Major Jonathan Bratton

He will not go overseas.

So he hasn't had this formative...

piece of schooling and combat tutelage that almost all of his peers have.

He is a guy, though, who is smart.

He gets picked up repeatedly when MacArthur, when Douglas MacArthur is the army chief of staff.

He taps Eisenhower to be one of his aides.

He is consistently recognized by the bigwigs in the army in this era.

This is MacArthur and then George C. Marshall, who's someone who

We should probably give at least a mention, probably the smartest guy to ever worthy in cloth of the nation, honestly, and serving it through multiple roles.

But Marshall sees Eisenhower from 1940, 41, sees his skills and jumps him.

I think it's over 300 times.

people to push him up to the level of command for operations in North Africa in 1942, sort of this trial run.

So why?

Why Eisenhower?

Incredible administrator, incredibly non-controversial, accomplished person.

And I think we really need to, when we look at the non-controversial piece of this, what Marshall is asking Eisenhower to do is not, hey, go lead American troops in American operations somewhere.

It's go be an allied commander amongst a bunch of allies.

The historian Samuel Elliott Morrison, who's a naval officer, writes that in World War II, probably the greatest achievement, second only to beating the Axis, the allies had was not going to war with each other.

We're talking about massive personalities, the British and Americans facing off constantly, let alone bringing in the French, the Italians once they switch sides.

You've got all the Commonwealth countries.