Not Without Blemish

The Career of Brig. Gen. Fred A. Safay, Florida National Guard

By Ryan P. Hovatter

Article published on: December 21, 2025 in the Army History Winter 2025 Issue

Read Time: < 46 mins

Above: Col. Fred A. Safay and the staff of the 124th Infantry Regiment at Fort Benning, Georgia, 1942 Florida National Guard Archives

When Arab-American community organizations highlight the contributions of Arab Americans in the United States, they frequently point out the military service of General John P. Abizaid, who once commanded U.S. Central Command, and General George A. Joulwan, who commanded U.S. Southern Command before serving as the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe.¹ However, long before these four-star generals of the late twentieth century, there was Fred Abraham Safay. Promoted to brigadier general in September 1942, Safay likely was the first Arab-American general officer in the U.S. Army.

Safay served in the Florida National Guard for more than three decades, and he also had a distinguished and long-lasting career in public sanitation. Safay’s military service was not without its blemishes. After nearly one year as an assistant division commander, he was reduced to his permanent rank of colonel. He then commanded an infantry regiment in combat in Italy before his relief and retirement. Safay’s story offers examples of both perseverance and caution. It also shows the political maneuvering of federal and state promotions during his era and, in particular, highlights the contention between Regular Army and National Guard advancements during World War II. Lastly, it shows the influence of community in the National Guard and highlights the experiences of an Arab-American general in the U.S. Army.

Background

Safay was born in Jacksonville, Florida, on 16 June 1897 to Syrian immigrant parents, Abraham and Jesimine Safay. Since 1890, the economically booming city of Jacksonville had been a popular destination for Syrians, most of whom were Catholics from the rural area around the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, during the last decades of Ottoman rule. By 1920, one out of every ten immigrants in Jacksonville were Syrian, and the majority went into business as grocers and merchants. They integrated quickly, living throughout the city, rather than in ethnic enclaves. Outwardly, they conformed to and were accepted by the predominantly White southern culture. In private, however, they maintained many of their unique traditions.² The Arab community established its own churches and the Salaam Club, a local social club founded in 1912. Safay probably grew up in a household filled with both Arabic and English chatter, and his meals likely were a mix of Syrian and Southern-American cuisine.

Just after graduating high school at the age of 17, Safay enrolled in Jacksonville’s Florida Military Academy in 1914. He studied military science and graduated the next year, after which he joined the band of the 1st Regiment of Infantry, Florida National Guard, enlisting on 10 March 1915.³ Not long after Safay joined his unit, President T. Woodrow Wilson called upon the National Guard to secure the Texas border while Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing led the Mexican Punitive Expedition to bring Pancho Villa to justice for raiding Columbus, New Mexico. Safay and his comrades in the 1st Florida were disappointed when Florida’s adjutant general, Maj. Gen. J. Clifford R. Foster, chose the 2d Regiment of Infantry, Florida National Guard, to fill the state’s quota. As the 2d Florida made its way to Laredo, Foster prepared the 1st Florida for a potential second round of call-ups. He expanded recruiting to fill the infantry companies to war strength in June 1916. Foster noted that the Militia Bureau thought that “all of the National Guard will probably be mobilized” for use along the border.⁴ It was during this build-up that Safay reenlisted. This time, he joined an infantry unit from the same regiment—Company F, commonly known as the Jacksonville Rifles. He advanced through the ranks, from private to corporal to sergeant, in just a few months.⁵

General Foster: State Archives of Florida

Foster correctly predicted that the entire National Guard would be mobilized. What he did not anticipate was that Congress would declare war on Germany. Immediately after the declaration on 6 April 1917, the president mobilized the entire National Guard—not to the Texas border as Foster had predicted, but to various efforts in support of the new war. Florida’s two infantry regiments entered active federal service, reporting to the base (now Naval Air Station Jackson) on Black Point, an Army training camp on the St. John’s River for what Safay recalled as “intensive training.”⁶ In addition to training, the regiment was tasked with defending key infrastructure near the Florida coast from German maritime attack. In this capacity, Safay commanded a detachment to guard Atlantic Coast Line Railroad bridges between Jacksonville and Sanford, Florida, from July to September 1917.⁷

In mid-September, the 1st and 2d Florida entrained to Camp Wheeler, near Macon, Georgia, where they joined National Guard regiments from Georgia and Alabama to form the 31st Division, also known as the Dixie Division. Once in camp, the understrength state units consolidated to make full-strength divisions with four infantry regiments and support units. Soldiers transferred from their old state regiments to the new federally designated units irrespective of their state of origin. The 2d Florida formed the building block for the 124th Infantry Regiment, and the 1st Florida was disbanded to fill the 124th Infantry and other units in the 31st Division. Safay initially transferred from the 1st Florida to the 122d Infantry Regiment (formerly the 5th Infantry Regiment, Georgia National Guard), but like so many soldiers in the 31st Division, Safay changed units several times before entering combat.

Like many prewar National Guard noncommissioned officers, Safay was selected to attend officer training. He commissioned as an infantry second lieutenant in August 1918. Of the 125 newly commissioned officers from the 31st Division only 65 stayed in the division. The rest spread across the Army. Safay transferred to the 121st Infantry Regiment from Georgia. Then, after arriving in France, he transferred twice more. First, he reported to the 49th Infantry Regiment near Le Mans, and finally he reported to Company M, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Division, which already was engaged in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.⁸ Safay seems to have learned one important lesson after moving from regiment to regiment: impersonal replacement systems breed discontent between the old soldiers and the new ones. Later, he would work hard to smooth over that divide while commanding the 124th Infantry Regiment.

