Jonathan M. Wainwright (general)

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV (23 August 1883 – 2 September 1953) was an United States Army general and the Commander of Allied forces in the Philippines during World War II.

Wainwright commanded American and Filipino forces during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, for which he received a Medal of Honor. He oversaw the largest ever surrender of American armed forces in May 1942, on the island stronghold of Corregidor. At the time of his capture, Wainwright was the highest-ranking American prisoner of war. He spent three years in Japanese prison camps, during which he suffered from malnutrition and mistreatment. Americans viewed him as a hero during his ordeal. In August 1945, he was escorted from Manchukuo by the Red Army. Shortly after Japan's surrender, Wainwright was promoted to four-star General on 5 September 1945.

Jonathan Wainwright (nicknamed "Skinny") was born at Fort Walla Walla on 23 August 1883 to Josephine and Robert Powell Page Wainwright. Josephine's father was civil engineer Edward W. Serrell. Robert was the third generation of a prominent family. His grandfather was Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, an episcopal bishop in New York City. Robert's father was Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright II, a Lieutenant in the United States Navy who was killed in action during the Battle of Galveston in 1863.^[1]: 41 Congressman J. Mayhew Wainwright was the younger Jonathan's cousin.^[2]

Robert Wainwright was an United States Army officer who was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st Cavalry in 1875, rose to the rank of major, and commanded a squadron of the 5th Cavalry Regiment in the Battle of Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War. He was posted at Walla Walla, Washington Territory when Jonathan was born. Robert gave his father's name to his son, emphasizing the family tradition of military service.^[3]: 29 The family called him by his middle name.^[3]: 12 In 1902, Robert died of disease in the Philippines.^[4]

Jonathan Wainwright graduated from Highland Park High School in Illinois in 1901, and from West Point in 1906.^[5] He served as First Captain of the Corps of Cadets.^[6]

Wainwright was commissioned in the cavalry.^[7] Like his father, he served with the 1st Cavalry Regiment. In 1906, he was stationed in Texas. In 1908, the regiment transferred to the Philippines. Wainwright saw combat on Jolo during the Moro Rebellion.^[4]

In 1912, Wainwright attended the Mounted Service School in Fort Riley, Kansas. He broke his leg when a horse kicked him, and he was unable to finish the basic course until 1916.^[8]: 25 When he was back with the 1st Cavalry on Mexican border patrol in 1916, Wainwright was promoted to Captain. By 1917, he was on the staff of the first officer training camp at Plattsburgh, New York.^{[1]: 30, 36}

In 1911, Wainwright married Adele "Kitty" Holley. They had one son, Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright V (1913–1996).^[9]

During World War I, Wainwright was promoted to major in August 1917 and sent to Camp Devens to serve with the 76th Division. In February 1918, he was ordered to France. In June, he became assistant chief of staff of the U.S. 82nd Infantry Division, with which he took part in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. During the latter battle, an explosion permanently damaged Wainwright's hearing. He was breveted to lieutenant colonel in October 1918. After the war, Wainwright remained in Europe on occupation duty with the 3rd Army at Koblenz, Germany. ^{[5][8]: 27ff}

After a year as an instructor at the Cavalry School at Fort Riley, Wainwright was attached to the general staff from 1921 to 1923 and assigned to the 3rd Cavalry Regiment at Fort Myer, Virginia from 1923–25.^[4] His service during the war delayed his professional training. In 1929, he joined the second class at the newly re-established Command and General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On December 29, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel, over a decade after he first attained the rank during WWI.^[1]: 98

Wainwright went to the United States Army War College in 1933.^[7] His classmates there included Omar Bradley and William Halsey Jr.^[8]: 33 During his studies, Wainwright repeatedly focused on War Plan Orange, which was the strategy for combatting the Empire of Japan.^[1]: ixff

Wainwright was promoted to colonel in 1935, and served as commander of the 3rd Cavalry Regiment until 1938, when he was promoted to brigadier general in command of the 1st Cavalry Brigade at Fort Clark, Texas.

In September 1940, Wainwright was assigned to command the Philippine Division, a force of Philippine Scouts led by American officers. On October 1, just after transiting the Panama Canal on his way back to the Philippines, he was notified of his promotion to major general.^{[10][8]: 11f}

On 8 December 1941, just hours after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan launched their invasion of the Philippines. When their first bombs started to drop on Clarke Field, Wainwright was at Fort Stotsenburg, where he spent the previous day enjoying a polo match and watching a movie.^{[11]: 56 [3]: 25ff}

War Plan Orange anticipated the most likely point of attack to be Lingayen Gulf on Luzon.^[12]: 56ff That is precisely where the Japanese established a beachhead on 22 December.^[11]: 82 The area was defended by Wainwright's North Luzon Force, comprised of three reserve Filipino divisions and the 26th Cavalry Regiment.^{[13][14]: 6} Wainwright was forced to retreat. MacArthur evacuated his command from Manila to Corregidor. By January 1942, most of the Allied forces had withdrawn to the Bataan Peninsula and Corregidor, where they defended the entrance to Manila Bay.^{[15]: 199ff}

