Lieutenant General
Emerson L. Cummings

Emerson Leroy Cummings was born in New Boston, Michigan, on 16 March 1902. After completing high school, he enrolled for a year at Ferris Institute in Big Rapids, Michigan. He entered West Point, graduated fourth in his class in 1924, and entered the Corps of Engineers. Following an initial assignment at Fort Humphreys, Virginia, with the 13th Engineers, Cummings completed a civil engineering degree at Cornell University in 1926. He then completed the company officers' course at the Engineers' School at Fort Humphreys in June 1927. Following two years of field engineering duty with the Alaska Road Commission and nine months' duty with the Sixth Engineers at Fort Lewis, Washington, Cummings decided to pursue a career in logistics and requested a detail to the Ordnance Department. He completed work for a degree in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June 1933. A further year of training at the Ordnance School, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, was followed by two years at Aberdeen with the Automotive Test Division.

Formally transferring to Ordnance in the summer of 1936, and by then a captain, Cummings next completed a two-year tour with the Automotive Section in the Office of the Chief of Ordnance before being detailed as a student at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth. He then returned to Aberdeen for a year as instructor at the Ordnance School before again being called to the Office, Chief of Ordnance in Washington as Chief of the Development Section of the Artillery Division in July 1940. He continued to specialize in the ordnance research and development phase of combat vehicles and make a number of contributions to this rapidly expanding field.

In 1941, by then a lieutenant colonel, he accompanied General Wesson, then Chief of Ordnance, on a fact-gathering mission to England, visiting a number of automotive manufacturers and government design agencies to learn more concerning the design of combat vehicles. Making note of British developments in fluid transmissions, he returned home with a great deal of useful information on the subject and gave personal impetus to the adoption of this innovation by the US Army. His foresight in so doing helps to account for the fact that this type of transmission is now standard for a wide range of Army vehicles.

Colonel Cummings spent the war years in Detroit, first as Chief of the Engineering Manufacturing Branch, Tank Automotive Center from August 1942, until October 1943, and then as Chief, Industrial Operations at the same location until April l945. His efforts were devoted to the key task of engineering and production scheduling for all tank automotive materiel, including substantial quantities for the Allied forces, particularly Great Britain. In April 1945, he was transferred to Paris, France, where he served five months as Chief of the industrial Division for the Ordnance Office at the Headquarters, European Theatre of Operations. Here he advised the automotive industry heads of France and Belgium on matters concerning the production and rebuilding of military materiel. In October 1945, he went to Frankfurt as Deputy Ordnance Officer for the European Theatre, later redesignated as the European Command, remaining there until July 1947. In this post, Colonel Cummings had much to do with the orderly post war disposition of the vast quantities of ordnance materiel left as surplus in Europe.

Having successfully completed his European assignment, he was posted to the National War College in Washington as a student from 1947 to 1948. His next posting was that of Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development in the office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Logistics at the Pentagon. In September 1950, as arecently appointed brigadier general, Cummings was named Chief of the Industrial Division, Office, Chief of Ordnance, and ten months later, Assistant Chief of Ordnance with continuing responsibility for the Industrial Division, which latter post he held from July 1951, until October 1953.

In November 1950, General Cummings was made a major general and Chief of Ordnance. By now an exceptionally able and proven administrator, he organized the Commodity Command and established the Project Manager System as the exceedingly complex missile systems came into being. During his tenure, the Explorer, the first U.S. satellite, was developed and placed into orbit (February 1958). He promoted good relations with industry, drawing in part on his World War II experiences with civilian manufacturers, by means of Industry Advisory Groups. The M14 rifle, utilizing a 7.62mm cartridge, was developed during his time in office.

In July 1956, Cummings was made a lieutenant general, the first to achieve that rank in peacetime. At the conclusion of his tour as Chief of Ordnance, General Cummings was assigned as Commanding General, US Army Japan, and Deputy Commanding General, Eighth United States Army (Rear) from February to December 1958. From December 1958, until January 1961, he served as Deputy Commanding General, Eighth Army, in Korea, and in the latter month, assumed command of the Fifth Army, with Headquarters in Chicago. He retired from the service in 1962. General Cummings died on 24 January 1986, six weeks before his 84th birthday.