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Humble Beginnings
From his humble beginnings in his early life on Cook Avenue in St. Louis, Mo., General Roscoe Robinson Jr. persevered through discipline and commitment to duty and country, becoming the first African American U.S. Army four-star general. Born October 11, 1928, Robinson grew up in the nation’s heartland along the western banks of the Mississippi River with his father, Roscoe Robinson Sr., a veteran of World War I and a steel mill laborer; his mother, Lillie Robinson, a homemaker; and his sister, Janet, born a year after him. As a young boy, one of Robinson’s consuming interests was the Boy Scouts, which he joined at an early age. He achieved the second-highest rank of Life Scout, which required, among other things, taking on leadership roles in his troop, giving service to his community, and being actively involved in weekend and summer camps. During the early years of World War II, while in the Boy Scouts, Robinson developed a clear sense of patriotism, readily participating in such home front efforts as collecting aluminum cans for recycling as part of the war effort. Growing up in a family of very modest circumstances meant that Robinson had to take on work to earn money. Very early on, he started selling newspapers—first The Saint Louis |
Argus and then The Call. Later, he worked after school and on weekends in Joe’s Grocery Store around the corner from the family home. The caring brother that he was, Robinson often used some of his earnings to take his sister to see a movie at the Douglas Theater. He entered Charles Sumner High School, the first high school for Blacks west of the Mississippi River, in 1942. During his high school years, when neither work nor the Boy Scouts claimed his time, he served as vice president of the YMCA’s Hi-Y youth group. He graduated from high school on January 21, 1946, as salutatorian, the second highest academically ranked student in his class, and class president. Determined to proceed with his academic career, Robinson enrolled for one semester in the all-Black Stowe College. Then, in the summer of 1946, he took a concessionaire job at Sportsman’s Park, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals. The job provided him with the opportunity to earn money toward his tuition at Saint Louis University, where he had been accepted.
Entering Saint Louis University was a historic event, as it was only two years after the Jesuit institution became the first school on any level in St. Louis to admit Black students. With racial integration at Saint Louis University still in its infancy, Robinson entered the institution as an undergraduate with the intent of pursuing a degree in industrial engineering. Before he had settled into the routine of college life, however, the first of the events that would impact his life forever began to unfold: his father passed away at the young age of 46 in May 1947. Then, in his second semester at Saint Louis University, Robinson received a telephone call from Goldie Kruder, a French teacher and assistant to Principal George
Dennis Brantley of Sumner High School, informing him that Brantley planned to nominate him to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Having watched Robinson’s development as a young man, when the families were neighbors, and having observed his outstanding performance as a scholar and leader at Sumner, Brantley was convinced that Robinson would be successful at the academy. Faced with the uncertainties of how to finance his undergraduate years at Saint Louis University, Robinson welcomed the opportunity to attend West Point. After some rigorous physical and academic tests, Robinson was selected over another local candidate. He began an academic career that would lay the foundation for his eventual prominence as a military hero.
As a West Point Cadet
In the summer of 1947, Robinson entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was one of a small number of African Americans admitted. Robinson took away many things from West Point: a first-rate education (graduating with a Bachelor of Science in engineering), leadership skills, a love for athletics (he played handball avidly throughout his life), a deep respect for the academy, and the lifelong camaraderie of his classmates. His graduating class also included four other African Americans, which at that time was the largest number of African American cadets ever to graduate from the academy.
Military Service
Upon graduating from West Point in the spring of 1951, Robinson was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry. His first assignment was to serve as a platoon leader with the 3rd Battalion, 188th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division. It was immediately after this assignment that, on June 1, 1952, he married Mildred Sims, a native of Tampa, Fla., whom he had met during a visit to the city with some of his fellow cadets. It was a partnership that would endure throughout his lifetime.
Later that year, he reported to the 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, in Korea. He served as a platoon leader, rifle company commander, and battalion S-2 during his year of combat with the 31st Infantry. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Bronze Star Medal and also was promoted to First Lieutenant.
