Roscoe B. Woodruff

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Roscoe Barnett Woodruff
February 9, 1891(1891-02-09) – April 24, 1975 (aged 84)
Place of birth	Oskaloosa, Iowa
Place of death	San Antonio, Texas
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1913-1952
Rank	Lieutenant General
Commands held	77th Infantry Division VII Corps 24th Infantry Division U.S. First Army
Battles/wars	Mexican Border Service World War I World War II *Battle of Mindanao
Awards	Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Bronze Star Purple Heart Commendation Ribbon

Roscoe Barnett Woodruff (February 9, 1891 – April 24, 1975) was a career U.S. Army officer who served in World War I and as a combat commander in World War II.

Woodruff was 1915 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the first captain of the corps of cadets in a class that included future World War II generals and his commanding officers, Dwight Eisenhower and Omar N. Bradley.

After graduation, he served on the Mexican border and with the 2nd Division in World War I. In 1938, Lt. Col. Woodruff was serving on the War Department General Staff.

As a colonel, he commanded the 23rd Infantry Regiment from July 1941 to January 1942.

In World War II, from June 1942 to May 1943, Woodruff commanded the 77th Infantry Division during its pre-deployment training prior to its assignment to the Pacific Theater in the spring of 1944.

After leaving the 77th, he took command of VII Corps in England. Eisenhower initially selected Woodruff as one of three corps commanders along with Leonard T. Gerow and Willis D. Crittenberger commander of XIX Corps for the 1944 Allied invasion of France. All three were well known and trusted by Eisenhower. When Bradley was selected as commander the D-Day invasion the fall of 1943, he was concerned that Gerow and Woodruff lacked experience amphibious landings or commanding large organizations - divisions and corps - in combat. Gerow was retained, Crittenberger moved to command a reserve corps in the Italian campaign and Woodruff, shuffled off to command Nineteenth Corps for a matter of weeks, then returned to the United States to command the 84th Infantry Division, then in training at Camp Clairborne, Louisiana, from March to June 1944.

Woodruff did get his chance at large-scale combat command as commander of the 24th Infantry Division in the Southwest Pacific in November 1944. His welcoming reception in theater was celebrated at the division's paratroop headquarters, fueled with five gallons of torpedo alcohol, furnished by Navy patrol boat sailors, as a key ingredient for liquid refreshments. He led his command in the five month Battle of Mindanao to liberate that island of Philippine archipelago from Japanese occupation in the closing phases of the Leyte campaign. After the war, from November 1945 to February 1948, he was Eighth Army's I Corps commander of Allied occupation ground troops in southern Japan.

From 1948 to March 1951, he was deputy commanding general of U.S. First Army at Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York and in 1949 and 1950, he was acting after the transfers of Generals Courtney Hodges and Walter Bedell Smith.

In 1951, he took command of XV Corps at Camp Polk (now Fort Polk), Louisiana where he retired in January 1953 after 41 years of active duty.

He and his wife, Alice Gray Woodruff retired to San Antonio, Texas where he died in July 1975.