General MacArthur reunited with Wainwright on 10 January to congratulate him on the retreat and boost morale. By the 27th, Wainwright's position on Bataan was insecure enough that he asked MacArthur for permission to shorten the front he had to defend.^{[14]: 66, 78}

Following the evacuation of MacArthur to Australia in March to serve as Allied Supreme Commander, South West Pacific Area, Wainwright inherited the unenviable position of Allied commander in the Philippines.^[7][16] Also that March, Wainwright was promoted to lieutenant general (temporary). On 9 April, Major General Edward P. King surrendered the 72,000 troops under his command on Bataan, the largest American force ever defeated.^[1]: vi On 5 May, the Japanese attacked Corregidor. Due to lack of supplies (mainly food and ammunition)^[17] and in the interest of minimizing casualties, Wainwright notified Japanese General Masaharu Homma he was surrendering on 6 May.^[16]

Wainwright at the same time sent a coded message to Major General William F. Sharp, in charge of forces on Mindanao, naming him as commander of all forces in the Philippines except those on Corregidor and three other islands in Manila Bay. Sharp was now under General MacArthur's command from Australia.^[8]: 288 This was to cause as few troops as possible to be surrendered. Homma refused to allow the surrender of any less than all the troops in the Philippines and considered the troops on and around Corregidor to be hostages to ensure other forces in the Philippines would lay down their arms. Wainwright then agreed to surrender Sharp's men.^{[15]: 564–70}

General Sharp was placed in a difficult position. He knew if he ignored Wainwright's wish for him to surrender that the hostage troops and civilians at Corregidor could be massacred.^[16] Though his troops were badly mauled, they could still put up a fight. It had been expected they would fight on as a guerrilla force. In the end, on 10 May, Sharp decided to surrender. Sharp's surrender proved problematic for the Japanese. For although Sharp and many of his men surrendered and suffered as prisoners of war until liberated in 1945, a large number of Sharp's men — the vast majority of them Filipino — refused to surrender. Some soldiers considered Wainwright's surrender to have been made under duress, and ultimately decided to join the guerrilla movement led by Colonel Wendell Fertig.^[15]: 576f

By 9 June, Allied forces had completely surrendered. Wainwright had been held in prison camps in northern Luzon, Formosa, and Liaoyuan (then called Xi'an and a county within Manchukuo). The first allies to reach him were two agents from the Office of Strategic Services who secured his release. The Russian Red Army escorted him from a POW camp in Manchuria on August 23, 1945.^{[18][3]: 269}

Wainwright was the highest-ranking American POW, and, despite his rank, his treatment at the hands of the Japanese was no less unpleasant than that of most of his men. When he met General MacArthur in August 1945 shortly after his liberation, he had become thin and malnourished from three years of mistreatment during captivity. He witnessed the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri on 2 September and was given one of five pens (along with British Lieutenant General Arthur Percival) that MacArthur used to sign the document.^[19][20] Both Wainwright and Percival would also personally accompany MacArthur to the table as MacArthur signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender as well.^[20] Together with Percival, he returned to the Philippines to receive the surrender of the local Japanese commander, General Tomoyuki Yamashita.^[21]

Wainwright's captivity was a national fixation. Time magazine depicted him behind barbed wire on the cover of the 8 May 1944 issue.^[22] Dubbed by his men a "fighting" general who was willing to get down in the foxholes, Wainwright won the respect of all who were imprisoned with him. He agonized over his decision to surrender Corregidor throughout his captivity, feeling that he had let his country down. Upon release, the first question he asked was how people back in the U.S. thought of him, and he was amazed when told he was considered a hero. During his captivity in 1942, Wainwright was nominated for the Medal of Honor. General MacArthur shocked his superiors by formally opposing the nomination for a variety of reasons, one of which was Wainwright's surrender.^[23][24]

General Marshall mothballed the nomination in 1942 to avoid provoking MacArthur. After the war, he asked Secretary of War Henry Stimson to review the issue. Stimson rejected MacArthur's objections as "untrue" and "untenable".^[3]: 282ff President Harry S. Truman presented General Wainwright with the Medal of Honor in an impromptu ceremony in the White House Rose Garden on 10 September 1945. The decoration came as a complete surprise to Wainwright.^[3]: 282ff

On 5 September 1945, shortly after the Japanese surrender, Wainwright was promoted to four-star general. On 13 September, a ticker-tape parade in New York City was held in his honor.^[25] On 28 September, he was named commander of the Second Service Command and the Eastern Defense Command at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York.^[26]

Before he even returned to the United States from captivity, Wainwright was inundated with offers for a book deal. He agreed to a $155,000 contract with a publishing syndicate that serialized his memoir before Doubleday published it as a bestselling book.^[3]: 290

On 11 January 1946, he was named commander of the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, filling the vacancy left by the 21 November 1945 death of Lieutenant General Alexander Patch.^[27]

Wainwright retired on 31 August 1947, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 64, stating that he was reluctant to do so.^[28]

He became a Freemason in May 1946 at Union Lodge No. 7. in Junction City, Kansas, and a Shriner soon after.^{[29][30][31][32]}

In 1948, he was elected the national commander of Disabled American Veterans (DAV).^[33]

About 1935, Wainwright was elected a Hereditary Companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (insignia number 19087) by right of his grandfather's service in the Union Navy during the Civil War. He was also a Compatriot of the Empire State Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (national number 66232 and state number 7762). His membership application for the SAR was endorsed by General Douglas MacArthur.

