FReeper Canteen ~ Hall of Heroes: Major General Leonard Wood ~ 02 March 2020

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[Kathy in Alaska]

 

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~ Hall of Heroes ~

Maj Gen Leonard Wood

Info from here.

           

Leonard Wood (October 9, 1860 – August 7, 1927) was a physician who served as the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Military Governor of Cuba and Governor General of the Philippines. Early in his military career, he received the Medal of Honor. Wood also holds officer service #2 in the Regular Army (John Pershing holds officer service #1).

Biography

Born in Winchester, New Hampshire, he attended Pierce Academy in Middleborough, Massachusetts, and Harvard Medical School, earning an M.D. degree in 1884 as an intern at Boston City Hospital.

He took a position as an Army contract physician in 1885, and was stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Wood participated in the last campaign against Geronimo in 1886, and was awarded the Medal of Honor, in 1898, for carrying dispatches 100 miles through hostile territory and for commanding an infantry detachment whose officers had been lost.

While stationed at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia in 1893, Wood enrolled in graduate school at Georgia Tech, then known as the Georgia School of Technology, and became the school's second football coach and, as a player, its team captain. Wood led the team to its first ever football victory, 28 to 6, over the University of Georgia.

Wood was personal physician to Presidents Grover Cleveland and William McKinley through 1898. It was during this period he developed a friendship with Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Wood, with Roosevelt, organized the 1st Volunteer Cavalry regiment, popularly known as the Rough Riders. Wood commanded the regiment in a successful engagement known as the Battle of Las Guasimas. When brigade commander, Samuel B. M. Young became ill, Wood received a field promotion to brigadier general of volunteers and assumed command of the 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, V Corps (which included the Rough Riders) and led the brigade to a famous victory at Kettle Hill and San Juan Heights.

After San Juan, Wood led the 2nd Cavalry Brigade for the rest of the war; he stayed in Cuba after the war and was appointed the Military Governor of Santiago in 1898, and of Cuba from 1899–1902. In that capacity, he relied on his medical experience to institute improvements to the medical and sanitary conditions in Cuba. He also ordered the incarceration of Dr. Manuel M. Coronado, director of La Discusión newspaper and Jesus Castellanos, caricaturist of the newspaper because Jesus Castellanos drew a cartoon that was published on April 12, 1901, in the Cuban paper La Discusión. The cartoon showed "The Cuban People" represented by a crucified Jesus Christ between two thieves, General Wood and American President William McKinley. Cuban public opinion was depicted by Mary Magdalene on her knees crying at the foot of the cross and Senator Platt, depicted as a Roman soldier, is holding a spear that says "The Platt Amendment" on it. Governor Wood, who saw in Castellanos's drawing an unfriendly gesture toward the United States, had both men arrested for criminal libel and held in the Vivac prison of Havana, and the offices of La Discusión newspaper were sealed (Wood was persuaded to release them on the following day). He was promoted to brigadier general of regulars shortly before moving to his next assignment.

In 1902, he proceeded to the Philippines, where he served in the capacity of commander of the Philippines Division and later as commander of the Department of the East. He was promoted to major general in 1903, and served as governor of Moro province from 1903–1906.

Army Chief of Staff

Wood had known Theodore Roosevelt well before the Spanish-American War. Wood was named Army Chief of Staff in 1910 by President Taft, whom he had met while both were in the Philippines; he remains the only medical officer to have ever held that position. As Chief of Staff, Wood implemented several programs, among which were the forerunner of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program, and the Preparedness Movement, a campaign for universal military training and wartime conscription. The Preparedness Movement plan was scrapped in favor of the Selective Service System, shortly before World War I. He developed the Mobile Army, thus laying the groundwork for American success in World War I. He created the General Staff Corps.

In 1914, Wood was replaced as Chief of Staff by William Wotherspoon. Wood was a strong advocate of preparedness, which alienated him from President Wilson. With the US entry into World War I, Wood was recommended by Republicans, in particular Henry Cabot Lodge, to be the U.S. field commander; however, War Secretary Newton Baker instead appointed John J. Pershing, amid much controversy. During the war, Wood was, instead, put in charge of the training of the 10th and 89th Infantry Divisions, both at Camp Funston. In 1915, he published The Military Obligation of Citizenship, and in 1916 Our Military History.

Wood was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the election of 1920. He was urged into running by the family and supporters of his old friend Theodore Roosevelt, who had himself been considering another campaign before his illness and death in 1919. He won the New Hampshire primary that year, but lost at the convention. Among the reasons why he did not become the candidate were rivals for the nomination, his obvious political inexperience, and the strong support he gave for the anti-Communist strategy of Democratic Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer to defeat radical subversion. After the major candidates deadlocked, the nomination went to Warren G. Harding.

He retired from the Army in 1921, and was made Governor General of the Philippines, in which capacity he served from 1921 to 1927.

