Vernon E. Megee; Rose From Marine Private to General

Vernon E. Megee, 91, the only Marine to rise from private to four-star general. Megee grew up in Chandler, Okla., and briefly attended Oklahoma A & M College before enlisting in the Marine Corps in 1919. He returned to the classroom and earned his degree more than 30 years later. In World War II, Megee--then a colonel--was the first commander of a Marine Landing Force air support control unit. Carrying out his strategy of close air support at Iwo Jima in 1945, he told his pilots to “go in and scrape your bellies on the ground.” Megee helped develop the Marine tactic of supporting ground troops with air strikes using rockets, napalm and strafing. Pilots were directed by radio messages from land controllers. He won the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star and several other medals. He reached his four-star rank toward the end of his career and retired in 1959 as commanding general of the Fleet Marine Force in the Pacific. In Albuquerque, N.M., on Jan. 14.