[ܒvændǝܖgrift]
Vandegrift, Alexander Archer ˈvændǝܖgrift (1887-1973) U.S. marine officer. Born in Charlottesville, Virginia, Alexander Vandegrift enlisted in the marine corps in 1908 and was commissioned a second lieutenant the next year. He saw action in Nicaragua and Mexico before serving in the Haitian constabulary for most of the period from 1916 to 1923. He held a number of important assignments in China and Washington before being named assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division in 1941. The next year he was promoted to major general and given command of the division, just a few months before it landed on Guadalcanal in the first big Allied amphibious assault on the road to Tokyo. The campaign there was one of the hardest-fought of the war. By the time Vandegrift's depleted division was relieved in December, the tide of battle on the island had swung decisively in the Americans' favor. In 1943 Vandegrift was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions, and became only the second marine to reach the rank of lieutenant general. He commanded the 1st Marine Amphibious Corps in the landings on Bougainville before leaving the theater to become commandant of the marine corps in January 1944. A year later he became the first marine on active duty ever to become a full general. He retired in 1949 and died in Bethesda, Maryland many years later.
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