1. David Daniel "Mickey" Marcus was a United States Army colonel, later Israel's first general, who was a principal architect of the US military's World War II civil-affairs policies, including the organization of the war-crimes trials in Germany and in Japan.
Mickey Marcus was portrayed by Kirk Douglas in the 1966 Hollywood movie Cast a Giant Shadow, which focused on his role in the Israeli war.
Mickey Marcus attended Boys' High School in Brooklyn, and was then accepted at West Point in 1920 and graduated with the class of 1924.
Mickey Marcus spent most of the 1930s as an assistant United States attorney in New York, prosecuting gangsters such as Lucky Luciano.
Mickey Marcus was assigned to the Civil Affairs Division, as chief of planning for occupation governments in territories liberated from the Axis.
Mickey Marcus accompanied US delegations to the conferences at Cairo, Teheran, Yalta, and Potsdam, and helped draft the 1943 surrender terms for Italy.
In May 1944, Mickey Marcus got himself sent to the United Kingdom on Civil Affairs business.
Mickey Marcus then traded on being a West Point classmate of General Maxwell D Taylor to parachute into Normandy on D-Day with the first wave of Taylor's 101st Airborne Division, despite having no paratrooper training.
Mickey Marcus took informal command of some of the scattered paratroopers, and was in combat for a week.
Mickey Marcus was then sent back to the United States.
Mickey Marcus was in charge of providing for the millions of displaced persons in Germany.
Mickey Marcus attended the Nuremberg trials, making sure that Nazi crimes were thoroughly documented.
In 1947, David Ben-Gurion asked Mickey Marcus to recruit a US officer to serve as military advisor to the nascent Israeli army, the Haganah.
Mickey Marcus designed a command-and-control structure for the Haganah, adapting his US Army experience to its special needs.
Mickey Marcus identified Israel's weakest points in the Negev south, and the Jerusalem area.
Mickey Marcus was appointed Aluf and given command of the Jerusalem front on May 28,1948.
Mickey Marcus participated in planning Operations Bin Nun Bet and Yoram against the Latrun fort, held by the Arab Legion, which blocked the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which was under siege.
When Mickey Marcus failed to respond with the password, Linski fired in the air and the man ran towards the monastery.
Mickey Marcus fired at the man, as did one or more fighters in a nearby sentry post.
Mickey Marcus knew very little Hebrew and had responded in English, which Linski did not understand.
Mickey Marcus wore no rank, although officers had been recognized by a ribbon pinned to their uniforms.
Mickey Marcus's body was returned to the United States for burial at West Point, accompanied by Moshe Dayan and his wife Ruth, Yoseph Harel, and the wife of his aide de camp, Alex Broida.
Ben-Gurion was suspicious of the initial report that Mickey Marcus had been shot accidentally.
Mickey Marcus' grave is the only one in the West Point Cemetery at the United States Military Academy for an American killed fighting under the flag of another country; he was still eligible for interment there because he was a graduate of the academy who served honorably.
On May 10,1951, Ben-Gurion laid a wreath at Mickey Marcus' grave, accompanied by Emma Mickey Marcus.