LeRoy Lutes

LeRoy Lutes was born on October 4, 1890, in Cairo, Illinois. Lutes attended the Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri, and joined the Illinois National Guard in 1906. Lutes was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Regular Army on March 21, 1917 while serving on the Mexican border.

After the war, Lutes was transferred to the U.S. Army Coast Artillery Corps and also attended the advanced course at Coast Artillery School at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. Subsequently, Lutes also attended the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where he earned more military knowledges.

In July 1935, Lutes was transferred to the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C., where he served until the end of June 1939.[1]

In January 1940 he became chief of logistic and also assistant chief of staff of the Third Army in Atlanta under the command of Lieutenant General Herbert J. Brees. Lutes participated in the Louisiana Maneuvers in 1940–1941. Brehon Somervell, impressed with Lutes' talents as a staff officer, helped advance his career.[2] Lutes was appointed Director of Operations, Headquarters Services of Supply in 1942. In succession he became acting chief of staff, Headquarters, Army Service Forces; chief of staff and deputy to the commanding general, Army Service Forces; and on January 1, 1946, commanding general, Army Service Forces. On June 11, 1946, he was assigned to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's general staff as director of the Service, Supply and Procurement Division. In 1947 he became director of staff of the Munitions Board, and in 1949 he was made commanding general of the Fourth Army. He retired from the Army in 1952. In 1955 he was appointed to a committee to advise the Office of Defense Mobilization on the availability of commodities related to national defense.[3]

For his services during World War II and its aftermath, Lutes received the Army Distinguished Service Medal with the Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit and Bronze Star Medal. [4]

Lutes married four times; his wives were Martha M. Mulvihill (1893–1953), Charlotte Townsend Lutes (1902–1955), Mildred Speas Lutes (1911–1966, and Helen Kinney Lutes (1912–2011). His son LeRoy Lutes Jr. (1914–1992) graduated from West Point and was a US Army colonel who received the Army Distinguished Service Medal, for service in Vietnam.[5]

Lutes and his family members are buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[6]

Here is the ribbon bar of Lieutenant general LeRoy Lutes:

• Generals of World War II
• The Lutes Family at ArlingtonCemetery.net, an unofficial website
• Papers of Leroy Lutes, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
• US Army WWII The War Department Global Logistics and Strategy: 1940–1943