdon Calderon from Ecuador. He was superintendent of Staunton Military Academy from 1949 to 1950. His papers are in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. == Notes ==