Francis K. Newcomer

Francis Kosier Newcomber Francis, son of Henry Clay and Rebecca Newcomer, was born in Byron, Illinois, on September 14, 1889 In 1909 he was appointed a cadet in the United States Military Academy at West Point. In June 1913 he received the degree of B. S. and he was appointed as a second lieutenant in the Army Corps of Engineers of the United States. Or she married Mary B. Roberts in 1914.

His initial work in the army was the First Engineer Battalion Barracks in Washington, DC From there he entered the School of Engineering of the United States in that city, where he graduated in 1916 he was promoted to captain in the same year. It was consecutively assigned to the Second and the Fourth Corps of Engineers, located in Vancouver, Washington, and Camp Greene, North Carolina respectively.

When the United States joined the Allied Forces in World War II, Newcomer traveled to France to participate in the Aisne-Marne offensive and defensive Serre and Vesle. From August 1918 to February 1919 he served as assistant commander of the Engineering School at Langres, France, and later summarized his obligations to the Fourth of Engineers. In the fall of 1919 he returned to the United States under the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel.

The next five years, from 1919 to 1924, was associate professor of mathematics Newcomer at the Military Academy at West Point United States teacher. Then in July 1924, he was appointed district engineer of the Southeast Division in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was in charge of the fortifications and river, as well as work on the dock. In 1928, he was assigned to Fort Belvoir in Virginia as an instructor in the School of Engineering.

Having been promoted to the permanent rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1939, the same year Newcomer entered the War College at Fort Humphreys, Washington, DC, where officers received special training and command positions range war. He graduated in June 1940, and was appointed assistant to the president of the Mississippi River Commission and the division engineer of the Division of the Lower Mississippi Valley in Vicksburg, Misissippi.

In May 1944, he was named maintenance engineer of the Panama Canal, then part of the Caribbean Defense Command. That same year he received the rank of Brigadier General. Newcomer served as assistant chief of the Governor of the Panama Canal, Major General Joseph Mehaffey. After four years of service, Brigadier General Newcomer was appointed Governor of the Panama Canal Zone in May 1948 for a period of four years until the end of 1952.

During his tenure, the questions of increasing the toll charge for private vessels using the channel and channel conversion route from lake to sea level canal were considered. Also for the first time in the history of the Canal, began to charge tolls on ships operated or leased by the government of the United States. In 1951, during his tenure the name of the Panama Canal changed Canal Company Panama, and the terms "Silver" and "Gold roll" to describe the wage standards were abolished on November 21, 1948. in October 1949, Newcomer resigned to active duty in the Army but continued to work as governor of the Panama Canal. Newcomer died on August 16, 1967.