9th Commander - Major General Horace Davisson

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9th Commander
White Sands Missile Range
Page 9 of 33

Major General Horace Davisson
Commander
Oct 12, 1966 - Mar 31, 1970

     Major General Horace Davisson, the 9th Commander of White Sands Proving Ground/Missile Range, was born in Ruleville, Mississippi, on March 25, 1914. He attended Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi for two years prior to entering the United States Military Academy at West Point from which he was graduated in 1937 as a second lieutenant, Field Artillery. His first assignment was to Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas, with the 15th Field Artillery where he served in various battery officer positions during the Army experiments in Infantry division reorganization.
     In 1939, he was assigned to Fort Knox, Kentucky, to join the newly organized 19th Field Artillery and participated in maneuvers at Fort McClellan, Alabama, and Fort Benning, Georgia. This was followed by an as assignment to the Ordnance Department at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, where he served as a development and proof officer in the Artillery Division. During World War II, General Davisson was Executive Officer for the Chief of Ordnance, European Theater of Operations, from November 1942 to November 1945 and participated in planning for and equipping, supplying and supporting U. S. Forces in Europe engaged in the Normandy and Central European Campaigns.
     Upon his return to the United States, he was designated Executive Officer of the Field Service Division and, subsequently, the Research and Development Division of the Office, Chief of Ordnance, Department of the Army, Washington, D. C. In 1949, General Davisson was named Chief, Manufacturing Division of Picatinny Arsenal at Dover, New Jersey, and during 1951-53, he was Chief of the Procurement Division of the Ordnance Tank-Automotive Center in Detroit, Michigan.
     Following completion of a one-year course at the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania in 1954, he was appointed Ordnance Advisor in the Military Assistance Advisory Group on Taiwan where he served for two years working in close association with the Chinese Nationalist Forces in developing all aspects of Ordnance support capabilities. In 1956, he departed Taiwan to become Commanding Officer of the Anniston Army Depot at Anniston, Alabama, where he provided U. S. Army Ordnance support to Army and Air Force units stationed throughout the southeastern area of the United States. In January 1959, he was assigned to Headquarters, United States European Command, Paris, France, as Chief of the Procurement Branch in the Logistics (J -4) Division. In May 1961 he was named Deputy Director of the Logistics Division at the USEUCOM Headquarters. In August of 1962 he assumed command of the 2nd Logistical Command at Fort Lee, Virginia. During the Cuban Crisis of 1962 he was named to organize and command the Peninsula Base Command in Florida, which provided outstanding logistical support to the large number of troops associated with the operation. General Davisson served in Korea as Commanding General of the Eighth U. S. Army Support Command from April of 1964 to June of 1966. One of his achievements there was reorganizing the Eighth U. S. Army Support Command into a COSTAR-Combat Service Support to the Army-command. This project, designed to improve the logistics base in Korea, took months of planning and made the support command into one of the most efficient commands in the Army. In June 1966 he was assigned as Deputy Commanding General of the U. S. Army Weapons Command at Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois, and served as Commanding General of that installation during September and October. On 12 October 1966, General Davisson assumed command of White Sands Missile Range New Mexico, where he served as Commander of the National Range and as a major subordinate commander of the Army's Test and Evaluation Command.
    General Davisson died on 20 Oct 1992.