Frederick Augustus Irving

Major General Frederick Augustus Irving (September 3, 1894 – September 12, 1995) was a United States Army officer who served in both World War I and World War II and was superintendent of the United States Military Academy from 1951 to 1954 and eventually lived to the age of 101.

Military career Major General Franklin C. Sibert (left), commanding X Corps, confers with Major General Frederick A. Irving, commanding the 24th Infantry Division, at a forward command post during the invasion of Leyte, Philippines, 1943.

Frederick Augustus Irving was born in Massachusetts on September 3, 1894. He entered the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York in June 1913, from where he graduated 53rd in a class of 139 on April 20, 1917, exactly two weeks after the American entry into World War I, as a second lieutenant of Infantry.

His first assignment upon receiving his commission was with the 35th Infantry Regiment, then serving in Nogales, Arizona. He was wounded during the battle and subsequently received the Silver Star for "leading his company through heavy artillery and machine gun fire." He saw no further action during the war, which ended with the Armistice with Germany on November 11, which saw Irving still in hospital. Before that he was commandant of cadets at West Point from 1941 to 1942 and had served from March to August 1942 as the 24th Division's Assistant Division Commander (ADC) before being promoted to command the division.

Irving's service in the American military extended thirty-seven years, and he retired from service in 1954. He died in 1995 of congestive heart failure at Mount Vernon Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, shortly after turning 101.