He served on the board of directors for several corporations after his retirement. He made himself available to speak before veterans' groups and filled almost every request to do so. He never publicly voiced any bitterness toward MacArthur for his actions in the Philippines. When it appeared that MacArthur might be nominated for president at the 1948 Republican National Convention, Wainwright stood ready to make the nominating speech.^[23]

He died of a stroke in San Antonio, Texas on 2 September 1953, aged 70.^[34]

Wainwright was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to his wife and near his parents.^[35] Present during the funeral were Omar Bradley, George Marshall and Edward King, with a conspicuous absence of MacArthur.^[36] He was buried with a Masonic service and is one of the few people to have had their funeral held in the lower level of Arlington's Memorial Amphitheater.^[37][38]

Rank and Organization: General, Commanding U.S. Army Forces in the Philippines. Place and date: Philippine Islands, 12 March to 7 May 1942. Entered Service at: Skaneateles, N.Y. Birth: Walla Walla, Wash. G.O. No.: 80, 19 September 1945.

Citation:

Distinguished himself by intrepid and determined leadership against greatly superior enemy forces. At the repeated risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in his position, he frequented the firing line of his troops where his presence provided the example and incentive that helped make the gallant efforts of these men possible. The final stand on beleaguered Corregidor, for which he was in an important measure personally responsible, commanded the admiration of the Nation's allies. It reflected the high morale of American arms in the face of overwhelming odds. His courage and resolution were a vitally needed inspiration to the then sorely pressed freedom-loving peoples of the world.^[39]

• Army General Staff Badge
• Conspicuous Service Cross, State of New York
• Distinguished Service Medal, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Mexican Medal of Military Virtue, 1st Class
• Polish Order of Virtuti Militari

• Knights Commander of the Court of Honour (K.C.C.H.) (Freemasonry)
• Grand Lodge of New York's Masonic Achievement Medal

^[40]

• Wainwright Hall at Ft. Myer, Virginia, the former Officers' Club in named in honor of Wainwright.^[41]
• Fort Wainwright in Alaska is named for him.
• U.S. Army Wainwright Station, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas^[42]
• A street, Wainwright Drive, was named after him in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• There is a street, Wainwright Drive, in El Paso, Texas named after Jonathan Wainwright, as was also an elementary school in the El Paso Independent School District; Wainwright Elementary School opened in 1949 and was closed and placed on reserve status in 2005 in light of the expansion of Fort Bliss through BRAC. It currently serves as a science education resource center; until November 2009; it also served as a student health center.
• The Veterans Hospital in Walla Walla, Washington is the Jonathan M. Wainwright IV Medical Center.
• There is a memorial to General Wainwright on Corregidor Island.^[43]
• There is a Wainwright Drive located in Skaneateles, New York, serving as the entrance to American Legion Post 239.
• There is a Wainwright Street located in the Twinbrook section of Rockville, Maryland.
• There is a Wainwright Drive in San Jose, California.
• There is a Wainwright Avenue in Closter, New Jersey.
• There is a Wainwright Court at California State University, Monterey Bay at the former Fort Ord
• The Jonathan M. Wainwright Award is named in his honor at the Freemasonic National Sojourners Marvin Shields Camp Heros of '76, Olympic Chapter No. 539 and is awarded yearly.
• There was a Wainwright School for US Air Force dependents at Tainan Air Base, Taiwan, from 1953 to 1976.
• There is a General Wainwright Drive in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
• There is a housing area on Fort Hood, Texas, called Wainwright Heights.^[44]
• There is a Wainwright Street in Benicia, California (1942 residential subdivision)
• Wainwright VFW Post 2185 in Panama City, Florida
• Wainwright Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District is named after him.^[45]

In the film MacArthur (1977), Wainwright was portrayed by Sandy Kenyon.^[46]

• Wainwright, Jonathan M.; Robert Considine (1986) [1945]. General Wainwright's Story. New York: Bantam. ISBN 0-553-24061-7.

• List of Medal of Honor recipients
• List of Medal of Honor recipients for World War II § W
• List of Freemasons

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.

• "Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV: General, United States Army". arlingtoncemetery.net (unofficial). 21 October 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2010.

• A film clip of a September 10, 1945 Newsreel – "Nation Welcomes Hero Of Corregidor" is available for viewing at the Internet Archive
• General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV letter to Soldiers being dischanged following World War II at the Internet Archive
• Arlington National Cemetery