Leonard Fish Wing Sr. (November 12, 1893 – December 19, 1945), nicknamed "Red", was a Vermont political figure and a division commander in the United States Army during World War II.
Early life
Leonard Wing was born in Ira, Vermont on November 12, 1893, the son of David E. and Dora (Fish) Wing. He attended the schools of Ira and Middletown, and his family moved to Rutland in 1908. He graduated from Rutland High School in 1914, and then attended Norwich University. Afterwards Wing studied law with the Rutland firm of Lawrence, Lawrence and Stafford, and he attained admission to the bar in 1917.[1][2]
World War I military service
Wing enlisted in the Army for World War I, and served at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont, Fort Gordon, Georgia, and Fort Dix, New Jersey. He completed officer training, received a commission and attained the rank of first lieutenant. He served as the supply officer for the 2nd Infantry Replacement Regiment until the end of the war, and was discharged at Fort Dix in December, 1918.[2][3]
Post-World War I
After his discharge Wing returned to Rutland and established a law practice. From 1919 to 1921 he served as Rutland City Attorney, and he was Rutland's City Judge from 1921 to 1925.[4]
Wing was active in Republican party politics, and served on the state Republican Committee, of which he was chairman from 1925 to 1929. He also attended numerous state and national party conventions, including serving as a delegate to the 1940 Republican national convention.[5]
In 1919 Wing joined the Vermont National Guard's 172nd Infantry Regiment as a second lieutenant. He rose through the ranks and in 1933 received promotion to colonel as the 172nd's commander. That year he earned statewide praise from business owners and condemnation from laborers after leading his regiment to break a strike of Barre granite workers.[6]
In 1933 Wing was named executive assistant to Governor Stanley C. Wilson, serving until the end of Wilson's term in 1935.[7][8]
In 1939 Wing was elected to the Norwich University Board of Trustees.[11]
World War II
From left to right – I Corps Commander Major General Innis P. Swift, Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, Commander 7th Amphibious Force, Major General Leonard F. Wing, Commander, 43rd Division. January 3, 1945, aboard USS Blue Ridge.Frontispiece of 1946's Winged Victory: The Story of the 43d Infantry Division, 1941-1945A Japanese mortarman captured by the 103d Infantry on Luzon points out Japanese positions to Major General Leonard P. Wing (center) and Colonel Joseph P. Cleland, March 17, 1945
In 1941 the 43rd Division mobilized for service in the Pacific Theater. In 1942 Wing was named commander of the division's 68th Field Artillery Brigade, and later that year he was appointed the 43rd's Assistant Division Commander. Wing became commander of the division as a major general in 1943. He successfully rebuffed attempts to replace him with a Regular Army officer, as was done in most divisions, making him one of three National Guard officers to command a combat division in World War II.[12][13][14][15] The other National Guard officers who commanded combat divisions, Robert S. Beightler of the 37th Infantry Division and Raymond S. McLain of the 90th Infantry Division, received commissions in the Regular Army immediately after the war, which is likely the source of the claim that Wing was the only National Guard officer to command a combat division in World War II.[16][17][18][19][20][21] Wing's success at keeping his command was especially noteworthy because he had been diagnosed with heart disease, and could have asked to be relieved on medical grounds.[22][23]
Drawing of Wing displayed at Headquarters, 3rd Battalion 172nd Infantry, Vermont National Guard, Jericho, Vermont.
After returning home at the end of 1945, Wing spent time in the hospital to recuperate from pneumonia and other ailments. He took part in victory parades throughout New England in November and December, and was elected President of the Vermont Bar Association. He was considered a likely candidate for governor, and if incumbent Mortimer Proctor adhered to tradition and left office after one term, Wing would likely have won the Republican nomination. In a state where only Republicans held statewide office from the 1850s to the 1960s, Wing would almost certainly have been elected governor in 1946.[41][42]
Death and political ramifications
Bronze military grave marker, Leonard F. WingIndividual grave marker, Leonard F. Wing
Wing's plans to run for governor were ended when he died of a heart attack at his home in Rutland on December 19, 1945. He was buried in Rutland's Evergreen Cemetery.[43][44][45][46]
As a result of Wing's death, Ernest W. Gibson Jr., an officer on Wing's staff during the war, ran for the Republican nomination, defeated Governor Proctor, and won the 1946 general election.[42][47][48][49]
Norwich University awarded Wing honorary Master of Science (1938)[54] and Master of Military Science (1946) degrees.[55]
Personal
Leonard F. Wing was married twice. In 1919 he married Bernice Kidder (1894–1923), with whom he had a son. In 1924 Wing married Margaret Dorothy Clark (or Clarke) (1897–1960), with whom he had a son and a daughter.[56][57][58][59][60]
Leonard F. Wing, Jr. (1923–2005), also a Norwich University graduate, and World War II veteran who was taken prisoner by the Germans and later escaped. He became a prominent attorney who served as President of the Vermont Bar Association. The younger Leonard Wing served in the Vermont National Guard, attaining the rank of brigadier general as commander of the 86th Armored Brigade in the late 1960s. In 1991 he endowed the Major General Leonard F. Wing Scholarship at Norwich University.[61][62]
Bruce Clark Wing was born in Rutland on February 5, 1925, and died in Rutland on May 11, 2000.[63][64][65]
Patricia Margaret Wing was born in Rutland in 1926.[59]
The Wing family remained prominent in Vermont legal circles, including Leonard Wing, Jr.'s daughter, Joan Loring Wing, (1948–2009), an attorney in Rutland who served as President of the Vermont Bar Association.[66][67]
References
^The Fish Family in England and America, Lester Warren Fish, 1948, page 200
^ abThe History of the 43rd Infantry Division, 1941–1945, by Joseph E. Zimmer, fourth edition, 2008, pages 173 to 174
^Official Army National Guard Register, published by the National Guard Bureau, 1922, page 254
^Volume 129 (1925), Atlantic Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, published by West Publishing Company, St. Paul, MN
^The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume 35 (1967), page 190
^Report of proceedings of the annual meeting, published by Vermont Bar Association, Volume 40 (1946), page 83
^Guard Wars: The 28th Infantry Division in World War II, by Michael E. Weaver, 2010, page 115. This work indicates that 18 of 29 mobilizing divisions in 1941 were National Guard organizations, and that active Army planners believed replacing National Guard division commanders with Regular Army officers was necessary.
^The Vermont Encyclopedia, by John J. Duffy, Samuel B. Hand, and Ralph H. Orth, 2003, page 14. The authors note in their introduction that Wing was the only National Guard officer to remain in command of a National Guard division in World War II.
^World War II History, 152nd Field Artillery Association web site, accessed February 25, 2011. The authors of the World War II history of 152nd Field Artillery Battalion, a 43rd Division unit, note that Leonard F. Wing was the only National Guard officer to command a World War II division.
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