LT. GENERAL THOMAS TRAPNELL - AUTOGRAPHED SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH - HFSID 24443

THOMAS TRAPNELL
Shown in cold-weather fatigues as a 3-star general, conversing with a colonel and another soldier. Trapnell led the US Army's last cavalry charge!
Signature: "All the Very/ Best Regards/ Thomas Trapnell". B/w, 10x8. Judging by the patch shown on his left shoulder, this image was taken when he commanded the XVIII Airborne Corps. Thomas J. H. "Trap" Trapnell (1902-2002) was an All-American halfback on Army's fine football team of 1926 (defeated only by Notre Dame). As captain of West Point's lacrosse team, he got into a fight with his brother William Trapnell, playing for the Naval Academy. Trapnell earned the Distinguished Service Cross for leading the 26th Cavalry in a stubborn rearguard action in the Philippines in April 1942, employing the US Army's last cavalry charge. Captured with the fall of Corregidor, he survived the Bataan Death March. Liberated in 1945, he regained his strength and weight and then promptly applied for airborne training. Trapnell commanded a regimental combat team during the Korean War and would return to Korea in 1958 commander of I Corps, with the rank of lieutenant general. (This photo probably dates from that tour.) Earlier in the decade, Trapnell was the principal US advisor to the French military effort in Indo-China (predicting privately to his superiors that the French would lose). In 1961, he advised President Kennedy strongly against military intervention in Vietnam. Trapnell's other commands included the 4th Armor Division and the 82nd Airborne. Ink notes and stamps on verso (slight show through). Slightly creased. Otherwise, fine condition.