Page "Hugh Samuel Johnson" Paragraph 5

Wishing to follow in his father's footsteps, Johnson won permission from General Enoch Crowder to attend the University of California ( at Berkeley ) where he received his Bachelor of Laws degree ( with honors ) in 1915 and his Juris Doctor in 1916 ( doubling up on courses to graduate in half the time required ).

Transferring to the Judge Advocate General's Corps ( JAG ), from May to October 1916 he served under General John J. Pershing in Mexico with the Pancho Villa Expedition.

promoted to Captain on July 1, 1916, he transferred to the JAG headquarters in Washington, D. C., in October 1916.

He was promoted to Major on May 15, 1917, and to Lieutenant Colonel on August 5, 1917.

He was named Deputy Provost Marshal General in October 1917, and the same month was named to a Department of War committee on military training ( the U. S. had entered World War I on April 6, 1917 ).

As a Captain, Johnson helped co-author the regulations implementing the Selective Service Act of 1917.

Without Congressional authorization, he ordered completed several of the initial first steps needed to implement the draft.

The action could have led to his court-martial had Congress not acted ( a month later ) to pass the conscription law.

He was promoted to Colonel on January 8, 1918, and to Brigadier General on April 15, 1918.

At the time of his promotion, he was the youngest person to reach the rank of Brigadier General since the Civil War, and the youngest West Point graduate to remain continuously in the service who had ever reached the rank.

Ohl ( 1985 ) finds that Johnson was an excellent second-in-command during the war in the Office of the Provost Marshal under Brigadier General Enoch H. Crowder as long as he was closely watched and tightly supervised.

His considerable talents were effectively drawn upon in the planning and implementation of the registration and draft before and during the conflict.

However he was never able to work smoothly with others.