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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
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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.
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