Julian Ewell

Julian Johnson Ewell was the son of Jammie Morrison (Offutt) Ewell and Colonel George W. Ewell (1879–1972), a career Army officer.

Julian Johnson Ewell (November 5, 1915 – July 27, 2009) was a career United States Army officer who served in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

He commanded the 9th Infantry Division and II Field Force in Vietnam, and attained the rank of lieutenant general.

The son of a career Army officer, Ewell graduated from the New Mexico Military Institute and the United States Military Academy.

He was born in Stillwater, Oklahoma on November 5, 1915, while his father was serving as a Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater).

He was raised in California, Panama, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., and graduated from New Mexico Military Institute in 1932.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1939, he volunteered for paratrooper training at the start of World War II.

He attended Duke University before transferring to the United States Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1939.

He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry, and received paratrooper training at the start of World War II.

As a colonel in the late 1940s he served as executive officer to General Maxwell Taylor during Taylor's command of U.S. forces in Berlin.

In June 1944, Ewell parachuted into Normandy and led his men into combat for the first time.

Despite being unable to immediately account for a majority of his battalion because so many paratroopers had missed their landing zones, Ewell was still able to regroup and engage the German defenses.

On September 17, 1944, Ewell's battalion parachuted into the Netherlands as part of Operation Market Garden and Ewell soon moved up to regimental executive officer.

General Ewell was a graduate of the United States Army Command and General Staff College (1946), United States Army War College (1952) and National War College (1959).

During the war, he commanded 3rd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division.

He took part in a parachute jump into Normandy during the D-Day invasion, and continued to take part in combat against the Nazis in Europe.

Ewell later commanded the 501st Regiment, which included participation in Operation Market Garden and the defense of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge.

He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism at Bastogne.

After the war, Ewell continued his Army career, and his command assignments included the 9th Infantry Regiment in South Korea during the Korean War, Assistant Commandant of Cadets at West Point, Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division, and Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff for the Combat Developments Command.

Having advanced to lieutenant colonel during the war, Ewell assumed command of 3rd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division.

With the death of 501st commander Colonel Howard R. Johnson on October 8, Ewell moved up to regimental command.

That winter, he commanded the 501st when the 101st Airborne Division was rushed into the emergency defense of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroic actions.

Ewell continued his service after World War II.

In 1953, he was assigned as commander of the 9th Infantry Regiment in South Korea.

After the Korean War, Ewell attained the rank of brigadier general, and his assignments included: Assistant Commandant of Cadets at West Point; Executive Assistant to General Taylor during Taylor's assignment as Military Aide to President John F. Kennedy and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Assistant Division Commander of the 8th Infantry Division; Chief of Staff of V Corps in West Germany; and Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff for Combat Developments Command.

During the Vietnam War, Ewell commanded the 9th Infantry Division (1968–1969) and II Field Force (1969–1970).

He later served as military advisor to the U.S.-South Vietnamese delegation at the negotiations for the Paris Peace Accords and Chief of Staff of the NATO Southern Command.

Ewell's Vietnam service generated controversy, especially over concerns that his focus on "body counts" as a measure of success caused his subordinates to inflate their numbers by counting civilian dead as enemy combatants and by committing atrocities.

Among the most well-known operations he took part in was Operation Speedy Express, which was estimated by internal Department of Defense documents to have killed as many as 5,000 to 7,000 civilians.

David Hackworth alleges that among those in the 9th Division he had commanded, this earned him the nickname the "Butcher of the Delta".

According to Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns in The Vietnam War: An Intimate History, Ewell was apparently proud of this nickname, and saw nothing wrong with what the soldiers under his command had done.

From 1968 to 1969, Ewell commanded the 9th Infantry Division as a major general.

During his command, the division carried out Operation Speedy Express, an effort to eliminate Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers with overwhelming force.

Hackworth, who served in the 9th Division during the Vietnam War, wrote that in 1968 and 1969 the division was credited with killing 20,000 enemy, yet recovered only 2,000 weapons, suggesting that the numbers of enemy dead were inflated.

From 1969 to 1970, Ewell commanded II Field Force in Vietnam, receiving promotion to lieutenant general.

After relinquishing command of II Field Force, Ewell was military advisor to the U.S.-South Vietnamese delegation at the negotiations for the Paris Peace Accords.

From 1972 until his 1973 retirement, Ewell was Chief of Staff of NATO's Allied Forces Southern Europe in Naples, Italy.

Critics have charged Ewell with focusing obsessively on "body counts" during the Vietnam War, causing his subordinates to inflate their numbers in an effort to demonstrate success by counting civilian dead as enemy combatants and committing atrocities.

David Hackworth, author of Steel my Soldiers' Hearts, was critical of Ewell's performance.

Ewell died in Virginia in 2009, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.