Handy, Thomas Troy.

Handy, Thomas Troy, born 11-03-1982 in Spring City, Tennesee, to Thomas Reed Handy (1849-1940) and his wife Caroline Sophia, born Hill, Handy (1856-1929). Thomas had one sister and four brothers, Bolling Hall Handy (1891-1982), Stuart C.Handy (1893-1963), Frank Elmore Handy (1894-1979) , Laurens Duval Handy ( 1896-1945) and Jean Abercombia Handy ( 1902-1958).

attended the Virginia Military Institute, graduating in 1914. He did not receive an Army commission until two years later, in the Field Artillery. Handy deployed with the 5^th Field Artillery Regiment to France in August 1917, moving to the 42^nd Infantry Division  under command of Major General Charles Thomas Menoher

, in 1918 and later that year was assigned to the 151^st Field Artillery Regiment. Following World War I and occupation duty in Germany he went to Fort Sill, Oklahoma. In 1935 he went to the Naval War College. His schooling was followed by assignment to the General Staff until 1940, interrupted for a year by taking command of the 78^th Field Artillery Battalion, nickname “King of Battle” and “Red Leg”   at Fort Benning.  In December 1941 he was promoted to temporary Brigadier General and temporary Major General in June 1942 when he became Assistant Chief-of-Staff in charge of Operations Division, succeeding Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower. In September 1944 he was promoted to temporary Lieutenant General. In October 1944 he became Deputy Chief-of-Staff of the Army, receiving his fourth star in March 1945. In August 1945 he was acting Chief-of-Staff, due to George C. Marshall’s absence and transmitted the order from president Harry Ship Truman

 for use of the atomic bomb (see Paul Tibbets).

In September 1949, he was General, Lucius D. Clay’s successor as Commander-in-Chief of United States European Command.

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

destroyed this Japanese city on August 6, 1945. It was the first air raid with an atomic bomb carried out by the US Air Force. An estimated 100,000 to 140,000 Japanese die immediately

Handy died on 12-04-1982, at the old age of 90  and was buried with his wife Alma, born Hudson, on Arlington National Cemetery, Section 30. In Section 30 also the Lieutenant General, Commander of the 26^th Infantry Division , Willard Paul, Major General, Chief Signal Officer, Georg Back, Rear Admiral, Raid on Tokyo and Battle of Midway, Frank Akers, Lieutenant General, Commander 2^nd Armoured Division , Ted Brooks, Major General, Commander 116^th and 29^th Division , D-Day, Charles Canham, Infantry Major General, Commander 24^th Infantry Division , Kenneth Cramer, Infantry Major General, Commander 9^th Infantry Division , Louis Craig, Air Force Lieutenant General, Commander 12^th and 15^th U.S. Air Force, Ira Eaker, Navy Admiral, Okinawa Campain, Louis Denfeld, General Major, Commanding General 3rd Armored Division “Spearhead” , North-West Europe. Robert Walker Grow, Fleet Deputy Chief Operations, Richard Edwards, 1* Brigadier General, assistant Commanding General 85^th Division  Lee Saunders Gerow  and Secretary of the Navy in 1944, James Forrestal. Also a remembrance stone for the, age 44, missing in action Brigadier General, Charles Keerans the assistant commander of the 82^nd Airborne Division  under General Mattew Bunker Ridgway.

 Order for the bomb on Hiroshima.