Elbridge Chapman

Major General Elbridge Gerry Chapman, Jr. (20 November 1895 – 6 July 1954) was a senior United States Army officer who served in both World War I and World War II. During the latter he commanded the 13th Airborne Division, but saw no action.

Military career

Chapman entered the United States Army in 1917, due to the American entry into World War I and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Infantry Branch. He served with distinction on the Western Front in France as a company commander with the 5th Machine Gun Battalion (attached to the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division) and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Silver Star Citation for valor.

During the interwar period he remained in the army and by the time the United States entered World War II in December 1941 he was an enthusiastic supporter of the army's rapidly growing airborne forces, commanding the 88th Glider Infantry Battalion, later becoming the Assistant Division Commander of the 13th Airborne Division, later commanding the division in North-West Europe but never commanded it in action.