Edwin "Pa" Watson
| Edwin M. Watson | |
|---|---|
Pa Watson, helping President Roosevelt to stand, in 1939
|
|
| Nickname(s) | Pa |
| Born |
December 10, 1883 Eufaula, Alabama |
| Died | February 20, 1945 (aged 61) USS Quincy, North Atlantic, en route to Newport News, Virginia |
| Place of burial | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Service/branch |
 United States Army
|
| Years of service | 1908-1945 |
| Rank |
 Major General
|
| Battles/wars |
World War I World War II |
| Awards |
Silver Star Distinguished Service Medal (posthumous) Croix de Guerre (France) |
| Other work | Senior military aide and White House Appointments Secretary for President Franklin D. Roosevelt |
Edwin Martin "Pa" Watson (10 December 1883 – 20 February 1945) was a United States Army Major General, friend and a senior aide to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, serving both as a military advisor and Appointments secretary (a role that is now encompassed under the duties of the modern-day White House Chief of Staff).
Edwin M. Watson was born on December 10, 1883 in Eufaula, Alabama. He was raised in Virginia, the son of a businessman in the tobacco industry.
He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, among contemporaries George S. Patton and Jonathan Wainwright. Watson entered with the Class of 1906 on June 16, 1902, but was discharged for a deficiency in mathematics on April 9, 1903. He was readmitted as a plebe on August 23, 1903, but resigned in the middle of his third class year on December 29, 1904. He re-entered the Academy as a member of the third class in August 1905 and graduated in the Class of 1908.
His classmates gave him the nickname "Pa" for his precociously parental ways and wisdom.
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry.
He served overseas twice, in the Philippines and Mexico, before being transferred back to the United States in 1915. There, he gained his first experience with Presidential service, acting as a junior military aide to President Woodrow Wilson.
Shortly after America’s entry into the First World War in April 1917, Watson requested an active duty assignment with the American Expeditionary Force heading for the front in France. He served there for the remainder of the war, earning the U.S. Army Silver Star and the Croix de Guerre from the French government. He remained in France for the Paris Peace Conference to write the Treaty of Versailles to formally end the First World War. There, he again worked for the adoption of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points to guide the post-war world.
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