General Douglas Macarthur: Military Leader

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General Douglas MacArthur: Leader
General Douglas MacArthur was known as an excellent military leader. His can-do attitude and refusal to give up were the reasons that he came to mind when I chose him as the subject of this paper. As I learned more about his life and experiences, I became even more impressed by his leadership skills, work ethic, and grace under pressure.
Personal Background
Douglas MacArthur was born on January 26, 1880 at the Little Rock Army Barracks in Arkansas. His father was a decorated Army General who won the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, so MacArthur grew up with a strong military background. His family moved quite a bit as he was growing up, so he was exposed to different cultures around the world.
In 1899, he was accepted as a cadet at West Point, and graduated with honors in 1903. He served as a Junior officer at various posts including an assignment as an aide-de-camp to President Roosevelt until the start of World War I when he was transferred to France to help lead the 42nd Division. After the war, he was the superintendent of West Point from 1919-1922. West point was in disarray due to the war, so MacArthur was charged with rebuilding the schools rigorous educational program as well …show more content…
The military structure was bureaucratic. Hierarchical, departmentalized, and formal. However, MacArthur was able to bring about many changes. One example occurred in 1930 when Chief of Staff MacArthur was able to present his Industrial Mobilization and General Mobilization of Manpower plans that redesigned the military defense plan (MacArthur, 1964, p. 105). Mac Arthur realized the military needed to be lighter, faster and well-trained, so he kept fighting to implement the plans changes. Since he could see military action would be needed sooner rather than later, he tried to overcome the resistance and instill a sense of

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