James Hilliard Polk was Born at Camp McGraw, Batangas, Philippine Islands on December 13, 1911, of Army parents. He was graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1933 and commissioned a 2d Lieutenant of Cavalry. Prior to World War II, he served as a unit officer in two cavalry regiments, and attended the regular and advanced courses at the Cavalry School.
At the outbreak of World War II, General Polk was a Company Tactical Officer with the Corps of Cadets at West Point.
In 1943, General Polk attended the short general staff course at Fort Leavenworth and then joined the 106th Mechanized Cavalry Group at Fort Hood, Texas, serving as Squadron Commander and later as Regimental Executive Officer. The 106th Cavalry Group joined the Normandy beachhead forces and participated in the hedgerow fighting, the St. Lo breakout, and Third Army's drive across France.
In early September 1944, General Polk assumed command of the 3d Cavalry Group then in combat near Metz, France, and continued to command this mechanized reconnaissance regiment for the balance of the war. The 3d Cavalry remained assigned continuously to General Walton H. Walker's Twentieth Corps of Third Army and frequently spearheaded its advances into central Europe. In these campaigns the regiment was cited frequently for bold and aggressive action and General Polk was decorated three times for gallantry, once by General Patton personally. The regiment was authorized its own patch by General Patton, which General Polk still wears on his right shoulder.
After brief occupation duty in Germany at the end of World War II, Polk returned to the United States and became Chief of Tactics at the Ground General School, Fort Riley, Kansas, and later attended the Armed Forces Staff College. In 1948, he was ordered to Tokyo, Japan, and served in the G2 Section of the U.S. Far East Command for the next three years.
Early in the Korean War, General Polk became Assistant Chief of Staff, G2 of the Tenth Corps and participated in three campaigns. In August 1951, he returned to attend the National War College and was later assigned as an instructor at the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. He was then made Chief of Staff of the 3d Armored Division at Fort Knox, Kentucky and participated in the gyroscope shipment of the division to West Germany. In July 1956, Polk was promoted to Brigadier General and served as Assistant Division Commander for one year.
Following this tour, General Polk's career began to broaden into the field oi soldier-diplomat assignments. For two years he served as Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations, Land Forces Central Europe, at NATO Headquarters at Fontainebleau, France, under General Dr. Hans Speidel.
In July 1959, he returned to the United States and became the Director of the Policy Planning Staff in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Aff airs.
His assignments in the international field were temporarily halted when in June 1961 he was promoted to Major General and ordered back to Western Germany to take command of the 4th Armored Division. However, he returned to soldier-diplomat status when he was assigned US Commander, Berlin, on January 2, 1963.
General Polk became Commanding General of V Corps on 1 September 1964 and was promoted to Lieutenant General on 4 September 1964. He remained Commanding General of V Corps until February 1966 and then returned to the United States to become the Assistant Chief of Staff for Force Development, United States Army, Washington, D.C. In November 1966, General Polk was assigned as the Deputy Commander in Chief, United States Army Europe and in June 1967 he was promoted to the grade of General and made Commander in Chief, United States Army Europe and Seventh Army, and Commander, Central Army Group, NATO. After more than 37 years of commissioned military service, General Polk leaves the active ranks.