After the cessation of hostilities on 11 November 1918, Safay remained in active service. He attended the Army’s School of Scouting and Patrolling at Châtillon-sur-Seine, France, and served on occupation duty in Germany until his discharge in July 1919.⁹

Upon returning to Florida, Safay joined a few influential veterans in reorganizing the Florida National Guard. In September 1920, he assisted in reorganizing the Jacksonville Rifles, then more commonly known by their federal designation, Company F, 124th Infantry Regiment. Two years later, he organized the regiment’s Headquarters Company while serving as the company’s commander, just before its summer encampment.

Safay married Iva I. McKendree sometime in early 1921 and had a daughter, Dorothy T. Safay, the following spring.¹⁰ Safay also started his civil career with the Florida Board of Health shortly after the war.¹¹ He joined fellow Florida guardsman, Capt. Charles N. Hobbs, as one of the six district sanitation engineers. Col. Raymond C. Turck, who commanded the 124th Infantry when Safay commanded its headquarters company, likely introduced Safay to the public health field. Like Safay, Turck lived in Jacksonville’s upscale Riverside neighborhood, and he, too, was a World War I veteran and prewar Florida guardsman. He was also a medical doctor who served as the state health officer and oversaw the Board of Health from 1921 to 1925. During this time, Safay got a job as a district sanitation engineer for northeast Florida.¹² In Turck’s 1924 annual report, Florida Health Notes, he noted that “Capt. Safay is setting a pace which will keep him steadily moving.”¹³ Safay improved public sanitation by building more privies, wells, and drainage ditches throughout Florida.

Captain Hobbs: State Archives of Florida

While Safay was still a young (32-year-old) Florida National Guard captain and a state employee with the Board of Health, he found himself at the center of an important case for the Florida National Guard involving dual pay for state employees in service with the National Guard. Governor Doyle E. Carlton ordered the Florida National Guard into state service in 1929 to quarantine the better half of the Florida peninsula to curb the spread of the Mediterranean fruit fly, whose larvae turned citrus fruits into inedible pulp. The Florida National Guard soldiers established checkpoints and inspected vehicles leaving the quarantine area, ensuring they did not have infected fruit.

Safay commanded his company in active state service for a period of nine days, from 8 to 16 May, to enforce the quarantine. These nine days would matter not only to Safay but to all members of the Florida National Guard, who also were employed by the State of Florida and entitled to a leave of absence without loss of pay. When the state comptroller’s office received the bill from the Florida National Guard to pay its soldiers for their duty, the office halted Safay’s payment of $80. This was a significant amount of money. For comparison, his Board of Health salary amounted to $200 per month. The comptroller claimed that his office could not pay both Safay’s Board of Health salary and his National Guard earnings for the same dates. Safay asked Florida’s adjutant general, Maj. Gen. Vivian B. Collins, for assistance, and Collins referred the case to the state attorney general, Fred H. Davis.¹⁴

Governor Carlton, ca. 1928: State Archives of Florida

Davis was also a war veteran and a major in the Florida National Guard, but his true genius was in his ability to navigate the halls of the state capitol and understand the law. Davis had served as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives before his appointment as attorney general, and he later would serve as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Florida. Davis opined that Safay was due both payments, because, by Florida law, all members of the Florida National Guard were “entitled to leave of absence from their respective duties without loss of pay, time, or efficiency rating . . . providing that leave of absence should not exceed 17 days at any one time.”¹⁵ Davis continued, “In other words, military compensation to state employees is treated as being entirely separate and distinct from other compensation, because the Constitution of the State expressly provides that military officers may hold any other legislative, executive, or judicial office.”¹⁶ Safay may have been a passive activist in this case, but it laid the foundation for Florida National Guard soldiers to receive state pay for both their civil service and their state-funded National Guard work at the same time. As the law stands today, Florida state employees who are also members of the Florida National Guard are allowed up to thirty days of paid military leave for each governor-declared emergency or disaster.¹⁷

Safay continued to advance in his civil career, becoming a senior sanitary engineer involved in controlling rabies, enforcing quarantines, coordinating vaccinations, and testing water, among other things.¹⁸ His civilian career frequently intersected with his military role—especially regarding disaster response. Both the Board of Health and the National Guard were important in the wake of hurricanes, a frequent hazard in Florida. As a guardsman, Safay would be responsible for evacuating people and assisting in recovery. As a sanitary engineer, he found himself educating communities on the dangers of contaminated waters. In 1939, the state promoted Safay to be the director of the newly formed sanitation section at the Board of Health, which oversaw statewide sanitation projects, inspected canning plants, water bottling plants, Works Progress Administration sites, and tourist camps. Safay also sat on the State Milk Control Commission, known as the Milk Board, which controlled the production and pricing of milk.¹⁹

Major Davis: State Archives of Florida

Meanwhile, Safay had continued to rise in the National Guard as well. He was promoted to major and took command of the 2d Battalion, 124th Infantry Regiment, in October 1930. In 1934, he transferred to the regimental headquarters to serve as the plans and training officer. It seems that he was far more focused on his civil service career, earning some terse remarks from his commander for his “lack of interest in staff functions” and for not completing an army extension course, as the adjutant general had directed all of his officers to do.²⁰ Even so, Safay’s superiors reassigned him to command 2d Battalion again in 1937 and promoted him to lieutenant colonel on 30 July 1940.²¹

