Lt. General Arthur J. Gregg

Military Leader

Florence native Arthur J. Gregg holds the distinction of being the first African American in the U.S. Army to attain the rank of Lieutenant General and the first African American Brigadier General in the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps. Additionally, he is the only living person in modern U.S. history to have an American military installation named in his honor. 

Gregg’s 35-year military career as a logistician began in 1946. He served during wartime in Korea and Vietnam and completed numerous overseas tours during the Cold War, including four in Germany. In the United States, he was stationed at various military installations such as Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth, and Fort Lee. His final assignments led him to the Pentagon, where he served as the director of logistics for the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later as the deputy chief of staff for logistics for the U.S. Army.

In 2022, the U.S. Army renamed Fort Lee in honor of Lt. Gen. Gregg and Lt. Col. Charity Adams Earley. The Department of the Army also presents an annual award named after Gregg to its most outstanding logistician.

Post-retirement, Lt. General Gregg held several management positions in the private sector. He served on the board of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and chaired the board of Excelsior College in upstate New York, which has a significant military student body.

A much-decorated member of the Quartermaster Hall of Fame, Lt. Gen. Gregg is an alumnus of Saint Benedict College, the Army War College and Harvard’s Executive Program in National Security.

Lt. General Gregg attributes much of his military success to his supportive wife, Charlene, whom he regards as a “force multiplier.”