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Acknowledgements
Title Page || 1: Cast of Characters: Birth of the US War Department General Staff, 1898-1916
Several individuals have made this thesis possible. My parents did much over the years
to satiate my curiosity, whether my interests focused on fossils, stars or humanity's
past. I would like to thank Dr. Michael L. Seewer of Fairborn High School for introducing
me to the promise of history. I am indebted to Dr. William N. Denman and all involved with
the Society of Yeager Scholars at Marshall University, who provided me with a solid
undergraduate education more than sufficient to carry me on to graduate school. I must
also express my appreciation to the staffs of the Library of Congress Manuscript Division,
the National Archives and the James E. Morrow Library at Marshall University, including
Patricia Delnero, Ron Titus, Becky Goodman and a woman I know only through her numerous
messages on my answering machine as "Wendy from interlibrary loan." I extend my
thanks to Dr. Charles Bias and Dr. Frances Hensley for their patient and enlightening
criticism, and of course to Dr. David R. Woodward, whose confidence has opened several
opportunities for me and through whose mentorship I have learned the joy of research and
the dangers of Szechuan Chinese food. Finally, I am most appreciative of my loving wife,
Diane, whose gentle tauntings of "history is bunk" serve to remind that all
historiography is written in sand rather than stone. Any errors of fact or interpretation
exist in spite of the efforts of these individuals and others, and thus are my own.
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