Safay’s second time in battalion command was short-lived. In August 1940, Congress authorized President Franklin D. Roosevelt to call up the entire National Guard in the nation’s first prewar mobilization. The United States was preparing to expand the Army and it needed its National Guard to be prepared should the nation join World War II. The activation provided many Florida National Guard soldiers with promotions. The 124th Infantry’s commander, Col. Joseph C. Hutchinson, advanced to brigadier general to command a brigade of the 31st Division. Safay took Hutchinson’s place as commander of the 124th Infantry. He was promoted to colonel on 10 November 1940 and inducted his troops into service three days later. Their civilian employers released them for their active service, as was the case with all mobilized members of the guard. The state gave Safay a one-year leave of absence.²²

Shaping the 124th Infantry Regiment

The 124th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed the “Gators,” reported to Camp Blanding, Florida, on 18 December 1940. They were among the 18,000 troops of the 31st Division who poured into the new cantonment area by Kingsley Lake that month. The guard members unloaded from trains during the cold, rainy season and were shocked to see barren, sandy fields that were “little more than a morass.”²³ Acres upon acres had been cleared of trees, but few buildings were finished when they arrived. Construction by hired contractors had not progressed as quickly as necessary to house an entire division. Safay’s first task was to assist the contractors with constructing the camp facilities. He ordered his companies to finish clearing land of trees and to set up tents for temporary living. The soldiers were especially motivated because there was a shortage of tents, and the incessant rain caused the freshly cleared cantonment area to flood.²⁴

General Hutchinson: National Archives

That winter, the cleared areas transformed into something resembling a wood and tent city. The land was low and sandy, except for the grassy regimental parade fields. There were wooden structures for kitchens and offices and cleared areas for hutments. Regiments were kept together, with each company having its own kit- chen, latrine, and about thirty-five hutments connected by raised wooden sidewalks. The company areas were bordered by hardpacked dirt roads and small, three-sided cement structures to store the wood and coal used to heat the buildings and hutments. Each hutment was made with a wooden floor and wood slat walls up to the waist. A tent, held up over the wooden floor with a tall center pole in the middle, constituted the top half of the walls and the roof. The tent walls could be rolled up in the summer, and when it was cold, the troops used a central wood stove to keep warm at night. From this simple beginning, Camp Blanding would grow to be the fifth most populous place in Florida by the end of the year, exceeded only by Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, and St. Petersburg.²⁵

In addition to the barracks, kitchens, headquarters offices, and motor pool buildings, Safay had an officers’ clubhouse, dubbed the “Gator Club,” constructed. The one-story wooden structure was placed right next to the regiment’s officers’ mess hall.²⁶ Despite having a board of officers to run the club, Safay oversaw every detail of the operation. He arranged for the installation of slot machines and personally arranged to purchase the liquor, wine, and beer from a wholesale distributor, which the club sold to officers at a 10 percent markup to fund club improvements. He entrusted Lt. William H. Bridges, with the aid of some enlisted soldiers, to run the Gator Club, make purchases, and keep records. When the regiment went to the field in the army maneuvers of 1941, the 124th brought along a mobile Gator Club, complete with booze and slot machines.²⁷ Unfortunately, Safay’s direct supervision of the Gator Club would haunt him after the war as some Florida National Guard officers decried an improper accounting of funds.

Aerial view of Camp Blanding, Florida, ca. 1942: State Archives of Florida

Safay’s most important task was to build his National Guard regiment up to the full wartime strength of 2,660 soldiers. During its first few months in active service, the 124th Infantry doubled in strength, incorporating 1,318 new inductees.²⁸ Among the new troops was Safay’s own nephew, Pvt. William J. Khoury, who, the divisional newspaper Dixie joked, worked for both “Uncle Sam” and “Uncle Fred.”²⁹ It was (and still is) common for the National Guard to have family members in the same outfit.

Safay welcomed the new troops, fully incorporating them into the regiment. Remembering the bitter distinctions between the new inductees and the “old soldiers” in World War I, he informed his regiment that no distinction would be made between the new and premobilization soldiers. Speaking directly to the newcomers, Safay said, “You are accepted not as ‘selectees’ but as a component part of this regiment and an equal sharer in the glorious traditions and honor of the 124th Infantry.”³⁰

In the first week of April, Safay led the 124th Infantry Regimental Combat Team (which included attached artillery, engineer, and medical units) on its first major exercise: a 60-mile motorized road march with 200 vehicles from Camp Blanding to Sanford.³¹ Thus began a rigorous training program to prepare the regiment—as individual soldiers and as a unit—for its participation in both the Louisiana and Carolina maneuvers in the summer and fall of 1941. Safay and several staff officers attended the Battalion Commanders’ and Staff Officers’ Course taught by the Infantry School during this time.³²

While the 31st Division, which officially became the 31st Infantry Division in 1941, was in the Carolinas, President Roosevelt extended the national emergency for another year. The War Department also informed the 31st Infantry Division commander, Maj. Gen. John C. Persons, that he had to send his best regiment to Fort Benning (now Fort Moore), Georgia, to be a demonstration unit for the new Officer Candidate School. General Persons chose the 124th Infantry in large part because of its proficiency and its performance in the recent maneuvers. Persons noted that it was “of course, a compliment, but it was a severe blow to the Division for it took away from it at one time two thousand of its best trained men and officers.”³³ As the soldiers of the 124th Infantry took leave and prepared to transfer to Fort Benning, the country was shaken by news that the Japanese had attacked the Navy fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i, on 7 December 1941. Within days, the United States was officially at war with Japan, Germany, and Italy.

