Major General
Thomas J. Hayes Jr.

Major General Thomas J. Hayes, Jr., was born in Ohio on September 18, 1888 and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1912.

He began his military career with the 4th Infantry at Fort Crook, Nebraska, in 1912. All subsequent assignments were in ordnance training, maintenance and supply, or procurement. The more significant of his many contributions were in the fields of procurement and production. As the Director of Procurement, Office of the Under Secretary of War, in 1941, he acted energetically and boldly to speed up the procurement programs during that critical period of our Nation's history.

During his assignment as Chief of Industrial Service, Office Chief of Ordnance, from June 1942 until May 1945, he was responsible for the procurement and production of over $30 billion worth of ordnance materiel to support millions of U.S. troops and to help supply our Allies. The success of the tremendous ordnance procurement program during World War II can be attributed primarily to General Hayes.