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Si Bunting Offers A Unique Perspective on George Marshall
Si Bunting Offers A Unique Perspective on George Marshall
Josiah Bunting III, fondly known to his Middleburg area friends and neighbors as Si, has written “THE MAKING OF A LEADER: The Formative Years of George C. Marshall.” Published by Knopf in mid-March, it’s an illuminating portrait after 15 years of research and writing on one of the greatest leaders of modern American history, Bunting offers a compilation of the essential lessons Marshall’s formative years can offer to current and future leaders.
Bunting is an author, educator, and military historian. A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and former Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, he served as a major in the U.S. Army and later as the superintendent of VMI. Bunting paints a psychological portrait that syncs with Marshall’s experiences, those moments in his young life that made him the formidable Army Chief of Staff and the widely-regarded diplomat he became.
Marshall’s accomplishments are well known. After helping guide the Allies to victory during World War II, he set Europe on the postwar path to recovery with the plan that bears his name and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.
With documents and notes spread out all around his home office, Bunting looked beyond Marshall’s accomplishments for which he has been most often remembered. The focus here is all about the decisive moments that preceded them. It’s a detailed look at the mettle of Marshall’s character, from his arrival as a cadet at VMI and his Fort Leavenworth days to his instructive time as John J. Pershing’s aide-decamp and his critical experiences during World War I.
A former Middleburg area neighbor who now lives in Newport, Rhode Island, Bunting highlights the importance of Marshall’s activity between the wars, when he led “the single most influential period of military education” at Fort Benning, eventually culminating in his appointment as Army Chief of Staff in 1939.
