68th Tank Regiment Combat Command B, 6th Armored Division 6th Armored Division 1st Brigade, United States Constabulary 2nd Armored Division Allied Land Forces South East Europe United States. Army Armor Center and School Second United States Army.
Background
The son of Major General George Windle Read (1860–1934), one of the top commanders in the American Expeditionary Force during, and the grandson of Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General S.B.M. Young, the younger Read was born at Fort Grant, Arizona on July 29, 1900.
Education
He soon transferred to Cavalry, and graduated from the Cavalry School Basic Course in 1921. Read graduated from the Cavalry School Regular Course in 1937, afterwards serving in the Middle East as an observer in Palestine and a member of the Armored Force Board that was based in Cairo, Egypt.
Career
He was prominent as a top-tier polo player, a successful commander of I armor units, and the United States. Army"s Chief of Armor. Raised on military posts throughout the United States, Read enlisted in the Army in May, 1917. Read was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry in 1919.
He served throughout the United States and overseas during the 1920s and 1930s.
From 1922 to 1925 Read served in the Philippines as aide de camp to his father. A championship caliber polo player, Read took part in several tournaments during the 1920s and 1930s, playing on teams sponsored by the Army.
I After graduating from the Command and General Staff College in 1941, Read was assigned as Training and Operations Officer, G-3, for the 6th Armored Division. Read served with the 6th Armored Division in Europe throughout I, including assignments as commander of the 68th Tank Regiment, commander of the division’s Combat Command B, assistant division commander, and division commander from April to May, 1945 and again from July until the division was deactivated in September, 1945.
I In the late 1940s Read served as President of Army Ground Forces Board 3 at Fort
Benning, Georgia. (The Army created several ground forces boards to test new weapons and equipment and make procurement recommendations) During the early 1950s General Read commanded 1st Brigade, United States Constabulary in West Germany. From April 1952 to April 1953 Read served as commander of the 2nd Armored Division.
In 1953 Read was assigned as commander of the United States. Army Armor Center and School at Fort
Knox, Kentucky, where he remained until 1955. He then commanded Allied Land Forces South East Europe, remaining in this post until 1957. In 1957 Read assumed command of the Second United States Army, remaining in this position until his retirement in 1960.
General Read resided in Aptos, Santa Cruz County, California after his retirement from the Army, and died at Fort Ord"s Silas B. Hays Army Hospital on December 15, 1974 from the effects of lymphocytic leukemia.
He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 3, Site 3946.