Training America’s Infantry Officers

The Infantry School at Fort Benning rapidly expanded from a peacetime training school, focused primarily on advanced infantry officer education, to one of basic officer training. Once war was declared, the Infantry School needed to produce officers at a drastically increased rate. The Army required the Fort Benning Officer Candidate School to expand from training several hundred officer candidates at a time (and graduating a total of 800 officers a year) to training 14,400 officer candidates in the month of December 1942 alone.³⁴ This required an expansion of training and housing areas east of the main post in an area called Harmony Church and necessitated more instructors and demonstration troops.

The 29th Infantry Regiment had been the sole demonstration unit on Fort Benning at the start of World War II. The idea behind the demonstration unit was that officer candidates would learn tactics by observing highly drilled infantry units perform maneuvers. In response to wartime demand, the Infantry School expanded from its one student regiment to create the 1st and 2d Student Training Regiments. The 29th Infantry remained the demonstration unit for the 1st Student Training Regiment on the main post, and the 124th Infantry became the demonstration unit for the 2d Student Training Regiment, located at Harmony Church, just south of Hourglass Road (now home to the U.S. Army Ranger School).³⁵

The 124th Infantry arrived at its new housing in Harmony Church on 18 December 1941, ready to demonstrate infantry tactics. By the end of its first year, the 124th Infantry had demonstrated infantry tactics for thirty Officer Candidate School classes.³⁶ The most complex maneuver was B–188, the Battalion Attack, or, as the soldiers called it, “the Battle of Benning.”³⁷ This demonstration required the most coordination of heavy weapons and was performed as hundreds of candidates sat on a hill overlooking the action. Pvt. Aubrey P. Tillery recalled the memorable B–188 combined arms demonstration:

The battalion was capturing a hill with supporting units and all using live ammunition. It began with the bombing of the hill from the air. Then as the officers and OCS [Officer Candidate School] groups sat in the viewing stands, live artillery was fired over their heads and into the hill. Very few if any had ever heard artillery screaming over their heads before. I feel quite certain that later on in combat they came to appreciate this sound. Next came the tanks moving on each side and infantry ground troops in the middle moving on the hill, with all firing live ammunition. Tracer bullets were used which made it easier to follow the action from the viewing stands. It was quite an impressive sight which the viewers would probably remember for a long time.³⁸

Troops from the 124th Infantry training at Fort Benning, ca. 1943: State Archives of Florida

Safay had trained a first-rate unit. The 124th Infantry later would provide cadre officers and noncommissioned officers to stand up the 300th Infantry Regiment. A high proportion of the 124th Infantry’s soldiers commissioned as officers and joined paratroop and air force units. Safay was rewarded with a promotion to brigadier general in September 1942. Among the sixty-two colonels that President Roosevelt appointed to brigadier general that September, only five were from the National Guard.³⁹ Safay’s promotion came at the same time that two Regular Army colonels at the Infantry School were promoted to the general officer ranks and the commander of the Infantry School was promoted to major general. The Fort Benning Bayonet stated that the four generals were “probably more than any other group of officers . . . responsible for the achievements of Fort Benning during the last year.”⁴⁰ General Collins wrote to Safay, “I was more than delighted to read in the press, notice of your nomination for promotion. You have built an outstanding regiment and deserve this recognition. I am very proud of the distinction which you are bringing to our state and especially to my old regiment. Hearty congratulations.”⁴¹

Shortly after his promotion, Safay transferred to Camp Wheeler, where he briefly served as the assistant to the commanding general of the Infantry Replacement Training Center. The local papers hailed the transfer as Safay’s return to his “old home” because he had received his commission there in 1918.⁴² Safay’s job was not so different from his time in the 124th. Instead of preparing infantry officers, he now oversaw the training of enlisted infantry soldiers for combat. However, Safay’s time at Camp Wheeler was short and, in November, he joined the 78th Infantry Division as its assistant division commander at Camp Butner, North Carolina.⁴³ The War Department only had reactivated the division in August, but just before Safay reported to it, the Army designated the division as a replacement training unit. Safay once again found himself training fresh troops to send to combat as replacements. In his first six months, the 78th Infantry Division trained between 40,000 and 50,000 soldiers, who were sent to war as replacements in both theaters.⁴⁴

Sadly, General Collins’s elation over Safay’s promotion turned to disappointment and bewilderment when Safay was reduced back to his permanent rank of colonel and relieved of his assignment as assistant division commander of the 78th Infantry Division eleven months later, on 11 August 1943. The circumstances that led to Safay’s demotion during his time in the 78th Infantry Division are unclear. The chief of the National Guard Bureau, Maj. Gen. John F. Williams, later told Collins that Maj. Gen. Edwin P. Parker Jr., the 78th Infantry Division commander, had recommended Safay’s relief. Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair, the commanding general of Army Ground Forces and an architect of the Army’s mass mobilization, had agreed with the reduction and reassignment. According to Williams, Parker found that Safay had “insufficient professional training” for assignment as a general officer. Williams, however, noted that Safay had demonstrated an ability to command an infantry regiment, and his service had been “entirely satisfactory.⁴⁵ Therefore, Safay was given another regimental command.

Williams’s explanation, which relied on secondhand information, did not satisfy Collins, who became suspicious of the Army leaders’ true intentions.⁴⁶ Safay was a war veteran who had graduated from Army schools in France and Fort Benning and had commanded an infantry regiment so well that it had been selected to be the Officer Candidate School demonstration unit. Furthermore, Safay’s assignment with the 78th Infantry Division required him to do what he already had excelled at doing: train infantry soldiers.