Robinson’s time as a platoon leader and rifle company commander during the Korean conflict made a lasting impact. He always was aware of his dual responsibility to accomplish his mission and to take care of the troops with whom he served. It was a characteristic that would mark his entire military career. After a year of combat in Korea, Robinson returned to the United States in 1953 and was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division. A year later, he became an instructor in the airborne department of the infantry school at Fort Benning, Ga. During this assignment, Robinson was promoted to Captain. Later, following mandatory attendance at the Infantry Officer Advanced Course in 1957, he joined the U.S. military support mission in Liberia, where he served as the training officer. It was during this assignment that he and his wife would become parents when Carol, their daughter, was adopted.
In 1960, Robinson began a two-year tour of duty with his beloved 82nd Airborne Division, serving first as the S-4 (the officer in charge of logistics), 2nd Battle Group, 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment, and then as commander of “E” company of the 504th. His next assignment was to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which is a graduate school for U.S. (and foreign) military leaders. The college educates and trains intermediate-level officers from the Army and other armed services, along with interagency leaders, to function in the full spectrum of multinational operations as field-grade commanders and staff officers. Robinson graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1963. During this time, he was promoted to the rank of Major. As part of an emerging emphasis on the part of the military to ensure that its future leaders were professionally and academically prepared for a changing world, Robinson was admitted in 1963 to the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh to study international affairs. After one and a half years of course work, which covered classes in diplomacy, international relations theory, and Asian political systems, among other topics, Robinson completed the requirements for a master’s degree in international affairs; he graduated in 1964. From Pittsburgh, he was assigned to the Office of Personnel Operations on the staff of the Department of the Army for a three-year tour of duty.
In 1967, now Lieutenant Colonel Robinson was posted to Vietnam, where he served as G-4 (logistics) and then battalion commander in the 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, the first such division deployed in Vietnam. For his outstanding leadership during periods of close and intense combat, he was awarded two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, 11 Air Medals, and the Legion of Merit. Robinson was promoted to the rank of full Colonel after his Vietnam tour and, in 1968, was selected to attend the National War College in Washington, D.C. Its graduates exercise a significant influence on the formulation of national and foreign policy in peace and war. At the War College, officers are prepared for higher staff and command positions.
From 1969 until 1972, Robinson served at the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command in the directorate that dealt with civil affairs, as well as executive officer to the chief of staff. For this service, he was awarded another Legion of Merit. In 1972, he returned to the 82nd Airborne Division, where he served as commander of the 2nd Brigade. For this service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit (his third such award) at the conclusion of his command tour. Promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in 1973, Robinson was assigned to be the Deputy Commanding General, Okinawa Base Command. Two years later, he became the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Garrison, Okinawa, Japan.
In 1976, Major General Robinson was again promoted and assumed command of the 82nd Airborne Division. As the first airborne division in the U.S. Army, the 82nd had become an elite unit, having participated in the campaign to invade Italy and the historic invasion of Normandy during World War II. In assuming that command, he became the first African American to hold the position that had previously been held by such military figures as Generals Omar N. Bradley and Matthew B. Ridgway. Following this division command, in 1978, Robinson had his first tour of duty in Europe, where he served as deputy chief of staff, operations, U.S. Army in Europe. Two years later, he received his third star and, as a Lieutenant General, traveled halfway around the world to command the U.S. Army in Japan.
In 1982, Robinson was promoted to the rank of four-star General—a promotion that also made him the first African American to achieve such ranking in the U.S. Army. He returned to Europe, where he became the first African American to be the U.S. Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee, a position in which he represented the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in deliberations and actions of the committee. In the fall of that year, in recognition of his exemplary career, Robinson was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Crowning Years
After a brilliant and distinguished military career spanning 34 years as a commissioned officer, General Roscoe Robinson, Jr. retired from the U.S. Army on November 30, 1985. During his last tour of duty and at his retirement, he was awarded two Distinguished Service Medals and the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. His military career was the pinnacle of a journey from the neighborhood in St. Louis where he grew up to the front lines of the Korean and Vietnam wars and then to the rank of four-star General. During the course of his military career, he served under eight commanders in chief—Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. It was a journey undergirded by his philosophy: “Always do the best job that you can at whatever you do.”
