Fox Conner - World War One

World War One

During World War I, Conner was tapped by General John J. Pershing to be the chief of operations (G3) for the American Expeditionary Force in France with Colonel John McAuley Palmer under his immediate supervision. Another one of his subordinates was then-Lieutenant Colonel George C. Marshall, for whom Conner developed an immense respect, later recommending Marshall as the ideal soldier and a military genius. For his service as the "brain" of the AEF, Conner was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and the Croix de Guerre. After the war, Conner wrote the after-action report that influenced the 1920 National Defense Act that set the course of the interwar Army.