Joseph Cowles Mehaffey

Joseph Cowles Mehaffey ( born November 20, 1889 in Lima, Ohio, † February 18, 1963 ) was an American officer. Between 1944 and 1948 he was Governor of the Panama Canal Zone.

Career

Joseph Mehaffey attended the public schools of his home. Between 1907 and 1911 he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He then began a long career as an officer in the Corps of Engineers of the United States Army. He was initially for short periods in Rock Iceland (Illinois), Memphis ( Tennessee) and New Orleans ( Louisiana) stationed. Then it was the beginning of 1912 for a few months for the first time in the Panama Canal Zone. He was then placed in the Engineering District of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. After further training in Washington, D.C. He served in 1914 in the Eastern Department of the Corps of Engineers. In 1915 he was a member of the Alaska Road Commission, which planned roads in the Alaska Territory and rebuilt. In the years 1917 and 1919, ie during the First World War, he was a staff officer at the headquarters of the Corps of Engineers in Washington. After that he was stationed for some time in France and England. In 1921 he was promoted to Major. Since 1922, he served on the faculty of the Military Academy at West Point. In 1929 he was again for a short time in the Panama Canal Zone, before he took a training course at Fort Leavenworth, which he finished in 1935. Then he was again on the staff of the headquarters of Engineers.

Since 1941 Joseph Mehaffey was responsible for the maintenance of the Panama Canal. In 1942 he was promoted to brigadier general; In 1944 he was the successor of Glen Edgar Edgerton Governor of the Panama Canal Zone. This post he held until 1948. On November 30, 1949 Joseph Mehaffey retired. He died on 18 February 1963.