After he retired, Robinson secured appointments as a director on the boards of a number of major corporations, including COMSAT Corporation, Giant Foods Corporation, Northwest Airlines, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The latter board was especially rewarding, as it had a provision that allowed its directors, in recognition of their service, to designate a $1 million gift to an organization of their choice. Robinson chose to split Met Life’s contribution among three beneficiaries: the U.S. Military Academy, Fisk University (which his wife had attended), and the United Negro College Fund. Robinson would spend his retirement years serving as a consultant to business and government; as a trustee of the West Point Association of Graduates; and as a volunteer with the So Others Might Eat (SOME) program, an initiative serving breakfast to the homeless in Washington, D.C. Most importantly, however, retirement provided him with more time to spend with Millie, his wife of 33 years; his two children, Carol and Bruce, who was then a captain in the U.S. Army; and his grandchildren.
It was an opportunity that he enjoyed immensely. In 1991, after enjoying six years of retirement, Robinson became ill and was diagnosed with leukemia, initiating a battle that he would fight for 18 months.
In 1992, he was honored at a dinner given by the East Coast Chapter of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., the first Black military airmen in the history of America. They, like Robinson, had defied the color barrier by demonstrating competence and bravery in the midst of conflict and, in the process, helped to put to rest the racial stereotypes that Black men lacked the intelligence, skill, and patriotism to serve on the front lines. At the dinner, Robinson was presented with a trophy, the top of which was a bronze bust of a Buffalo Soldier. The inscription read: “Your legacy lifted our Black military heritage to the highest level of international leadership.” Then, on May 25, 1993, came the honor of being presented with the Distinguished Graduate Award by the West Point Association of Graduates. This prestigious award is given to graduates of the academy whose character, distinguished service, and stature draw comparison to the qualities West Point strives for in keeping with its motto. The award citation read, in part, “Throughout a military career that took him to the pinnacle of his profession, he overcame adversity with courage and enduring dedication to duty.” His support and affinity for West Point had grown over the years, and he was especially moved by the tribute. There, on the magnificent and beautiful grounds of the academy, frail but resolute, Robinson stood and thanked the association for the award and expressed the hope that this recognition by his peers would be an inspiration to today’s youth, particularly those trapped in the inner cities.
Two months later, on July 22, 1993, this humble man, the personification of the best in military leadership that America has produced throughout its history, lost his battle with leukemia. He died at age 64 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After a memorial service on July 26, 1993, in the Memorial Chapel, Fort Myer, Va., Roscoe Robinson, Jr., America’s first Black Army four-star general, was laid to rest in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, not far from the Tomb of the Unknowns.
On April 7, 2000, at a ceremony attended by distinguished guests and the Robinson family, the South Auditorium of the historic Thayer Hall on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was renamed the “General Roscoe Robinson, Jr. Auditorium” as a permanent tribute to his distinguished career. The memorialization also was intended to serve as an inspiration for all future cadets who would follow in his footsteps. The auditorium, in fact, is the first and only memorial on the West Point campus named for an African American. In the keynote address at the dedication service, the superintendent of West Point, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, said of Robinson, “He was first and foremost a combat infantry soldier, and his every fiber reflected the academy’s motto of duty, honor, and country.”
Entering Saint Louis University was a historic event, as it was only two years after the Jesuit institution became the first school on any level in St. Louis to admit Black students. With racial integration at Saint Louis University still in its infancy, Robinson entered the institution as an undergraduate with the intent of pursuing a degree in industrial engineering. Before he had settled into the routine of college life, however, the first of the events that would impact his life forever began to unfold: his father passed away at the young age of 46 in May 1947. Then, in his second semester at Saint Louis University, Robinson received a telephone call from Goldie Kruder, a French teacher and assistant to Principal George
Dennis Brantley of Sumner High School, informing him that Brantley planned to nominate him to the United States Military Academy at West Point. Having watched Robinson’s development as a young man, when the families were neighbors, and having observed his outstanding performance as a scholar and leader at Sumner, Brantley was convinced that Robinson would be successful at the academy. Faced with the uncertainties of how to finance his undergraduate years at Saint Louis University, Robinson welcomed the opportunity to attend West Point. After some rigorous physical and academic tests, Robinson was selected over another local candidate. He began an academic career that would lay the foundation for his eventual prominence as a military hero.
As a West Point Cadet
In the summer of 1947, Robinson entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was one of a small number of African Americans admitted. Robinson took away many things from West Point: a first-rate education (graduating with a Bachelor of Science in engineering), leadership skills, a love for athletics (he played handball avidly throughout his life), a deep respect for the academy, and the lifelong camaraderie of his classmates. His graduating class also included four other African Americans, which at that time was the largest number of African American cadets ever to graduate from the academy.