General Safay: U.S. Army

Safay may have been a casualty of the anti–National Guard sentiment that was prevalent among Regular Army officers at the time. General McNair himself told General George C. Marshall, the Chief of Staff of the Army, in July 1944 that the National Guard “provided general officers who were not professional soldiers and who, almost without exception, were not competent to exercise the command appropriate to that rank.”⁴⁷ McNair’s sentiment represented a viewpoint, propagated by military theorist Emory Upton, that favored placing Regular Army officers in command of National Guard units.⁴⁸ Although that practice was adopted as a policy, McNair at least saw to it that few National Guard generals continued to command after their divisions were brought into active federal service.

General Parker: National Archives

The relationship between Florida National Guard and Regular Army leaders further soured after the Army disbanded the 124th Infantry Regiment in March 1944. Florida governor Spessard Holland questioned the Army’s motives in doing so. In a letter to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Holland stated, “Why such a regiment,” which had a long history, had been selected above others as a demonstration unit, and had produced four general officers—including the former chief of the National Guard Bureau, Maj. Gen. Albert H. Blanding—“should be selected for oblivion when there are scores of others recently formed which have no record nor traditions is difficult to understand.” The governor implored the secretary of war to reinstate the old regiment, lest its disbandment “arouse bitterness in the hearts of many of our citizens who have served in it in the past.”⁴⁹ Collins blamed the “jealous and hostile attitude of individual officers of the Regular establishment who by the Grace of God and their class rings, [had] promulgated orders directing the disbandment of this fine regiment.”⁵⁰ Stimson responded to these complaints by reactivating the 124th Infantry less than one month later.

Although simple carelessness, rather than jealousy, most likely led to the inactivation of the 124th Infantry Regiment, Collins’s assertion highlights the mistrust between some leaders of the National Guard and the Regular Army. But this mistrust does not explain why Safay, who was promoted to the general officer ranks after the Pearl Harbor attacks, was reduced. If the Army was trying to remove or sideline National Guard senior leaders, then why promote Safay to brigadier general at all? Perhaps Safay took the reduction, as the Florida newspapers later reported, so that he could get into combat.⁵¹ This is plausible. Another officer, Henry Carlton Newton, who was on the same promotion list as Safay, voluntarily accepted a reduction from brigadier general to colonel so that he could lead an element of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (often referred to as the Monuments Men), which operated primarily in war-torn Europe. Perhaps Safay felt that he would be forced to sit out the war entirely unless he took a reduction to colonel and found a unit scheduled to move overseas. Safay already had been in active service for nearly three years, and although he had trained thousands of soldiers to go off to war, he himself had not yet seen combat. The 85th Infantry Division, where Safay took his next assignment, would depart the United States for the Italian theater of war within four months.

General Williams: U.S. Army

Italian Combat

The 85th Infantry Division, a draftee division, only had been activated in May 1942. Safay arrived in the fall of 1943 just as the division ended nearly three months of intensive combat training—during which at least four soldiers had died of heat exposure and one from a lightning strike—in the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of Southern California.⁵² Safay soon took command of the 338th Infantry Regiment from Col. Lee S. Gerow, the brother of Maj. Gen. Leonard T. Gerow, who later would gain fame as the V Corps commander at Normandy.⁵³

General Newton (right) speaks with a private at Fort Knox, Kentucky, ca. 1943. Library of Congress

Safay and the division departed the United States in December 1943 and arrived at Oran, Algeria, by mid-January. They encamped in the desert 60 miles south of the city, where they trained for nearly six weeks on mountain warfare to prepare to fight in Italy’s Apennine Mountains. They then had three weeks of amphibious assault training along the Algerian coast.⁵⁴ The 85th Infantry sailed to Naples, which was already under Allied control, arriving throughout March 1944. The 85th joined the line to the left of the 88th Infantry Division.⁵⁵

Safay’s sister regiment, the 339th Infantry Regiment, had arrived in Naples in mid-March, ahead of the rest of the division. Col. James E. Matthews had led the 339th into combat only one day after it arrived. After fourteen days of brutal fighting in blizzard conditions, a quiet returned to the front. Colonel Matthews, described in the 85th Infantry Division’s history as “greatly loved by his men,” voluntarily relinquished his command on 28 March 1944. He had commanded the 339th for only five months. In a farewell to his troops, Matthews wrote, “A man of my age cannot take the terrific punishment similar to that which you have just experienced, and which I also experienced, although in a different position for fourteen days. It means that in the crucial period when one more ounce of energy can give us victory, a younger leader can produce where a man of my age cannot.” He spoke of visiting the dead, who had been placed in a “little stone building,” and looking upon the face of one dead soldier “until tears blinded [his] vision.” He continued, “If that be weakness, then I am weak. If that be indicative of poor command, then I am a poor commander.” Matthews was then released from the division and hospitalized for an infected bladder.⁵⁶ Matthews’s story shows just how difficult combat was on regimental commanders.

As Matthews and his regiment had been fighting alongside the 88th Infantry Division, Safay’s 338th Infantry staged near Qualiano, a suburb of Naples. Taking advantage of the extra time, his soldiers practiced fighting in mountains and villages and crossing streams before taking over a sector along the American line to await the late spring offensive.⁵⁷ The offensive, known as Operation Diadem, was a major attack by the U.S. Fifth and British Eighth Armies designed to break the Gustav Line—the primary German defensive position running across the Italian peninsula—and open the road to Rome and the rest of Italy. In an analysis of the opening battle of Operation Diadem, the authors of Small Unit Actions note that the battle held particular importance because it was the first battle of World War II that involved American drafted divisions in combat.⁵⁸

