After a privileged upbringing in Buffalo, NY, an Ivy League education at Columbia Law School, and starting a successful law practice back in Buffalo, William Donovan got permission to start a National Guard Cavalry troop. Troop I started as a way for privileged young professionals to ride horses and sleep outside, most of whom had never done either (Donovan excluded). When Donovan was elected the troop's captain, he took his role seriously and though it took four years, turned them into a well-drilled military unit. The troop was deployed to the Mexican boarder with General Black Jack Pershing in 1916 to chase down Pancho Villa and his bandidos and Donovan was promoted to major.
After returning from the boarder in 1917, he was recruited to command a battalion in New York's 69th Infantry Regiment - the Irish Regiment - who was looking for Irish American officers to lead her Irish soldiers. The regimental chaplain, Father Francis Duffy personally recruited Donovan with a vision that he would one day command the entire regiment.
Donovan was promoted to lieutenant colonel, the unit was federalized and reflagged the 165th, and shipped out to Europe. Donovan soon gained a reputation for leading from the front and earned the nickname "Wild Bill." He publicly disavowed the moniker but his wife revealed that he secretly loved it. In the above image, General Pershing in pinning the Distinguished Service Cross on Brigadier General Douglas MacArthur (also a member of the 165th). Donovan (farthest right) awaits his DSC for valor in combat.
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