The press likened him to General George S. Patton Jr. for his strong personal opinions and his fearless demeanor, as well as his dash and daring in moving the 3rd Infantry Division across the European Theater of Operations (ETO).

His company commander, First Lieutenant Mark W. Clark, would go on to become a great friend and would be destined to play a large part in the newly commissioned O'Daniel's future military career.

[3] In May 1918 he was, together with the rest of his battalion and division, shipped out to the Western Front to reinforce the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), commanded by General John J. Pershing, for the remainder of the war and many months afterward.

[6] Testifying to his endurance and aggressiveness in battle was his nickname, "Iron Mike", awarded by his peers, said to be a result of his actions at Saint-Mihiel, where he fought for twelve hours, even though he was hit in the face by a German machine gun bullet and severely wounded.

The citation for his DSC reads: The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Second Lieutenant (Infantry) John Wilson O'Daniel (ASN: 0-7342), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in action while serving with 11th Infantry Regiment, 5th Division, A.E.F., near Bois-St. Claude, in the St. Mihiel salient, 12 September 1918.

[11] He was transferred in July 1928 to the 21st Infantry at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii and in January 1930 was placed in command of the Military Police Detachment of the Hawaiian Department at Fort Schafter.

[12] In the 1930s with the country locked in the Great Depression, O'Daniel undertook a series of assignments that departed from traditional military roles.

From September to November 1933, he was on Civilian Conservation Corps duty at Smokemont, North Carolina and then was assigned to the 22nd Infantry Regiment at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia.

[14] He was named Executive Officer of District "D" in July 1935, earning advancement to major in August,[15] and a year later he became Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the Academy of Richmond County at Augusta, Georgia.

[21] Shortly after the American entry into the war, on December 24, 1941, he was promoted to colonel[22][21] and became Assistant Chief of Staff for operations of the Third Army and Director of the Junior Officers Training Center in San Antonio, Texas.

[23] In July 1942 O'Daniel was transferred to Allied Forces Headquarters (AFHQ) in Europe as Commander of the American Invasion Training School in the United Kingdom.

In September he assumed command of the 168th Infantry Regiment, part of the 34th Infantry Division, a National Guard formation under Major General Charles W. Ryder, leading it in the Allied invasion of French North Africa (Operation Torch), and led the regiment on November 8–9, 1942 in the capture of Algiers and the subsequent run for Tunis.

[26] In July 1943 O'Daniel landed in Sicily (which was given the codename of Operation Husky) with the 3rd Infantry Division, under Major General Lucian Truscott.

[28] His performance during the fighting continued to impress his more senior commanders, in particular with Walker, who had served with "Mike" in the 1920s, and who later personally awarded O'Daniel with the Silver Star.

[31] While under his command the division repelled several furious German counterattacks, finally breaking out of the beachhead encirclement in May during Operation Diadem and driving to Rome, [32] where he was promoted to the two-star rank of major general.

"[34] He served there until August 1944 when O'Daniel and his 3rd Division landed at the St. Tropez Peninsula in Southern France and drove north through the Vosges Mountains to Germany.

O'Daniel led the 3rd Division up the Rhône Valley to Strasbourg, in the Colmar Pocket where it decimated German forces in January 1945 and when it smashed across the Siegfried Line at Zweibrücken in March 1945.

O'Daniel hoisted his flag over Adolf Hitler Square in the center of the city and paid a rousing tribute to the exhausted infantrymen around him for having "driven the hun" from one of the last remaining Nazi strongholds.

At 1830, in the battered Adolf Hitler Platz, a rifle platoon from each regiment, as well as tanks, TDs, and Flak wagons, stood in silent array.

Through your feats of arms, you have smashed fifty heavy antiaircraft guns, captured four thousand prisoners, and driven the Hun from every house and every castle and bunker in our part of Nuremberg.

A few bewildered civilians contemplated the red, white, and blue banner flying at half-staff in mourning for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Representatives of German Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring surrendered to him and he turned them over to General Jacob L. Devers, commander of the 6th Army Group, near Munich on May 5, 1945.

In April 1954, at the behest of President Eisenhower, he was posted as the Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group for Indo-China, leading the vanguard of America's involvement in Indochina.

The Middletown Transcript recorded his last visit to Delaware on Nov 28 1971: "Lt. Gen. John W. "Iron Mike" O'Daniel, World War II hero, returned to Newark to settle the estate of his aunt Miss Etta J.

He died in San Diego on March 27, 1975, survived by his wife Gretchen, a daughter, Mrs. Ruth Snyder of Pacific Grove California, and four grandchildren.

His only son, John W. O'Daniel Jr., a paratrooper, was killed in action in World War II, near Arnhem in September 1944 during Operation Market Garden, while serving in the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of Major General James Gavin's 82nd Airborne Division.