The plan of attack for Operation DIADEM employed the highly trained mountain soldiers of the French Expeditionary Corps on the Fifth Army’s right, in the most rugged terrain, with the II Corps to its left. The II Corps consisted of the 85th and 88th Infantry Divisions, which, aside from the 339th Infantry, had not yet seen combat. Safay’s 338th supported II Corps’ main effort, the 351st Infantry Regiment of the 88th Infantry Division, whose objective was to seize the village of Santa Maria Infante. To Safay’s left was the 339th Infantry. Safay’s objective was to seize Solacciano Ridge, or S-Ridge, which consisted of several 100-meter-high hills. The Germans had occupied this ridge for several months and built an excellent network of defenses. Machine-gun pillboxes, protected by earthen overhead cover, swept the gentle slopes below. Antipersonnel mines and concertina wire blocked the approach to the fortified positions. The 267th Grenadier Regiment, 94th Infantry Division, supported by mortar and artillery fire, defended this section of the German main line of resistance with 300 to 400 soldiers.⁵⁹

The offensive began at 2300 on 11 May 1944 with a massive artillery barrage. Safay had the 1st and 3d Battalions of his 338th on line, with the 2d Battalion in reserve. Safay’s troops advanced toward the fortified German positions along S-Ridge. Soldiers from the antitank company’s mine platoon removed mines to allow tanks to support the attack. The American troops faced fierce resistance. The 1st Battalion was pinned down by machine-gun fire in a steep draw until small teams crept up to German positions and silenced the machine gunners with grenades.⁶⁰ Elements of the 338th had advanced beyond the ridge and into the village of Solacciano, but a German counterattack pushed them back across the ridge.⁶¹ After nine hours of fighting through the night and into the early morning, the 1st and 3d Battalions did not hold their objectives and had taken significant casualties. With the growing numbers of killed, wounded, and missing, every company had been reduced to less than 65 percent of its strength.⁶²

Colonel Champney, ca. 1950: National Archives

The regiments to Safay’s left and right fared no better in their attacks. To Safay’s right, the 351st Infantry lost a battalion commander in its attempt to seize Santa Maria Infante.⁶³ The 339th Infantry, to Safay’s left, also faced tough opposition; a German counterattack on 12 May completely destroyed its Company F.⁶⁴ All along the American line, fighting had devolved into squad-level attacks because cloud and smoke had obscured the moonlight and units became separated.⁶⁵

Safay regrouped his units on 12 May and attacked again at 0800, then 1300, then again at 1500, until the 3d Battalion finally broke through the German defenses and reached Solacciano to the far left of its zone. Although the regiment made gains, they had not seized the crucial strong point of Hill 131.⁶⁶

At 1100 on 13 May, the commanding generals of the 85th and 88th Infantry Divisions met with Colonel Safay and Col. Arthur S. Champney of the 351st Infantry at the 88th’s headquarters in Minturno to plan another synchronized attack against the S-Ridge and into Santa Maria Infante. Because the 351st needed more space to flank the village and because Safay’s half-strength 338th needed to focus on the heights of seizing Hill 131, the commanders shifted the unit boundaries to give more space to the 351st. The 351st moved its fresh 1st Battalion in between the regiments, giving it Hill 109 along the S-Ridge as its objective. At this moment, success for the entire II Corps depended on Safay’s regiment securing Hill 131.⁶⁷

The attack started at 1225 on 13 May when a few P–40 fighter bombers attacked Santa Maria Infante by strafing enemy positions and dropping half a dozen bombs. The Germans returned the favor by sending a few Focke-Wulf–190s to bomb the American troops. Then, American tank destroyers opened up on the fortified German positions. The two-regiment attack was anything but coordinated, however. Originally scheduled to begin his attack at 1600, Colonel Champney requested two delays from his division commander, with the final approval to attack given at 1830. Safay did not receive the order for the second delay and attacked at 1630, along with some of Champney’s companies, which likewise only had received word of a thirty-minute delay.⁶⁸

By the time the 351st launched its attack, it was six and a half hours behind the 338th’s attack. This caused considerable confusion, because the two regiments were supposed to fight side by side. In the dark of night, elements of the 338th veered too far to the right and mistook Hill 109 for Hill 131, and, after taking a part of Hill 109, dug in for the night. When the 351st Infantry started its belated attack with an artillery barrage at 2200, the rounds landed amid Safay’s troops on Hill 109.⁶⁹ In spite of these difficulties, Safay’s troops took Hill 131 that evening. By then, the German XIV Panzer Corps defending the Gustav Line realized that its situation was untenable and ordered a withdrawal, to begin in the early morning hours of 14 May, to another line of defense to the north.⁷⁰

By the afternoon of 15 May, II Corps had smashed through the Gustav Line. Safay’s 338th had taken three commanding positions: Hills 131, 85, and 60.⁷¹ The 85th Infantry Division commander, Maj. Gen. John B. Coulter, continued the attack on the afternoon of 15 May, pressing Germany’s retreating 94th Infantry Division. Safay’s 338th fought along the coast, seizing Mount Penitro, then advanced up coastal Highway 7 and took the town of Formia.⁷² Highway 7 was the only major road in II Corps’ zone, and it led directly to Anzio, where the VI Corps had been encircled since making their assault landings in January 1944.

While the rest of the 85th Infantry Division attacked from the coastal town of Gaeta toward Terracina, Safay’s 338th prepared for an amphibious assault on Terracina. The 1st Battalion loaded into six-wheeled amphibious trucks known as DUKWs and attempted to assault land at Terracina on 21 May. The defenses proved to be too much, and after the 1st Battalion landed successfully at Sperlonga, just south of Terracina, the rest of the regiment’s amphibious assault was called off.⁷³ Safay’s 338th then reassembled at Gaeta where his soldiers had a short day of rest, even enjoying a swim in the sea, before moving inland to join the division in outflanking the Germans at Terracina.⁷⁴ The 338th seized Monte Leano, which overlooked Terracina, and the 339th pushed on to the town and opened the road to Anzio.