Wood died in Boston, Massachusetts after undergoing surgery for a recurrent brain tumor. He had initially been diagnosed in 1910 with a benign meningioma brought on by exposure to experimental weapons refuse. This was resected by Harvey Cushing at that time, and Wood made a full recovery until the tumor later recurred. The successful removal of Wood's brain tumor represented an important milestone, indicating to the public the advances that had been made in the nascent field of neurosurgery, and extending Wood's life by almost two decades.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. His brain is held at the Yale University School of Medicine as part of an historic collection of Harvey Cushing's patients' preserved brains.

Legacy

Camp Leonard Wood in Missouri, now Fort Leonard Wood, home of the United States Army Combat Engineer School, Chemical School, Military Police School, and USAF 366 TRS Det 7 was named in his honor, as was the USS Leonard Wood (APA-12).

Leonard Wood Road in Baguio City, Philippines was named in his honor. A Public Elementary School in Barangay Jagobiao, Mandaue City, Philippines (inside Eversley Childs Sanitarium compound) was also named after him.

Ft. Leonard Wood is also a major TRADOC post for Basic Combat Training (BCT), home of the 10th Infantry Regiment.

Wood Street corner Gov. Lim Avenue in Zamboanga City, Philippines was also named in his nobility.

He is portrayed favorably in the 1997 miniseries "Rough Riders" by actor and former United States Marine Dale Dye.

Leonard Wood was portrayed in a less favorable light by Mark Twain and others for his part in leading the Moro Crater massacre in 1906.

A plaque in Wood's memory is found in Harvard University's Memorial Church.

Medal of Honor Citation

Voluntarily carried dispatches through a region infested with hostile Indians, making a journey of 70 miles in one night and walking 30 miles the next day. Also for several weeks, while in close pursuit of Geronimo's band and constantly expecting an encounter, commanded a detachment of Infantry, which was then without an officer, and to the command of which he was assigned upon his own request.

On Friday, December 31, 2010 Fort Leonard Wood was hit by an EF-3 tornado which completely destroyed 30 homes and left many more needing repair.

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[PROCON]

I was at Ft. Leonard Wood for 3 weeks in Jan. ‘76 for ‘Minuteman’ training for we prior-service guys (I was in ‘69-’72). It was 3 weeks of drill and ceremony, PT and the rifle range. Cold, cold, cold, great place to forget.

[Kathy in Alaska]

[TMN78247]

Sacred to the memory of MG Leonard Wood, awarded MOH for bravery against the Apaches, Commanding General of a “Wing” (3 Regiments) in the S-A War & Governor General of the Philippines.

Yours, TMN78247

[radu]

We need to swap somehow. We need your dry and you need our wet. LOL

[Kathy in Alaska]

Fort Leonard Wood is where by Dad went for basic in February 1943...a few of his notes follow.

"I was drafted into the US Army on February 5, 1943. The physical exam, etc. was done at the old Pacific Electric RR building located at 5th and Main in Los Angeles. After all that was completed, I went to the Arlington Reception Center near Riverside, California. I believe that I was there for only a couple of days, issued uniforms, et al, when I was called into the office and told that I would be in charge of a Troop movement. When I was given an envelope containing meal tickets and transportation vouchers, I found that the Troop movement consisted of one, (me).

The orders sent me to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, via Fort Worth, Dallas, and Tulsa, of which I remember very little. I do remember that whenever we stopped, I would ask the conductor how long we would be there and I would take off. One of the non-coms with the other troops on the train would run me down only to find that I did not belong to its unit. They must have chased me five miles total on the whole trip. They too were going to Leonard Wood, but had come from the San Francisco area. My duffel bag did not get there when I did so I was without an overcoat, which was greatly needed in the Ozarks in Missouri, considering I had been working in the California Desert. We came into the Fort through the back gate and to this day I have no idea what the front gate looks like. I was put on the top floor of a two story wooden barracks along with 39 other new recruits or draftees as the case may be. Thus started my Basic Training in the Combat Engineers.

Many funny things took place during those Basic Days. We wore rubber overshoes over our combat boots most of the time. On one of the early days as our Platoon leader was inspecting the troops, he looked at the feet of the soldier on my right, then stepped in front of me, then back to the soldier on my right. The young Mexican kid from Monterey, California had the overshoes on the wrong feet making the angle of the feet look rather peculiar. We went on about a 15-mile march one day and the normal plan was to take a ten-minute break every hour. At our first break this same Mexican kid complained about his feet hurting. The sergeant had him take off his boots. It turned out that he was only wearing the overshoes with no boots. He had blisters on both top and bottom of his feet. He did get a ride back to the barracks however.

