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To Colonel Ralph A. Fenton¹

May 17, 1938 Fort Lewis, Washington

My dear Dr. Fenton:

Your note has just reached me, in the field during maneuvers. I appreciate the nice things you say, and am very sad at the prospect of leaving the Northwest.

I do not look on the Washington detail with any favor. I am to be head of the War Plans Division of the General Staff, but that means purely a desk job, which is not to my taste.

You were very kind to write as you did and I appreciate it. I will see you before I leave, which will be about the middle of June.

Faithfully yours,

Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Vancouver Barracks, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.

Document Format: Typed letter.

1. Fenton, a member of the American Medical Association’s board of trustees, was an eye, ear, nose, and throat surgeon in Portland, Oregon. A colonel in the Medical Reserve, he had served in the United States Army Medical corps, 1917-19. Fenton had written to Marshall: “Your administration has been most helpful to our community and many have voiced their regret that you must leave, even for a position of greater responsibility." (Fenton to Marshall [May 13, 1938], GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Vancouver Barracks].)

Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981- ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 1, “The Soldierly Spirit,” December 1880-June 1939 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), p. 593.