Military Service
Upon graduating from West Point in the spring of 1951, Robinson was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the infantry. His first assignment was to serve as a platoon leader with the 3rd Battalion, 188th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division. It was immediately after this assignment that, on June 1, 1952, he married Mildred Sims, a native of Tampa, Fla., whom he had met during a visit to the city with some of his fellow cadets. It was a partnership that would endure throughout his lifetime.
Later that year, he reported to the 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division, in Korea. He served as a platoon leader, rifle company commander, and battalion S-2 during his year of combat with the 31st Infantry. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Bronze Star Medal and also was promoted to First Lieutenant.
Robinson’s time as a platoon leader and rifle company commander during the Korean conflict made a lasting impact. He always was aware of his dual responsibility to accomplish his mission and to take care of the troops with whom he served. It was a characteristic that would mark his entire military career. After a year of combat in Korea, Robinson returned to the United States in 1953 and was assigned to the 11th Airborne Division. A year later, he became an instructor in the airborne department of the infantry school at Fort Benning, Ga. During this assignment, Robinson was promoted to Captain. Later, following mandatory attendance at the Infantry Officer Advanced Course in 1957, he joined the U.S. military support mission in Liberia, where he served as the training officer. It was during this assignment that he and his wife would become parents when Carol, their daughter, was adopted.
In 1960, Robinson began a two-year tour of duty with his beloved 82nd Airborne Division, serving first as the S-4 (the officer in charge of logistics), 2nd Battle Group, 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment, and then as commander of “E” company of the 504th. His next assignment was to the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which is a graduate school for U.S. (and foreign) military leaders. The college educates and trains intermediate-level officers from the Army and other armed services, along with interagency leaders, to function in the full spectrum of multinational operations as field-grade commanders and staff officers. Robinson graduated from the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1963. During this time, he was promoted to the rank of Major. As part of an emerging emphasis on the part of the military to ensure that its future leaders were professionally and academically prepared for a changing world, Robinson was admitted in 1963 to the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh to study international affairs. After one and a half years of course work, which covered classes in diplomacy, international relations theory, and Asian political systems, among other topics, Robinson completed the requirements for a master’s degree in international affairs; he graduated in 1964. From Pittsburgh, he was assigned to the Office of Personnel Operations on the staff of the Department of the Army for a three-year tour of duty.
In 1967, now Lieutenant Colonel Robinson was posted to Vietnam, where he served as G-4 (logistics) and then battalion commander in the 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, the first such division deployed in Vietnam. For his outstanding leadership during periods of close and intense combat, he was awarded two Silver Stars, the Distinguished Flying Cross, 11 Air Medals, and the Legion of Merit. Robinson was promoted to the rank of full Colonel after his Vietnam tour and, in 1968, was selected to attend the National War College in Washington, D.C. Its graduates exercise a significant influence on the formulation of national and foreign policy in peace and war. At the War College, officers are prepared for higher staff and command positions.
From 1969 until 1972, Robinson served at the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Command in the directorate that dealt with civil affairs, as well as executive officer to the chief of staff. For this service, he was awarded another Legion of Merit. In 1972, he returned to the 82nd Airborne Division, where he served as commander of the 2nd Brigade. For this service, he was awarded the Legion of Merit (his third such award) at the conclusion of his command tour. Promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in 1973, Robinson was assigned to be the Deputy Commanding General, Okinawa Base Command. Two years later, he became the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Garrison, Okinawa, Japan.
In 1976, Major General Robinson was again promoted and assumed command of the 82nd Airborne Division. As the first airborne division in the U.S. Army, the 82nd had become an elite unit, having participated in the campaign to invade Italy and the historic invasion of Normandy during World War II. In assuming that command, he became the first African American to hold the position that had previously been held by such military figures as Generals Omar N. Bradley and Matthew B. Ridgway. Following this division command, in 1978, Robinson had his first tour of duty in Europe, where he served as deputy chief of staff, operations, U.S. Army in Europe. Two years later, he received his third star and, as a Lieutenant General, traveled halfway around the world to command the U.S. Army in Japan.
