Wilhelm D. Styer

Wilhelm Delp Styer (22 July 1893 – 26 February 1975) was a lieutenant general in the United States Army during World War II. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point with the class of 1916, he was commissioned into the United States Army Corps of Engineers and served with the Pancho Villa Expedition and on the Western Front. Between the wars he obtained a degree in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was executive officer and assistant district engineer of the New York Engineer District.

During World War II, Styer was deputy commander of the Construction Division in the Quartermaster Corps and later the Corps of Engineers. In March 1942, he became the chief of staff of the Services of Supply. He became deputy commanding general of the Army Service Forces in August 1943, as the Services of Supply was renamed. In this capacity he served on the Military Policy Committee, which oversaw the Manhattan Project.

In May 1945, Styer became the commanding general of Army Forces, Western Pacific. As such, he chaired the tribunal that tried and convicted Generals Tomoyuki Yamashita and Masaharu Homma for war crimes. He retired in 1947.

Early life Wilhelm Delp Styer was born on 22 July 1893, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the son of Brigadier General Henry D. Styer, a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point class of 1884, who led U.S. troops in Siberia at end of World War I. His mother Bessie Wilkes was the granddaughter of the Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes, the Antarctic explorer. He had a brother, Charles Wilkes Styer Sr., who later became a rear admiral, and a sister, Katherine Elizabeth "Bess" Styer, who married Adrian Melvin Hurst, who also became a rear admiral.

Styer attended schools in the United States and the Philippines, and the National Preparatory Academy in Highland Falls, New York. He entered West Point on 14 June 1912, graduated third in a class of 125 in the class of 1916, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers on 13 June 1916. Several of his fellow graduates would, like Styer himself, attain general officer rank in the future. They included Stanley Eric Reinhart, Dwight Johns, William M. Hoge, Calvin DeWitt Jr., Horace L. McBride, Fay B. Prickett and Robert Neyland. During his graduation leave in July and August 1916, he was a voluntary assistant instructor with the New Jersey National Guard, which was then under his father's command. He was posted to the Engineer Depot in Columbus, New Mexico, on 21 September 1916. On 5 October 1916, he joined the 2d Engineers, with which he served in the Pancho Villa Expedition. He was promoted to captain on 15 May 1917, a few weeks after the American entry into World War I. It was renamed the Army Service Forces in March 1943, as the term "supply" was felt to be too narrow a description of the broad range of logistical activities carried out by the organization. Somervell became its commander, and Styer his chief of staff from 9 March 1942. Styer was promoted to brigadier general the next day, and major general on 8 August 1942. He became deputy commanding general of the Army Service Forces on 13 August 1943.

In September 1942, the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), Vannevar Bush, suggested Styer be appointed director of the Manhattan Project, but Somervell did not wish to lose his services, and engineered the appointment of Groves instead. On 23 September 1942, Styer became a member of the Military Policy Committee, a group chaired by Bush (with James B. Conant as his alternate) with Rear Admiral William R. Purnell as its third member. As director, Groves was answerable to the Military Policy Committee, which was responsible for the higher direction of the Manhattan Project. When the Combined Policy Committee was formed in September 1943 by the Quebec Agreement, its chairman, Secretary of War Henry Stimson, had Styer appointed as his deputy. Styer also became chairman of its technical subcommittee, which included America's Richard Tolman, Britain's James Chadwick and Canada's C. J. Mackenzie. The technical subcommittee became very influential, as it furnished most of the data on which the Combined Policy Committee based its decisions.

Styer (left) with Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson and U. S. High Commissioner to the Philippines Paul V. McNutt in McNutt's office in Manila in 1946 Styer was not confined to his office. In 1943, Somervell sent him to the China Burma India Theater to report on the Ledo Road. Styer's report persuaded the Combined Chiefs of Staff to allocate the required personnel, equipment and supplies to develop the road. He was promoted to lieutenant general on 7 November 1944.

Army Forces, Western Pacific In April 1945, Somervell sent him to the Philippines to report on preparations for Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan. The Supreme Allied Commander in the South West Pacific, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, asked Styer to become head of a logistics organisation for Operation Downfall. Styer accepted the offer, but when he returned in May 1945 to assume the post, he found it was not what he had accepted. Instead, he became the commanding general of Army Forces, Western Pacific, a command co-equal with Lieutenant General Robert C. Richardson, Jr.'s Army Forces, Middle Pacific, which included logistical units, but also combat forces, while the planning responsibilities remained with MacArthur's General Headquarters.

On 24 September 1945, with the war over, MacArthur ordered Styer "to appoint military commissions for the trial of such persons accused of war crimes". To try General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Styer appointed a commission of five general officers: Major Generals Russel B. Reynolds, Leo Donovan and James A. Lester, and Brigadier Generals Morris C. Harwerk and Egbert F. Bullens. Styer had the authority to reduce the sentence handed down by the commission, but he upheld the commission's death sentence on 12 December. The sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Later life Styer retired from the Army at his own request on 29 April 1947. He died in Coronado, California, on 26 February 1975. He was survived by his wife, son, brother and sister. and the Distinguished Service Star from the government of the Philippines. He was also appointed an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Styer was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on 18 March 1975.