Otto Lauren Nelson, Jr. – Major General, United States Army

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Otto Lauren Nelson, Jr. (November 2, 1902 – June 25, 1985) of Nebraska was a soldier in the United States Army.

Nelson graduated from West Point in 1924 and was commissioned in the Infantry branch. In 1932 he took a Master of Arts from Columbia University. He graduated from the Command and General Staff School in 1938 and took a Ph.D. degree from Harvard in 1939.

Nelson was a member of the Army General Staff during World War II. He participated in the reogranizations of the Army command structure at the beginning of World War II and at the end of the war. Nelson documented those reorganizations and the history of the Army General Staff in National Security and the General Staff (Washington, DC: Infantry Journal Press, 1946.)

Nelson served as a Major General from 13 November 1944 to 31 May 1946.  He retired from active duty in 1946.

Following his army service, Nelson was an insurance company executive. The General died on 25 June 1985 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

NOTE:  His widow, Milrae Nelson Wirsig, who he married in 1976, remarried after his death.  She died in 1994 and received a waiver to be buried with the General in Arlington National Cemetery.

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