One of the interesting facts about Douglas MacArthur is that his father was a Union veteran, and his mother was from a Confederate family. Douglas MacArthur was born on January 26, 1880, at Little Rock Barracks, Arkansas, to US Army captain Arthur MacArthur Jr. and his wife, Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur. Arthur MacArthur Jr. was the son of Scottish-born lawyer and politician Arthur MacArthur Sr. During the American Civil War, Arthur Jr. was awarded the Medal of Honor for his services with the Union Army at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and he was raised to the rank of lieutenant general. Pinkney was born into a distinguished Norfolk, Virginia family. Two of her brothers had served in the Civil War for the South and had declined to attend her wedding.

MacArthur is also distantly related to Matthew Perry, a Commodore in the United States Navy. Arthur and Pinky had three sons, the youngest of them were Douglas, born on August 1, 1876, after Arthur III, and Malcolm, born on October 17, 1878. The family lived in a series of Army stations across the American West. Malcolm died of measles in 1883 due to primitive conditions. MacArthur stated in his memoir, Reminiscences, that he learned to ride and shoot before he could read or write.

It is a fact that Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor. George Marshall chose to grant MacArthur the Medal of Honor, for which he had previously been nominated twice. Eisenhower reminded out that MacArthur had not undertaken any acts of valor as required by law, but Marshall referenced Charles Lindbergh's award of the medal in 1927 as precedent. Special legislation had been passed to authorize Lindbergh's medal, but while Congressmen J. Parnell Thomas and James E. Van Zandt introduced legislation authorizing the medal for MacArthur, Marshall felt strongly that a serving general should receive the medal from the President and the War Department, expressing that the recognition would mean more if the gallantry criteria were not waived by a bill of relief.

MacArthur had previously been nominated for the prize and recognized that it was for leadership rather than valor. MacArthur was the oldest living active-duty Medal of Honor recipient in history at the age of 62, and as a four-star general, he was the highest-ranking military servicemember ever to earn the Medal of Honor. As a result, Arthur and Douglas MacArthur became the first father and son to receive the Medal of Honor. They were the only pair until 2001 when Theodore Roosevelt won a posthumous award for his heroism during the Spanish-American War, and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. received one for his gallantry during the World War II Normandy invasion.

Another interesting fact is that MacArthur has been regarded as the Army's first press officer. On December 11, 1915, MacArthur returned to the War Department and was promoted to major. He was appointed head of the Bureau of Information in the office of Secretary of War Newton D. Baker in June 1916. Since then, MacArthur has been considered the Army's first press officer. Following Germany's declaration of war on 6 April 1917, Baker and MacArthur obtained permission from President Wilson to utilize the National Guard on the Western Front. To minimize the appearance of bias toward any specific state, MacArthur advised sending first a division composed of units from other states.

Baker authorized the formation, which became the 42nd ("Rainbow") Division, and named Major General William A. Mann, head of the National Guard Bureau, as its commander; MacArthur served as its chief of staff, with the rank of colonel. This appointment was given to the infantry rather than the engineers at MacArthur's request. The 42nd Division was formed in August and September 1917 at Camp Mills in New York, where it was trained for open-field fighting rather than trench warfare. On October 18, 1917, it sailed in a convoy from Hoboken, New Jersey, to France. Major General Charles T. Menoher took over as division commander on December 19.

One of the most interesting facts about Douglas MacArthur is that he had high achievements while studying at West Texas Military Academy. MacArthur attended West Texas Military Academy and received the gold medal for "scholarship and deportment". With a final year average of 97.33 out of 100, he was elected valedictorian. Douglas' father and grandfather both unsuccessfully sought presidential appointments to the United States Military Academy at West Point, first from President Grover Cleveland and later from President William McKinley. Following these two rejections, Milwaukee high school teacher Gertrude Hull provided him with guidance and private tutoring. He then passed the test for an appointment from Congressman Theobald Otjen, earning 93.3. Later, he wrote: "It was a lesson I never forgot. Preparedness is the key to success and victory."

In his second year, MacArthur was a corporal in Company B, a first sergeant in Company A in his third year, and a First Captain in his final year. He was a member of the baseball squad and got 2424.12 merits out of a possible 2470.00, or 98.14 percent, the third-highest score ever recorded. On June 11, 1903, he graduated first in his 93-man class. Because it was traditional at the time for the top-ranking cadets to be commissioned into the United States Army Corps of Engineers, MacArthur was appointed as a second lieutenant in that corps.

Douglas MacArthur died of biliary cirrhosis on April 5, 1964, at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Before his death in 1963, Kennedy had allowed a state funeral, and Johnson confirmed the command, asking that MacArthur be buried with all the dignity a grateful people can bestow on a fallen hero. On April 7, his remains were transported to New York City and laid in an open casket at the Seventh Regiment Armory for almost 12 hours. That night, it was conveyed by funeral train to Union Station and then by a funeral procession to the Capitol, where it was laid in state in the United States Capitol rotunda. The bier was used by an estimated 150,000 individuals.

MacArthur had asked to be buried in Norfolk, where his mother was born and his parents married. Therefore, his burial was held on April 11 at St Paul's Episcopal Church in Norfolk, and his body was finally laid to rest in the rotunda of the Douglas MacArthur Memorial (the former Norfolk City Hall and later courthouse). In 1960, the mayor of Norfolk proposed remodeling the ancient Norfolk City Hall as a memorial to General MacArthur and a repository for the papers, decorations, and souvenirs he had accepted. The MacArthur Memorial, which has been restored and refurbished, comprises nine exhibition halls whose items commemorate the general's 50 years of military service.

One of the most interesting facts about Douglas MacArthur is that MacArthur received over 100 military honors from the United States and other countries during his lifetime. MacArthur was awarded the Medal of Honor, the French Légion d'honneur and Croix de guerre, the Order of the Crown of Italy, the Order of Orange-Nassau from the Netherlands, the Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath from Australia, and the Order of the Rising Sun with Paulownia Flowers, Grand Cordon from Japan.

Since 1987, the United States Army has presented the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Awards on behalf of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation to recognize company grade officers (lieutenants and captains) and junior warrant officers (warrant officer one and chief warrant officer two) who have demonstrated the attributes of "duty, honor, country" in their professional lives and community service. Each recipient receives a 15-pound bronze bust of the general.

The MacArthur Cadet Awards are given by the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation to exceptional cadets from the Association of Military Colleges and Schools of the United States. The MacArthur Award is given to seniors at certain military institutions each year. The award is intended to encourage cadets to replicate General Douglas MacArthur's leadership characteristics as a student at West Texas Military Institute and the United States Military Academy. Each year, approximately 40 schools are authorized to present the honor to their top cadet.