Francis Joseph Kernan

Major General Francis Joseph Kernan (19 October 1859 – 3 February 1945) was a United States Army officer who participated in the Philippine–American War and later served as a general officer in World War I where he commanded the Services of Supply, American Expeditionary Forces from 1917 to 1918.

Education Francis Kernan was born in 1859 in Jacksonville, Florida on 19 October 1859 as son of John A. and Elizabeth C. Kernan. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1877 and graduated 18th in a class of 53 in 1881. Among his classmates were several men who would attain the rank of general officer, such as John Frank Morrison, Joseph T. Dickman, Enoch Crowder, Edwin St. John Greble, Charles H. Barth, Clarence Page Townsley, Charles L. Phillips, George True Bartlett, Joseph Alfred Gaston, Henry Clay Hodges Jr. and John Biddle.

Military career From left to right: Major General Francis J. Kernan, Major General James W. McAndrew, General John J. Pershing, Major General James Harbord and Brigadier General Johnson Hagood in Tours, France, July 1918.

After his graduation he was stationed at Fort Canby, Fort Klamath and Fort Sidney, before going back to West Point in 1888 to work as an instructor in Law and History until 1891.

Kernan became a major general of the regular Army in October 1919 and was sent to the Philippine Islands again until late 1922, when he briefly commanded the Seventh Corps Area before requesting to be retired.