Ernest Graves, Jr.

Ernest Graves Jr. (6 July 1924 – 21 May 2019) was a United States Army officer who attained the rank of lieutenant general. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, where he was ranked second in the class of 1944, he commanded troops in Europe during World War II and in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. He served with a bomb assembly team with the Manhattan Project and was present at the Operation Sandstone nuclear tests in 1948. He was the Director of Military Application at the Atomic Energy Commission its successor, the Energy Research and Development Administration, from 1973 to 1975, the Deputy Chief of Engineers from 1977 to 1978, and the director of the Defense Security Assistance Agency from 1978 to 1981.

Early life

Ernest Graves Jr. was born in New York City on 6 July 1924, the only son of Ernest Graves Sr., a retired Army officer, and his wife Lucy. Her maiden name was Lucy Birnie, but she had subsequently taken the name of her first husband, Harry Horgan, who died of tuberculosis. The family moved to Washington, D.C., when Graves was two years old, where he spent his childhood,

While at MIT, Graves met Nancy Herbert Barclay, a graduate of Wellesley College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics, who was working for a law firm in Boston. They were married in Paoli, Pennsylvania, where her parents lived, on 12 May 1951. That had four children: Ralph Henry, Robert Barclay, William Hooper and Emily Birnie. Ralph and Emily later became US Army officers, He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 29 March 1960.

In 1964 and 1965, Graves attended the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. This is normally followed by a staff posting, and he became a staff officer at The Pentagon in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of the Army for International Affairs. In February 1967 he moved to the staff of the Secretary of the Army. At this time he took the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was promoted to colonel on 6 April 1966. For this service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Army Distinguished Service Medal.

In September 1968, Graves assumed command of the 34th Engineer Group, which was based at Vung Tau, and later at Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, supporting the 9th Infantry Division during the Vietnam War. The main tasks of the five battalions in the group were the maintenance of Đồng Tâm Base Camp and the upgrading of QL-4, the main highway linking the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon with the Mekong Delta. For his service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, and the Air Medal with an oak leaf cluster.

Graves returned to the United States in September 1969, where he became the deputy director of Military Construction in the Officer of the Chief of Engineers in Washington, D.C. He was promoted to brigadier general on 10 October 1969. As such, he was responsible for $1 billion of military construction each year for the Army, United States Air Force and NASA. At this time, the space program was winding down. The Canaveral District, which had overseen the construction of the Kennedy Space Center was inactivated, and the Electronics Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts was completed but soon closed. He also served as president of the Air Defense Evaluation Board that recommended the development of the Patriot missile system.

In December 1970, Graves became the Division Engineer of North Central Division, based in Chicago, Illinois, with the rank of major general from 1 August 1971. In this role he was responsible for the water resources of the Great Lakes and the Upper Mississippi River. In December 1973 he returned to Washington, D.C., as the Director of Military Application at the Atomic Energy Commission. This was broken up in 1974, and he became the Director of Military Applications at its successor, the Energy Research and Development Administration. In this role he oversaw the development of nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and Livermore Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, production activities at Pantex and Rocky Flats, and testing at the Nevada Test Site.

Graves returned to the Office of the Chief of Engineers in September 1975 as the Director of Civil Works. He carried out a review of all the Corps of Engineers' water construction projects after President Jimmy Carter attempted to halt work on 35 projects. In July 1977, he became the Deputy Chief of Engineers, with the rank of lieutenant general from 1 March 1978. His final posting was as the director of Defense Security Assistance Agency, which was responsible for providing security assistance and arms sales to friendly countries, mostly in the Middle East. Of particular importance was assistance to Israel and Egypt under the terms of the Camp David Accords. For this service, he was awarded the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. His military decorations also included the Army Commendation Medal with three oak leaf clusters.

Later life In July 1981, Graves retired from the Army, and became a consultant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C., and Burdeshaw and Associates. He was an active member of the Army Navy Country Club, and chaired committees responsible for the construction of new clubhouses in Fairfax, Virginia, and Arlington, Virginia.

Graves died at his home in Arlington, Virginia, on 21 May 2019. A memorial service was held at the Fort Myer Old Post Chapel, after which he was interred in Arlington National Cemetery.

Dates of rank