One day during an inspection, the platoon leader, who was a Mexican Lieutenant, about 6'1" tall, stopped in front of me. The normal routine was to come to Inspection Arms with the rifle held at an approximate 45-degree angle with the bolt open. When the inspecting officer reached for your rifle you let go and it was his problem. On this occasion I was ready for him to reach for the rifle. When his shoulder twitched as though he was grabbing for my rifle, I let it drop. He grabbed for it and in doing so hit himself alongside the head with this nine pounds of steel, knocking himself backwards into the squad behind him and knocking a soldier in that rank down. At least two of the members of the platoon burst out laughing. The Lt picked himself up threw the rifle back at me, which I caught, and started chewing out the two or three that laughed. It seems that when I got to Fort Leonard Wood, they did not have a nametag for me. This Lt always asked me my name in no uncertain terms, until the above event happened. After that he never asked me my name again.

The exit doors to our barracks were rather peculiar in that the screen door opened in and the outside door opened out. We had just been released to our barracks and were upstairs, all 40 of us, when we received word to make a complete change of uniform, and fall out into formation, NOW!!! The first one down the stairs did not get the screen door open and the 39 behind him pushed him and both doors down the 6 or 8 steps to the ground. There were 39 sets of footprints on this poor fellow. As I recall, he did get a couple of days in the hospital to recover from this event.

During the eight weeks I was there, we were taught knot tying, bridge construction, demolition, road building and combat training (rifle drill, weapons firing, close order drill, long tactical marches, etc.). During the knot tying training, I drove the sergeant nuts. Having spent many years in the Boy Scouts, I could tie most of the knots behind my back, which I proceeded to do whenever I was asked for a certain knot This really made his day, I’m sure."

[luvie]

What an excellent story and so well written by your dad! He had quite an adventure there! LOL!

[luvie]

I WISH!!

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, radu...hope you got some drying time today before you get MORE rain.

It’s snowing here and supposed to keep going all night. It IS beautiful to watch coming down.

[radu]

An interesting look into the past through your dad’s words. Neat that he kept notes about some of his time in the service. Those are treasures.

[radu]

I WISH TOO!!!

[PROCON]

Thanks Kathy, great diary by your Dad, very interesting to read!

[radu]

Yes, it was dry and fairly warm today and has been windy the past two days. That helps with drying.
But the rain’s closing in fast tonight.

Your snow IS pretty to watch on the airport cam ..... from MNAY miles away. LOL
It’ll be a mess going to work in the morning though. :-(

[radu]

Howdy, PRO!

Have you had a good weekend? Still enjoying those nice temps. We’ve been cold here for a few days but it warmed up nicely today.

[Kathy in Alaska]

You are most welcome.

[Wuli]

My basic training camp.

[PROCON]

Hey radu!

Good weekend and weather here, sunny and cold in the mornings but nice and warmish in the afternoons.

I'm actually working tomorrow morning because of a delayed delivery last Friday but will be back home around 9 AM.

Kittehs behavin'?

[Kathy in Alaska]

There was still air in my tire. I did call AAA again to jump my battery in the S-10, and made a HUGE point of asking for a second ticket as well. I had him (the same guy) top off the tire.

I will call the dealer first thing in the morning. Maybe I might be able to get it in Monday, but we will see. My guess is I will need to stop and "air-up" every night before I can get it in.

Just finished shoveling 2+" off the deck and feeding a couple hundred ducks. 🦆🦆🦆🦆🦆

[radu]

Lucky you with that nice weather. Any time we get warmer temps, we get rain ..... like now. At least it was dry and sunny during the day so we could enjoy the warmth while outside. Tomorrow will be a good day to stay inside.

Da kittehs are in a bit of a snit these days. A new cat has been hanging around and they get wound up when they see him through the windows. They can relax. He's not coming inside. He's apparently spending most of his time at Hubby's cousin's farm next door, hanging out with his cat.

I remembered I hadn't loaded the pix from yesterday's fun at the museum so just did it. It was great to be up there again. I wanted to dive into a crate of uniforms and other fabric items but instead had to help inventory a ton of Technical Manuals. Two crates of them. Hubby and his cousin sorted through one crate, weeding out duplicates, in this pic.

We'd been working a while when I stopped to take the pix. Booth crates were full to the rim when we started.

This shot shows the cases the books were placed in after they'd been logged.

All those cases are full now. We need to get more cases as there are still 4 more crates of TMs, Field Manuals, and various other manuals. At least those are still in Tupelo so next time we're up there, I'm divin' into my crate! LOL

[Kathy in Alaska]

As I was putting the thread together I remembered that part of my Dad’s remembrances started at Fort Leonard Wood. I wanted to share...some of it is pretty funny.

[radu]

Glad the air hadn’t all leaked out again. Also glad you were able to get the dead battery recharged. You should start it every day to help keep it up since cold kills batteries. If you already do and it still conked out, it might be time for a new one. Ka-CHING.

I’m surprised it was only a couple of inches you had to shovel off the deck. The snow’s been coming down pretty hard from what I’ve seen on the airport and city cams.

It sounds like no ducks are in hiding these days. LOL!!!