MADISON, Wis. - A U.S. Army officer has been hired to be the University of Wisconsin-Madison's military historian thanks to a gift from the late author Stephen Ambrose.

Ambrose donated about $500,000 to the university before his death in 2002 to endow a professorship of military history. The historian who wrote "Band of Brothers" and other books named the professorship in part for his mentor, former UW-Madison professor William Hesseltine.

The university has hired John Hall, a historian and active-duty career officer with the U.S. Army, to be the first Ambrose-Hesseltine professor of U.S. military history.

Hall grew up in Wisconsin and currently works in the Future Warfare Division of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command in Virginia.