In 1944, Aurand was assigned as the Assistant Chief Ordnance Officer, European Theater of Operations, United States Army (ETOUSA) and Communications Zone (COMZ).

When the principal candidate failed the physical examination, Aurand wrote to his United States Congressman, John Geiser McHenry, declining the nomination.

After a family discussion, it was decided that Aurand would go to West Point, serve the minimum four years, and then complete postgraduate engineer training at Pennsylvania State College.

He then went to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, but on June 2 was sent to El Paso, Texas, where he was in charge of civilian truck companies supporting the Pancho Villa Expedition in Mexico.

[3][6] Her father, Davis Evan Decker, was a Texas state senator and judge; her grandmother, Nancy Elizabeth Morrow, was the oldest daughter of Sam Houston.

As a result, he received an adverse efficiency report that rated him as being deficient in military bearing, neatness, tact and judgement, and recommended that he be given field service assignments only.

In this role he supervised the training of National Guard units from Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, and in November 1923 he prepared mobilization plans for the Corps Area.

[14][15] With the help of his West Point classmate Eisenhower, who was now the aide-de-camp to the Army Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur, Aurand secured an appointment to the War College faculty.

He believed that logistics was the decisive factor in modern warfare, and rejected the cautious assumption that the public would not countenance the creation of the machinery for industrial mobilization in peacetime.

[17] Aurand's controversial views and stubborn insistence that he was right may have resulted in his next assignment, as Assistant Fiscal Officer at the War Department, which was generally considered a dead-end job.

On January 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Office of Production Management (OPM) under William S. Knudsen to coordinate the industrial mobilization process with an executive order.

[25] He observed the Louisiana Maneuvers, spending an afternoon with Eisenhower, who was now the Chief of Staff of the Third United States Army, and with his G-4, Lieutenant Colonel LeRoy Lutes.

Brigadier General George V. Strong, the chief of the War Plans Division (WPD), felt that Britain had already been defeated and that the US should concentrate on building up its own forces, which were suffering from shortages of all kinds.

The mayor of Detroit, Edward Jeffries, later criticized Aurand for a tardy response to the crisis, which was due to not receiving a timely request for assistance from the governor of Michigan, Harry Kelly.

Suddenly, on October 20, 1944, he received a call from Major General Wilhelm D. Styer,[36] the Chief of Staff of the Army Service Forces, as USASOS had been renamed in March 1943.

The production of ammunition had been curtailed after excess stockpiles had been built up during the North African campaign, but expenditure in Europe, especially in heavy calibers, was greater than forecast, and ETO stocks were consistently below authorized levels.

[39] The increased demand for ammunition was due to the tactical situation, with the American armies attempting to break through the concrete and steel fortifications of the German Siegfried Line.

Due to the failure to capture and develop adequate ports, unloading of ammunition had fallen behind schedule, and the rapid advances of July and August had led to the establishment of dumps and depots being neglected.

At Verdun, he spoke to the Chief Ordnance Officer of the 12th Army Group, Brigadier General Harold A. Nisley, who blamed the situation on Lee and the COMZ.

Word got back to Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Walter B. Smith, who gave Aurand a severe dressing down, and told him that he would be reduced to his substantive rank of colonel and shipped home.

[44] Instead, Aurand assumed command of the Normandy Base Section on December 17, vice Major General Lucius D. Clay, who was returning to ASF in Washington, DC.

Aurand replaced American soldiers with French civilians and German prisoners of war, and placed greater reliance on the rehabilitated railway network instead of the roads.

[47] The second crisis occurred on Christmas Eve; the troopship SS Léopoldville, carrying 2,235 men of the 66th Infantry Division, was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-486, with the loss of 763 American lives.

Aurand adopted and carried through Davis's recommendations for improving the living and working conditions and recreational facilities available to African Americans, and reports of serious crimes declined during 1945.

Lee expressed the hope that Aurand would stay—the Normandy Base Section was expected to become busy again as troops redeployed to the United States and the Pacific—but conceded that if their positions were reversed he would go.

Much of the country was occupied by the Japanese, the logistical infrastructure of the hinterland still in Allied hands was undeveloped, and it lay at the end of a very long line of communications over the Himalayas, known as the "Hump".

[57] At theater headquarters, planning was under way for Operation Carbonado, the capture of Fort Bayard, a port on the south coast of China, which would permit supplies to be brought in by sea.

Two members of the Liquidation Commission came to see Aurand to protest his flouting of rules regarding the disposal of government property; the moment the war ended, all Lend-Lease material was to be paid for in full or returned to the United States.

The Liquidation Commission seemed oblivious to the fact that a poor country at the end of eight years of war could not possibly pay for the supplies, which would cost more than their value to return to the United States.

[63] On March 21, 1949,[19] Bradley, who had succeeded Eisenhower as Chief of Staff, appointed Aurand the Commanding General, United States Army, Pacific,[64] a position he held until his retirement On August 31, 1952, when he was replaced by John W.