United States
John J. Pershing
1860–1948 Commander, American Expeditionary Forces
Pershing was a West Point graduate who served against the Apaches and Sioux, in Cuba and the Philippines, and commanded the 1916 expedition into Mexico in pursuit of Pancho Villa. His promotion over many senior officers to command the AEF in 1917 was a surprise. He was an austere, formal, demanding commander who built an army from scratch, and who resisted all pressure to merge American troops into British and French divisions. His stubbornness irritated the Allies, who needed men urgently; but the insistence on an independent American army allowed the United States to play a decisive role in 1918. After the war he became General of the Armies, a rank no one else has held in life.