Paul DeWitt Adams
Brigadier General
Executive Officer,FSSF
from Birmingham,Alabama,USA[TABLE]
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[TD]born 6.10.1906
Biographical info by Charles A. Lewis[/TD]
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[TD="colspan: 2"]Paul DeWitt Adams was born in Heflin, AL. In 1924, after graduating from the Marion Military Institute (the State Military College of Alabama; he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated with the Class of 1928, receiving his commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry.
From 1942 to 1944, Adams served as Executive Officer of the 1st Special Service Force, a joint World War II American-Canadian commando unit organized in 1942 and trained in the U.S. In that position, he helped direct the Ranger tactics of the First Special Service Force in the Aleutian Islands and Italy; he also served in hot spots from Anzio and Ardennes - Alsace to the Rhineland, and in central Germany. The brigade became known as The Devil's Brigade. (A 1968 film of that name recounts the Brigade's formation, training, and its first European mission in the Italian campaign.)
Following that assignment, from January 1944 to January 1945, he commanded the 143rd Infantry Regiment, 36th Infantry Division, serving in the Mediterranean and European Theaters. From January 1945 to January 1946, Adams was Assistant Division Commander of the 45th Infantry Division. This was followed by staff assignments to Headquarters, Army Ground Forces in 1946 and to the Command and General Staff College from 1947 to 1950. He was a student, and then faculty member, at the Army War College from 1950-51, before being deployed to fight in the Korean War.
During the Korean War, Adams consecutively served as Commanding General, 25th Infantry Division; Chief of Staff of X Corps; and as General Maxwell Taylor's Chief of Staff at Eighth U.S. Army. After the war, from May to December 1953, he was Commanding General of the 101st Airborne Division. In 1958, he serv
