Dr. Mark T. Calhoun

Military Historian

Dr. Mark T. Calhoun earned his PhD in History from the University of Kansas in 2012. He is the author of General Lesley J. McNair: Unsung Architect of the U.S. Army (University Press of Kansas, 2015), the first comprehensive military life of General Lesley J. McNair. The book reveals previously unpublished details of McNair's forty-year career and assesses the impact of McNair’s views and actions on America's mobilization for and involvement in World War II. Dr. Calhoun's current research interests center on General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth US Army, and Ninth Army’s operations during the campaign in Northwest Europe from 1944 to 1945. A career US Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot and war planner, Dr. Calhoun retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2008, after which he served for fourteen years as an associate professor on the faculty of the US Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies.

More from the Contributor

  • Article Type

    The Liberation of Paris

    Despite the impending defeat of the Wehrmacht in France, the victory over Germany would not be complete until the capital of France was liberated, and the Vichy government replaced.

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  • Article Type

    George Benton Turner’s Medal of Honor

    George Benton Turner joined the US Marine Corps in 1918, but World War I ended before he shipped overseas. When World War II broke out, Turner, now in his early 40s, once again volunteered to fight for his country, this time enlisting in the US Army in October 1942.

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  • Article Type

    Junior J. Spurrier's Medal of Honor

    After a difficult adjustment to the discipline of Army life, James I. Spurrier Jr. deployed to the South Pacific as an infantry soldier. Returning to combat duty after being wounded in New Guinea, he joined the 35th Infantry Division, landing in Normandy on D+1. Excellent in combat, his lack of discipline led to his assignment as a company runner rather than a squad leader. This enabled him to fight on his own, which was his preference.

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  • Article Type

    General William H. Simpson’s Ninth US Army and the Crossing of the Rhine

    Much has been made in the historical record of the capture of the Ludendorff Bridge over the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany in early March of 1945. However, fewer accounts exist of Operation Flashpoint, Ninth US Army’s assault crossing of the Rhine, which began on March 24. General William H. Simpson, commander of Ninth Army, has received little attention in the historiography of World War II.

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  • Article Type

    US II Corps at El Guettar

    In the aftermath of the Battle of Kasserine Pass, US II Corps passed to the command of General Harold Alexander’s 18th Army Group. When Alexander took command on February 20, 1943, one of his first tasks was to assess II Corp’s combat readiness after its setbacks during its early engagements around Kasserine Pass.

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