Ewart G. Plank

Major General Ewart Gladstone Plank (4 November 1897 – 2 September 1982) was a United States Army career officer who was a veteran of World War I and World War II. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he was ranked 44th in the class of 1920. He was commissioned in the Coast Artillery Corps, but later transferred to the Corps of Engineers. During World War II he commanded the Advance Section, Communications Zone (ADSEC).

Early life Ewart Gladstone Plank was born in Garden City, Missouri, on 4 November 1897, the son of Ulysses and Emma Plank Zeigler. He had an older sister, Elizabeth. The family moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he entered the University of Kansas in 1915, and joined the Kansas National Guard. In 1917, he was called to active duty for World War I, and served in the ranks in France with the 137th Infantry Regiment, part of the 35th Division.

Plank returned to the United States on being appointed to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, which he entered on 17 June 1918. He became an editor of the annual yearbook, The Howitzer. The class of 1920 was initially supposed to graduate after one year, but the end of the war led to it being extended. The class was given the option of graduating after three years instead of just two. None did however, and the entire class graduated on 15 June 1920. He was ranked 44th in the class.

Plank was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps on 2 July 1920, and promoted to first lieutenant the same day. To give seniority to reserve officers who had served overseas and wished to take a regular commission, the new graduates' commissioning had been delayed by seventeen days. The army paid them in the interim, despite a Government Accountability Office ruling that they were not entitled to it.

Between the wars Plank transferred to the Corps of Engineers on 4 September 1920. He attended the Engineer Officer Basic Course at Camp A. A. Humphreys, Virginia, from 15 September 1920 to 27 January 1921, and was then posted to the 2nd Engineer Regiment at Camp Travis, Texas. He attended the Engineer School at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1 June 1921 to 18 June 1922, where he studied civil engineering. He was assigned to McCook Field, Ohio, where he was involved in aerial survey and mapping. If any members of the class of 1920 thought that things could not get worse, they were wrong; on 15 December 1922, the whole class was demoted to the rank of second lieutenant.

On 28 March 1925, Plank was promoted to first lieutenant again. He attended the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field, Texas, from 15 September 1926 to 28 February 1927, when he was graduated, and then the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, from 28 February to 17 May 1927. He returned to the 2nd Engineers, which was now located at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, but moved to Fort Logan, Colorado on 5 August 1927. His next assignment was with the 11th Engineer Regiment in the Panama Canal Zone, and he was involved in survey work in Nicaragua. He married Doris Reed from Denver at Corozal in the Panama Canal Zone on 2 December 1927. They had one child, a daughter, Jacqueline, who was born in 1935. and became the head of Air Corps Projects Section, and now reported to Colonel Leslie Groves. That same day saw the German declaration of war against the United States, just four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into World War II.

European Theater On 9 May 1942, Plank became the deputy chief of staff of the new European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) Services of Supply, under the command of Major General John C. H. Lee. This vast logistical organization became the Communications Zone, or Com-Z on D-Day. Plank was promoted to colonel (AUS) on 1 July 1942,

As the commander of ADSEC, Plank supported the operations of the First Army and then the 12th Army Group. Com-Z unloaded ships, built fuel pipelines, reconstructed railways, repaired bridges, and rehabilitated ports. ADSEC established supply dumps and depots, receiving all of this materiel as the last link in the chain of Service and Supply forces, and distributing it to the various combat units along an ever-widening front. During the period of the Allied advance from Paris to the Rhine, the Transportation Corps of the Com-Z ran the Red Ball Express to keep ADSEC and its customers supplied. When the Germans attacked in the Ardennes Offensive, ADSEC removed supplies from dumps and depots that were threatened, and supported the Third Army's counter-offensive. By this time, Com-Z and its final Advance Section were supporting over a million and a half combat soldiers. "I do not care who is right or who is wrong," Plank told his troops, "the point is that we have to satisfy our customers and do so in a way which pleases them."

For his service as commander of ADSEC, Plank was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and two Bronze Star Medals.

Post-war Plank was promoted to major general (AUS) on 7 June 1945.

In retirement, Plank became the deputy director of the Department of Finance, Support and Administrative Services of the International Refugee Organization in Geneva. After the Korean War broke out in 1950, he returned to the United States as a consultant to the Army in Washington, DC. From 1958 to 1963, he was the head of the Engineering Division of the California Disaster Office. He settled in San Francisco, where he died on 2 September 1982, and was interred in the Riverside National Cemetery.

Dates of rank