Tattoo of GEN Berton E. Spivy
US Army, Retired

US Army General. A combat veteran of World War II, he rose in rank to become the US Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Military Committee. Born Berton Everett Spivey, Jr. in Muskogee, Oklahoma, in 1930 he received an appointment to attend the US Military Academy at West Point, New York and graduated in June 1934 with a Bachelor of Science Degree and a commission as a 2nd lieutenant of Artillery. From 1934 until the US entered World War II in December 1941, he attended various military courses and schools, including the US Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. During World War II he became Chief of the Field Artillery Branch, US Army Ground Forces, and was sent to Southern France and served with the 7th US Army as the Plans and Operations Artillery Officer until the end of the war. He then returned to the US and was assigned as Deputy G-4, 1st US Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. From 1948 until 1959 his other assignments included Commander of the 15th Field Artillery Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis, Washington, Commandant of the Special Weapons School, and Commander of the Special Weapons Unit Training Group for the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Sandia Base, New Mexico. In 1959 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and was assigned to Korea as Commander of the 7th Infantry Division Artillery and the following year he returned to the US to command the 1st Field Artillery Missile Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and was promoted to the rank of major general. In April 1965 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and assigned as the Director for Plans and Policy in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Washington DC. In July 1968 he was promoted to the rank of general and became the US Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium and he retired at this position in July 1971 with 37 years of continued military service. Among his military awards and decorations include the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal. Following his military retirement, he became a military weapons consultant for Martin Marietta Corporation in Bethesda, Maryland for 20 years. He died from cancer in Dallas, Texas at the age of 85.