Major General Ion M. Bethel, United States Marine Corps, Retired, was born in Mason County at Grit, Texas, on 8 July 1900.

 On 1 October 1918, he enlisted for the duration of World War I at Brownwood, Texas, and was honorably discharged on 9 April 1919 at Parris Island, South Carolina. In September, 1919, he entered John Tarleton Junior Agricultural College. In 1923, he graduated from J-TAC with an Associate Science Certificate and then attended Texas A&M College. Upon graduation in 1925, General Bethel was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Marine Corps and served continuously with the Marines until his retirement in 1958. In 1939, he received his Master of Science Degree in Textile Engineering from Lowell Technological Institute at Lowell, Massachusetts.

 His assignments include: Four tours Philadelphia; two tours Shanghai, China including a one month tour up the Yangtze River to Chungking (1500 miles on the gunboat USS Panay); one tour on Battleship USS Neveda; and campaigns in the Pacific (World War II), New Zealand via Guadalcanal to Peleliu.