The opening freed VI Corps to attack out of Anzio. The attacks of the two American corps squeezed the 85th Infantry Division out of the line, and, on 28 May, after forty-nine days of near continuous fighting, the division was moved into a rest area near the coastal village of Sabaudia, just under 60 miles from Rome.⁷⁵ According to the division’s history, “‘sheer exhaustion’ and ‘complete weariness’ are wholly inadequate” in describing how the soldiers felt.⁷⁶ After only a day’s rest, U.S. Fifth Army commander General Mark W. Clark ordered the 85th back into the offensive toward Rome, an important symbol of power for whomever held it. Safay’s 338th, fighting against the Herman Goering Division, seized Lariano and then San Cesareo before going into division reserve again on 2 June.⁷⁷ The 85th Infantry Division entered Rome unopposed on 4 June 1944.⁷⁸ Unfortunately, the Allied success in Italy would be overshadowed by the invasion of Normandy, which began two days later. Nevertheless, the 85th pursued the fleeing German troops for 46 miles beyond Rome before entering another short rest and refit period, during which it integrated replacement troops and trained for the next offensive.

American troops fire a mortar at German positions around Santa Maria Infante. National Archives

In the middle of August, the 85th Infantry Division occupied defenses along the Arno River opposite Florence before again being pulled back to prepare for the attack on the Gothic Line, the German’s last main line of resistance across the Italian peninsula. It was during this period, on 31 August 1944, that Safay was unexpectedly relieved of command, after nearly four months of combat, and immediately sent to the United States. While their former commander made his voyage back to the United States, the 338th Infantry Regiment, now commanded by Col. William H. Mikkelsen, attacked the Gothic Line. The regiment performed so bravely that the Army awarded it the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at Monte Altuzzo in mid-September. Meanwhile, Safay arrived at the separation center in Fort Dix, New Jersey, where he was released from active duty and returned to the Florida National Guard on 26 October 1944.

Florida’s adjutant general, Vivian Collins, once again wrote to Maj. Gen. John F. Williams, the chief of the National Guard Bureau, in March 1945 asking for clarification about Safay’s relief from combat duty and his previous reduction to the permanent rank of colonel. Williams simply noted that Safay’s record was “without blemish” and that there was no way to uncover the full record of his combat service.⁷⁹ Still, Collins demanded to know why Safay had been relieved. He wrote, “With the experience of this officer at Fort Benning in command of a demonstration regiment it would appear that he was especially qualified for combat command.⁸⁰ Collins even asked Williams to inquire from the Fifth Army or the 85th Infantry Division commanders, but Williams told him it was impossible.

Although dissatisfied with Williams’s lack of reasoning, Collins believed Safay’s service was good enough to merit the state’s highest military honor, for which Collins nominated him. Governor Holland awarded Safay the Florida Cross on 28 August 1945. The citation even notes the difficulties that National Guard officers faced, stating, “Colonel Safay served with distinction in the Italian War Theater under the adverse and discouraging conditions too often imposed on senior officers of the National Guard.”⁸¹

It may never be clear why Safay was relieved of command, but many of his peers in the 85th also were relieved. Colonel Matthews relinquished command of the 339th Infantry after only fourteen days of combat. Col. Brookner W. Brady, who succeeded Matthews, himself served as commander for just six months when he was relieved of command in October 1944, only one month after Safay’s relief.⁸² Col. William T. Fitts Jr. from the division headquarters replaced Brady for a short time before the 339th’s executive officer, Lt. Col. John T. English, succeeded him on 31 December 1944.⁸³ Thus, Safay’s sister regiment, the 339th Infantry went through four commanders in combat. It is plausible that some of these commanders were simply worn out. There was no respite for a regimental commander in combat, and both Safay’s 338th and Matthews’s 339th had been ground down to the core.

Return to Civil Life

Safay returned to Jacksonville and settled back into his civil life. In addition to becoming active in his local American Legion, he immediately started back to work on important state issues. Safay mired himself in the details of a Florida state employee retirement plan, serving on the nine-member board that pushed for legislation to enact it.⁸⁴ Less than six months after Safay’s release from active service, the Florida Senate introduced Senate Bill 169, An Act to Provide for a Retirement System for State Officers and Employees of the State of Florida, on 16 April 1945.⁸⁵ Safay also resumed his employment with the Board of Health as a sanitation consultant in October 1945.⁸⁶

Safay remained on the Florida National Guard rolls, and Collins considered appointing him to reactivate and command the 124th Infantry Regiment. However, accusations of embezzlement, based on discrepancies in the Gator Club funds, and rumors of Safay womanizing while in active service, gave Collins pause.

When Safay left command of the 124th Infantry, the Gator Club funds were reportedly short between $5,000 and $6,000. Collins directed Brig. Gen. Joseph C. Hutchinson, whom Safay had succeeded in command of the 124th in November 1940, to investigate the rumors. Although there was no proof of embezzlement, Hutchinson found that many of the regiment’s former officers, including many prewar Florida National Guard soldiers, had lost confidence in their former commander’s integrity. Hutchinson brought to light a different side to Safay, whom he described as having a “mania for slot machines.” Hutchinson, a firm and professional prewar officer, who had accepted the Japanese surrender on Mindanao while commanding the 31st Infantry Division in September 1945, found Safay’s behavior inappropriate. Rumors were that “he played [the slot machines] for hours at a time and often invited officers (many of whom were junior to him) to form a pool with him for playing the machines, splitting profits or losses.”⁸⁷ Hutchinson concluded that, although rumors could not be verified, Safay should not be given command of the 124th Infantry nor have any part in standing up the Florida National Guard.

