Summary and Key Points: Stephen Silver, an award-winning national security journalist, evaluates the unconventional rise of Dwight D. Eisenhower and his enduring philosophy of leadership.
-Despite missing combat in World War I, Eisenhower spent the interwar years as a “student of war” under mentors like Fox Conner, George Patton, and Douglas MacArthur.
Former General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-This 19FortyFive report analyzes how Eisenhower’s diverse education at the Naval War College and his time in the Philippines culminated in his role as Supreme Allied Commander.
-Silver explores the “Sergeant is the Army” quote, concluding that Eisenhower’s greatest insight was recognizing that real military strength resides in the hands of middle-tier leaders.
“The Sergeant Is the Army”: Unpacking Eisenhower’s Quote Tribute to the NCO Corps
‘The Sergeant Is the Army.’ – General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower, before he was elected the 34th president of the United States in 1952, was best known as an Army general, serving as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in the European theater.
During his service, he oversaw the Normandy invasion, as well as other pivotal moments of the war.
But less known is how Eisenhower rose to that position.
Dwight D. Eisenhower 19FortyFive.com Image. Taken on 1/23/2026 at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC By Dr. Brent M. Eastwood.
The Rise of Ike
Eisenhower was born in Kansas in 1890. According to a biography published on the Warfare History Network website, the future president had first eyed a career in the Navy, but ultimately went to West Point instead, where he began in 2011.
“Cadet Eisenhower was awarded his commission in the infantry in June 1915, having graduated 61st of 164,” War History Network said. “His class, more than any other, would be touched by History, would be known in due course as the Class the Stars Fell On. Two of its members would be among only five U.S. Army officers ever to wear five stars.”
Once the U.S. entered World War I, Eisenhower “bombarded the Army with missives offering his life in return for combat duty in France,” as most of his West Point classmates had deployed already. In 1918, he was transferred to Fort Meade in Maryland. Told at first he would command a tank battalion, he was instead ordered to Camp Colt in Pennsylvania, to “build a brand-new tank battalion from scratch,” the Warfare History Network reported.
The idea at Camp Colt, the account said, was for “the troops commanded by Ike [to be] designated the nucleus of the new Army Tank Corps and assigned the mission of training all of the Army’s replacement tank crewmen, who would graduate to the war.”
However, that wasn’t quite to be. Due to what was described as “an arcane agreement with the British,” Eisenhower’s tank corps never actually was deployed to France. In October of 1918, Eisenhower was told he would finally deploy to France the following month, but alas, the armistice was signed in November, meaning World War I concluded without the future general and president ever deploying there.
Dwight D. Eisenhower President. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Eisenhower was promoted to lieutenant colonel near the end of the war and named a permanent major in June 1920.
Between the Wars
After World War I, Eisenhower remained in charge of the Tank Corps. Soon after, “met and fell into the orbit” of the future Gen. George Patton.
“The two became fast friends and partners in applying lessons learned to the nascent American tank doctrine. Patton was five years older than Ike and had graduated from West Point six years ahead of Ike, but the two became inseparable friends and partners,” The Warfare History Network account said.
It was a pivotal dinner in 1919, with Patton and Gen. Fox Conner, that led further to Eisenhower’s rise. When Conner, two years later, was placed in command of an infantry brigade in the Panama Canal Zone, he brought in Ike as his executive officer.
“Ike’s official duties were light, giving him plenty of reason to leap at every opportunity to keep his mind active,” the Warfare History Network account said. “It was in this atmosphere that Fox Conner, one of the great military minds of his era, began his three-year effort to inscribe all he knew and all he believed on the mind of a man he felt might be one of the next generation’s great military leaders.”
Eisenhower stayed for three years, writing that his time in the Canal Zone, under Conner, was “a sort of graduate school in military affairs and the humanities, leavened by comments and discourses of a man who was experienced in his knowledge of men and their conduct.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower D-Day 1944. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
After Panama, Eisenhower continued his education, this time in actual academia. In 1925, he headed to Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
“He studied hard and graduated at the top of his class, a really important career milestone, especially for a man who had missed his generation’s big war,” the account said. After that, Eisenhower was brought to the Battle Monuments Commission in Washington, where he got to know retired General of the Armies John J. Pershing.
Then came another stint in academia, this time at the Naval War College, from which he graduated in 1928. After that, he finally made it to France for a tour, where “the military part of his mind idly fought mock campaigns on the passing vistas, memorizing terrain as it did.”
After that, Eisenhower headed back to Washington as an assistant executive officer assigned to the assistant secretary of war. Doing this led Eisenhower to meet with industry leaders to discuss how to learn lessons from the sluggish industrial mobilization during World War I.
Eisenhower’s next mentor was General Douglas MacArthur, who was by then the Army chief of staff, and he was by MacArthur’s side during his brutal quashing of the Bonus March in 1932. By the mid-1930s, he was formally MacArthur’s aide de camp, later following him to the Philippines.
And then, in 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. All the things Eisenhower learned in the previous two decades helped lead him to some of the most crucial military victories ever achieved.
The Quote
The quote is shared often, including by official Army channels, like the Army’s X account. You can even get the quote on a T-shirt. Or on a poster.
It’s not clear exactly when Eisenhower said this, whether it was during his service as a general or perhaps later on, during his time as president. But there’s little doubt what the quote means exactly.
Lance Cpl. Alex Rowan, a combat engineer with 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, 4th Marine Division, stationed out of Bessemer, Ala., runs to take cover before the Anti-Personnel Obstacle Breaching System detonates during the SAPPER Leaders Course aboard Camp Lejeune, N.C., June 26, 2015. During the course, the Marines used assault and breaching techniques to clear a wire obstacle using line charges that utilized C4 explosives and their APOBS. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Krista James/Released)
“In this succinct statement, Eisenhower emphasizes the central role of the noncommissioned officer (NCO)—particularly the sergeant—in the functioning and effectiveness of the military. While generals may set strategy and officers may command,” one analysis says.
“It is the sergeants who train, discipline, and lead soldiers on the ground. They embody the daily leadership, continuity, and competence that keep the Army operating effectively. By saying ‘the sergeant is the Army,’ Eisenhower is acknowledging that real military strength lies not only at the top, but in the capable hands of those who lead from the middle.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
