Omar Bradley was born on February 12, 1893, in Clark, Missouri. He entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1911 and received his commission in the Infantry upon graduation on June 12, 1915. Bradley's first assignment was with the 14th Infantry Regiment and he was posted to the Mexico border. He next served in Montana and then with the 19th Infantry Division, but World War I ended before he was deployed overseas. Between the wars, Bradley taught at West Point from 1920 to 1924, attended the advanced infantry course at Fort Benning, Georgia, served in Hawaii, went through Command and General Staff School, taught at West Point a 2nd time from 1929 to 1936, and then served at the War Department from 1938 to 1941. General Bradley commanded Fort Benning from February 1941 to February 1942, when he took command of the 82nd and then the 28th Infantry Divisions. Bradley served in North Africa as Gen George Patton's deputy of II Corps, and then he commanded II Corps for the final Tunisian battles in April and May 1943. He next commanded II Corps in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and was made commander of the U.S. First Army during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Gen Bradley then took command of the 12th Army Group for the remainder of the invasion of Europe. After the war, Bradley headed the Veterans Administration for two years before becoming Chief of Staff of the Army in 1948. He then became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949, and was promoted to General of the Army on September 22, 1950, the last U.S. General to be promoted to that rank. General Bradley left regular active service in 1953, but remained on active duty, as all five-star flag officers did, until his death on April 8, 1981. Omar married Mary Elizabeth Quayle on December 28, 1916, and they remained married until her death on December 1, 1965. Bradley later married Esther Dora Buhler on September 12, 1966, and she died in 2004. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery with Mary and Esther.