Julian Ewell

Julian Johnson Ewell was the son of Jammie Morrison (Offutt) Ewell and Colonel George W. Ewell (1879-1972), a career Army officer. He was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma on November 5, 1915, while his father was serving as a Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater).[4][5] He was raised in California, Panama, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., and graduated from New Mexico Military Institute in 1932.[6] He attended Duke University[7] before transferring to the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1939. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry, and received paratrooper training at the start of World War II.[8]

Having advanced to lieutenant colonel during the war, Ewell assumed command of 3rd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division. In June 1944, Ewell parachuted into Normandy and led his men into combat for the first time. Despite being unable to immediately account for a majority of his battalion because so many paratroopers had missed their landing zones, Ewell was still able to regroup and engage the German defenses.[11][12][13]

On September 17, 1944, Ewell's battalion parachuted into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden[14] and Ewell soon moved up to regimental executive officer. With the death of 501st commander Colonel Howard R. Johnson on October 8, Ewell moved up to regimental command.

That winter, he commanded the 501st when the 101st Airborne Division was rushed into the emergency defense of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroic actions.[15][16]

Ewell continued his service after World War II. As a colonel in the late 1940s he served as executive officer to General Maxwell Taylor during Taylor's command of U.S. forces in Berlin.[17] In 1953, he was assigned as commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment in South Korea.[18][19]

After the Korean War, Ewell attained the rank of brigadier general, and his assignments included: Assistant Commandant of Cadets at West Point;[20] Executive Assistant to General Taylor during Taylor's assignment as Military Aide to President John F. Kennedy and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff;[21][22] Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division;[23] Chief of Staff of V Corps in West Germany; and Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff for Combat Developments Command.[24][25]

From 1968 to 1969, Ewell commanded the 9th Infantry Division as a major general.[26][27] During his command, the division carried out Operation Speedy Express, an effort to eliminate Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers with overwhelming force.[28][29]

From 1969 to 1970, Ewell commanded II Field Force in Vietnam, receiving promotion to lieutenant general.[30][31]

After relinquishing command of II Field Force, Ewell was military advisor to the U.S.-South Vietnamese delegation at the negotiations for the Paris Peace Accords.[32]

From 1972 until his 1973 retirement, Ewell was Chief of Staff of NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe in Naples, Italy.[33][34]

Critics have charged Ewell with focusing obsessively on "body counts" during the Vietnam War, causing his subordinates to inflate their numbers in an effort to demonstrate success by counting civilian dead as enemy combatants and committing atrocities.[35][36] David Hackworth, author of Steel my Soldiers' Hearts, was critical of Ewell's performance.[37] Hackworth, who served in the 9th Division during the Vietnam War, wrote that in 1968 and 1969 the division was credited with killing 20,000 enemy, yet recovered only 2,000 weapons, suggesting that the numbers of enemy dead were inflated. John Paul Vann estimated that of those killed in the Delta were, "at least 30 percent were noncombatants".[38] According to Hackworth, Ewell's focus on body counts earned him the nickname the "Butcher of the Delta" from members of the 9th Division[39]

A 1972 Inspector General report concluded that there may have been as many as 5,000 to 7,000 civilian deaths during Speedy Express out of a total of 11,000 enemy combatants reported killed by troops.[40]

In 1974, Ewell and Ira A. Hunt Jr., a major general who had served as Ewell's Chief of Staff in the 9th Division, authored Sharpening the Combat Edge. In their book, Ewell and Hunt argued that the allegations of obsession with the body count were unfounded, and that their effort to inflict maximum damage had "unbrutalized" the war for civilians in South Vietnam.[41]

Ewell and Hunt's views are countered in Nick Turse's book, Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam.[42] Turse argues that Ewell's tactics amounted to war crimes and asserts that a coverup of Speedy Express went to the top of American decision-making in Vietnam.[43] Turse argues that most accounts attempt to minimize the viciousness and unethical behavior shown by some American commanders and soldiers in Vietnam.[44]

In addition to the Distinguished Service Cross, General Ewell's awards and decorations included: the Distinguished Service Medal (4); Silver Star (3); Legion of Merit (2); Bronze Star; Purple Heart; Air Medal; and Combat Infantryman Badge. He was also a recipient of several foreign decorations, including the Legion of Honor (Chevalier) from France.[45]

World War II memorabilia from Ewell is on display at the December 44 Museum in La Gleize, a facility which commemorates the Battle of the Bulge.[48]

In retirement, General Ewell lived in the Fairfax Retirement Community at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.[49] He died at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax on July 27, 2009.[50][51] He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 59, Grave 3854.[52]

General Ewell was married four times. His first two marriages, to Mary Gillem and Jean Hoffman, resulted in divorces. He was married to his third wife, Beverly Mccammon Moses, for forty years before her death in 1995. In 2005, he married Patricia Gates Lynch. Ewell had two children and two stepchildren.[53]

• "Julian Ewell", Miller Center, University of Virginia, November 7, 1985