In 1982, Robinson was promoted to the rank of four-star General—a promotion that also made him the first African American to achieve such ranking in the U.S. Army. He returned to Europe, where he became the first African American to be the U.S. Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee, a position in which he represented the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in deliberations and actions of the committee. In the fall of that year, in recognition of his exemplary career, Robinson was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.
The Crowning Years
After a brilliant and distinguished military career spanning 34 years as a commissioned officer, General Roscoe Robinson, Jr. retired from the U.S. Army on November 30, 1985. During his last tour of duty and at his retirement, he was awarded two Distinguished Service Medals and the Defense Distinguished Service Medal. His military career was the pinnacle of a journey from the neighborhood in St. Louis where he grew up to the front lines of the Korean and Vietnam wars and then to the rank of four-star General. During the course of his military career, he served under eight commanders in chief—Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan. It was a journey undergirded by his philosophy: “Always do the best job that you can at whatever you do.”
After he retired, Robinson secured appointments as a director on the boards of a number of major corporations, including COMSAT Corporation, Giant Foods Corporation, Northwest Airlines, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The latter board was especially rewarding, as it had a provision that allowed its directors, in recognition of their service, to designate a $1 million gift to an organization of their choice. Robinson chose to split Met Life’s contribution among three beneficiaries: the U.S. Military Academy, Fisk University (which his wife had attended), and the United Negro College Fund. Robinson would spend his retirement years serving as a consultant to business and government; as a trustee of the West Point Association of Graduates; and as a volunteer with the So Others Might Eat (SOME) program, an initiative serving breakfast to the homeless in Washington, D.C. Most importantly, however, retirement provided him with more time to spend with Millie, his wife of 33 years; his two children, Carol and Bruce, who was then a captain in the U.S. Army; and his grandchildren.
It was an opportunity that he enjoyed immensely. In 1991, after enjoying six years of retirement, Robinson became ill and was diagnosed with leukemia, initiating a battle that he would fight for 18 months.
In 1992, he was honored at a dinner given by the East Coast Chapter of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, Inc., the first Black military airmen in the history of America. They, like Robinson, had defied the color barrier by demonstrating competence and bravery in the midst of conflict and, in the process, helped to put to rest the racial stereotypes that Black men lacked the intelligence, skill, and patriotism to serve on the front lines. At the dinner, Robinson was presented with a trophy, the top of which was a bronze bust of a Buffalo Soldier. The inscription read: “Your legacy lifted our Black military heritage to the highest level of international leadership.” Then, on May 25, 1993, came the honor of being presented with the Distinguished Graduate Award by the West Point Association of Graduates. This prestigious award is given to graduates of the academy whose character, distinguished service, and stature draw comparison to the qualities West Point strives for in keeping with its motto. The award citation read, in part, “Throughout a military career that took him to the pinnacle of his profession, he overcame adversity with courage and enduring dedication to duty.” His support and affinity for West Point had grown over the years, and he was especially moved by the tribute. There, on the magnificent and beautiful grounds of the academy, frail but resolute, Robinson stood and thanked the association for the award and expressed the hope that this recognition by his peers would be an inspiration to today’s youth, particularly those trapped in the inner cities.
Two months later, on July 22, 1993, this humble man, the personification of the best in military leadership that America has produced throughout its history, lost his battle with leukemia. He died at age 64 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After a memorial service on July 26, 1993, in the Memorial Chapel, Fort Myer, Va., Roscoe Robinson, Jr., America’s first Black Army four-star general, was laid to rest in the hallowed grounds of Arlington National Cemetery, not far from the Tomb of the Unknowns.
On April 7, 2000, at a ceremony attended by distinguished guests and the Robinson family, the South Auditorium of the historic Thayer Hall on the grounds of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point was renamed the “General Roscoe Robinson, Jr. Auditorium” as a permanent tribute to his distinguished career. The memorialization also was intended to serve as an inspiration for all future cadets who would follow in his footsteps. The auditorium, in fact, is the first and only memorial on the West Point campus named for an African American. In the keynote address at the dedication service, the superintendent of West Point, Lieutenant General Daniel Christman, said of Robinson, “He was first and foremost a combat infantry soldier, and his every fiber reflected the academy’s motto of duty, honor, and country.”