Alexander Patch

Alexander McCarrell "Sandy" Patch (November 23, 1889 – November 21, 1945) was a senior United States Army officer who fought in both World War I and World War II, rising to rank of general. During World War II he commanded U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps forces during the Guadalcanal Campaign, and the U.S. Seventh Army on the Western Front. With an invasion of Japan still an apparent likelihood, Patch returned to the U.S. in August 1945 to take charge of the Fourth Army headquartered at the Presidio of San Francisco, California. He died in November 1945 at 55, his health having been ravaged during his time in the Pacific early in the war. Patch was, along with James Van Fleet and Lucian K. Truscott, Jr., one of the very few senior American commanders to command a division, corps and field army on active service during World War II. A lieutenant general at the time of his passing, he was posthumously promoted to four star general in July 1954.