Irving Andrews Fish was a lawyer and member of the Wisconsin National Guard and Major general in the United States Army during World War II. A veteran of World War I, Fish rose to the command of 32nd Infantry Division in December 1938 and supervised division's pre-war training and preparation for combat deployment.

The Louisiana Maneuvers were a series of major U.S. Army exercises held from August to September 1941 in northern and west-central Louisiana, an area bounded by the Sabine River to the west, the Calcasieu River to the east, and by the city of Shreveport to the north. The area included Fort Polk, Camp Claiborne and Camp Livingston. The exercises, which involved some 400,000 troops, were designed to evaluate U.S. training, logistics, doctrine, and commanders. Similar U.S. Army field exercises carried out in the fall of 1941 included the Arkansas Maneuvers in August and the Carolina Maneuvers in November.