Weckerling Center

Weckerling Center. . , Dedicated to the memory of , Brigadier General John Weckerling , 1896 - 1989, John Weckerling, the founder of the Defense Language Institute, had a long and distinguished career of service to the nation, he joined the Army in 1917 during World War I and was commissioned in the infantry. He then served in a variety of assignments in the United States and the Philippine Islands, including two tours in 1928-32 and 1934-36 as a language student and attache in Japan. On the eve of World War II, he established the Fourth Army Intelligence School at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanese language to Japanese American soldiers. He later served on the war department general staff, rising to brigadier general and deputy assistant chief of staff, G-2. After the war he served in occupied Korea and supervised the elections to establish the Republic of Korea in 1948. In 1950 during the Korean war he once again became deputy assistant chief of staff for intelligence. From 1952 until his retirement in 1954 he served with the Central Intelligence Agency. The language school he established in 1941 has since grown into the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, which continues today as his legacy to the nation.