Japanese war in 1904, Pershing, over 40, still was a captain in the regular army. His associates say he never grumbled, but always kept plugging his job. Reams and reams have been written about how he took a prominent part in the pacification of the Philippine islands and how President Roosevelt made him a brigadier general, jumping him over the heads of exactly 862 men who were senior to him on the service roll. When Pershing took the punitive expedition to Mexico after the bandit Villa, he became the only living officer in the American army who had commanded any body of troops so large as a brigade in anything approaching action. It is true that the late General Funston commanded more than a brigade on the Vera Cruz expedition but Funston's troops never got into action. From the time Pershing graduated from West Point in 1886 he had his service in the army. Like his classmates, he immediately was plunged into the Indian wars. He entered a campaign against the great Apache chief Geronimo who for many years had kept the great southwestern country almost closed to immigration. 