Medics tend to a wounded soldier near Santa Maria Infante. National Archives

Hutchinson could not confirm accusations that Safay took on a girlfriend while away from his wife, Iva. Nevertheless, Hutchinson rightfully concluded that, “having lost the respect and confidence of those who served under him while he commanded the 124th Infantry, and the irregularities and misconduct he is charged with being common knowledge of the rank and file of the Florida National Guard, Col. Safay has lost his usefulness to the Florida National Guard.”⁸⁸ Collins followed Hutchinson’s sound advice and decided not to give Safay a role in the renewed regiment. Instead, Collins asked Safay to retire.

Safay retired from the Florida National Guard on 15 June 1946, after nearly thirty-four years of service to his state and nation. The state recognized him as a brigadier general, although his federally recognized rank remained as colonel. Collins invited Safay to the 124th Infantry’s reactivation ceremony, but the former commander, whose rising star long since had burned out, politely declined. “As war time Commander of the 124th Infantry, I should very much like to attend this ceremony, because I am proud of the record made by the 124th Infantry during this last war,” Safay wrote to Collins. However, he noted that he had accepted another invitation to speak at an Armistice Day celebration at the American Legion Post No. 9 in Jacksonville.⁸⁹ The 124th Infantry held their reactivation ceremony in Orlando, Florida, on 11 November 1946, without one of their most influential commanders.

Safay continued to work for the state and became influential in the National Association of Sanitarians (now the National Environmental Health Asso-ciation). He was elected vice president of the association in 1949 and then president in 1950. Safay described his elation: “I have had many honors in the past, but my election as president of our organization was the greatest honor ever bestowed upon me.”⁹⁰ Although the history and importance of sanitation stretches back for many thousands of years of human existence—as is evident, for example, by the aqueducts and sewers used to keep water safe in the era of ancient Rome—the professionalization of the field was not developed and codified (at least in the United States) until Safay’s time with the sanitarians’ association.⁹¹ Under his leadership, the association adopted its first code of ethics and developed new national standards and courses for certifying registered sanitarians.⁹² Safay had entered the sanitation field when it was still a burgeoning profession. Although a state-level association of sanitarians had existed earlier in California, it was not until 1937 that the National Association of Sanitarians was incorporated as a national entity. Safay wrote in his president’s message in the summer of 1951, “We older sanitarians had to gain our knowledge the ‘hard way,’ and we certainly see the progress made in the field of sanitation.”⁹³

A machine gun crew of the 338th Infantry fires at German troops, 19 September 1944. National Archives

Just five years after retiring from the Florida National Guard, while attending an American Legion meeting, Safay was “stricken” (perhaps by a stroke or heart attack) and brought to the hospital, where he soon died on 4 January 1952.⁹⁴ His wife applied for his veteran’s headstone. Although 124th Infantry was listed as his regiment on the application, it appears that someone at the Quartermaster General’s Office adjusted his regiment to the 338th. Like so many veterans’ headstones, Safay’s is limited to a few lines about his lifetime of service: “Florida, Colonel, 338 Infantry, World War I & II."⁹⁵ The headstone misidentifies Safay’s birth year, and, even more conspicuously, neither his wartime rank of brigadier general nor his beloved 124th Infantry Regiment are mentioned at all.

Governor Holland: State Archives of Florida

Safay’s reputation did not remain tarnished after his death. At the 50th Annual Conference of the Florida National Guard Officers’ Association, held in 1952, members of the association adopted a resolution to honor the deceased Safay, whom they described as “an outstanding citizen soldier whose untiring efforts contributed materially in developing well trained citizen soldiers for the defense of State and Nation.”⁹⁶ The National Association of Sanitarians also published a memorial in their journal and established the General Fred A. Safay Memorial Scholarship for advanced study of environmental sanitation.⁹⁷

The staff of the Florida State Board of Health in 1945. Safay is in the back row on the far left. State Archives of Florida

Reflection on Safay’s Impact

Fred Safay was indeed integral to readying the Florida National Guard’s largest unit, the 124th Infantry. He incorporated thousands of soldiers into the regiment over the course of his nearly two years in command. He was among the most influential officers at the Infantry School as head of the Officer Candidate School demonstration unit. Through this unique position, in which he trained thousands of soldiers and officers, Safay extended his influence beyond what most colonels could. In addition to preparing the Army’s infantry officers for combat, Safay’s 124th Infantry Regiment also offered up a large number of its own to the officer corps and air services.

Safay’s most lasting impact may have been on Florida National Guard soldiers and Florida State employees. His activism assured soldiers in the Florida National Guard their right to receive their state civil service pay while ordered to active state service with the National Guard. He was also instrumental in the development of the state employee retirement system, a system which also benefited many Florida National Guard troops who concurrently served the state in civil service. He further affected Floridians, and Americans as a whole, in his efforts to maintain a clean and safe living environment and in his professionalization of public sanitarians.

These accomplishments highlight the dual nature of National Guard troops who traditionally occupy two careers, and whose worth goes beyond just their time in uniform. Soldiers like Safay volunteered their free time to serve their nation, while facing prejudices from the most senior Regular Army officers. Although important nuances of Safay’s story—such as how being the son of Syrian immigrants may have affected his time in the Army or whether mistrust or prejudice factored into his career setbacks—remain largely unknown, Safay’s experiences as likely the first Arab-American general officer in the United States Army illuminate the complexities of National Guard service in times of both war and peace.

Notes