the war in training assignments in the United States. Because he had not been formally reprimanded by Eisenhower, he was eligible for appointment to lieutenant general and three-star assignment, which he duly received, along with a hero's welcome on his return to the United States. While commanding the Central Defense Command and the U.S. Second Army at Memphis, Tennessee, Fredendall supervised training and field maneuvers, gave away brides, and at first even granted interviews to members of the press. However, after a sarcastic comment on his generalship by a Time magazine reporter, Fredendall changed his mind, and largely blocked further press coverage of his command. The widespread custom of theater commanders to transfer senior commanders who had failed in battlefield assignments to stateside training commands did not in any way improve the reputation or morale of the latter, who were now saddled with the difficult job of convincing a disgraced commander to take the lead in advocating radical improvements in existing army training programs—programs which, like Fredendall himself, had contributed to the embarrassing U.S. Army reverses in North Africa. Author Charles B. MacDonald described Fredendall as a "man of bombast and bravado in speech and manner [who] failed to live up to the image he tried to create." Historian Carlo D'Este has described Fredendall as "...one of the most inept senior officers to hold a high command during World War II." The 2nd Armored Division commander, Major General Ernest N. Harmon, in his after-action report for the Kasserine battles, called Fredendall both a moral and physical coward and later said he was "a son of a bitch". Fredendall served through the end of the war in 1945, and retired on March 31, 1946. Death Fredendall died in San Diego, California, on October 4, 1963. He is interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery Officers Sections, Site 52-A, along with his wife Crystal Daphne Chant (July 23, 1890 – April 30, 1972). In popular culture In "The New Normal", an episode of the television series Blue Bloods, New York City Police Commissioner Frank Reagan negatively reviews the performance of a precinct commander by drawing a parallel between the captain's poor leadership of his precinct and Fredendall's conduct at Kasserine Pass. Fredendall was portrayed by William Boyett in Ike: The War Years. Commands 1936–1938, Commanding Officer 57th Infantry Regiment October 9, 1940 – August 18, 1941, 4th Infantry Division June 15, 1942 –