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.

Please remember the Canteen is here to honor, support and entertain our troops and their families.  This is a politics-free zone!  Thanks for helping us in our mission! 

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, TMN78247, for helping honor a great soldier.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks...I’m really glad he wrote down his “adventures” of WWII. And rereading and sharing is a good thing for me.

[MoochPooch]

Evening, Kathy. Nice to read about our heroes of earlier wars.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Welcome to the Canteen, Wuli...we thank you for your service to our country.

My Dad's basic as well in February 1943. I posted some of his notes.

1943 Basic at Fort Leonard Wood

[Kathy in Alaska]

I usually start it every weekend, but I’ve been so busy I didn’t do it...I’ll do it next weekend. Well, I waited too long! DUH!! I will start it again tonight, and each night when I get home, BEFORE I come upstairs.

[luvie]

Wow! THAT is a lot of manuals! I don’t know how you got it all done in one day. It’ll make the vehicles even more valuable to have the tech manuals with them.

How funny that the new cat chose the other person over you. What’s he thinking! You would spoil him rotten. :)

[Kathy in Alaska]

Good evening, Mooch...he was certainly a hero. Glad you enjoyed his story.

Any snow for you? I shoveled a couple inches off the deck this morning and another 2” tonight and it’s still snowing, thankfully gently.

[radu]

As cold as it’s been up there for a while now, I’m surprised it hadn’t conked out sooner. It’s a pain to have to think about it especially when you’re dog tired when you get home from work.

[radu]

Those were a drop in the bucket. I don’t know where they’ll put more cases, once they get more, for the other manuals.
I don’t know how we knocked them all out either. LOL! The crate behind the one Hubby was working on had a LOT of manuals that were only a few pages so they were small .... meaning it took more to fill up that crate! That’s the crate I was helping with. The guy by that crate in the pic is who put them on the shelves after we logged them.

Sebastian is more interested in hanging out with Hubby’s cousin’s FEMALE cat than he is in being spoiled. LOL There’s food and water for him there so he’s fine. And if he wants to come over here to hunt squirrels and mice, he’s welcome to do it. We have way too many now since we’ve been keeping our cats inside.
We have too many cats already so I’m glad he’s staying next door most of the time.

[Kathy in Alaska]

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!! Look at all those manuals!! What a tedious job that must have been. Manuals upon manuals and trying to remember if you’d seen the same one before or not.

Glad that job is done for now. ON TO THE UNIFORMS!!

[radu]

Yes, it was a bit tedious but it needed to be done. Overall it wasn’t too hard to remember if I’d logged one with a certain number before but I did have to check the list several times with some of them. With some, the numbers were so close. Just one digit difference, or it had an identical number only with a letter “P” at the end.
Not many duplicates and the few extras we have will be sold to collectors or another museum at some point down the road.

Yes, the uniforms next time! There’s a cool mixture of items in that crate. Some things modern and some things older, like three sets of leggings from WWI uniforms. They’re on top and I hope the uniforms they go with are somewhere in the crate. The guys bought several adolescent mannequins over the winter specifically for them. People were a lot smaller back in those days and WWI uniforms don’t fit on adult mannequins.

[Lockbar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXekiio28Z4

This is the WW2 barracks Museum at Ft. Leonard Wood. These are the exact buildings I lived in my first 2 weeks in the army in 1973. Very likely the same ones Kathy in Alaska's dad lived in, too. A number of years ago the Army realized that the Reception station complex a Fort Leonard Wood was the last surviving complex of livable WW2 Barracks still in existence in the Army system and they had the brains to preserve them from tear-down and make them a museum. Notice the row of toilets with NO walls between them, no privacy at all. It was that same way when I was there 47 years ago. It took me 5 days before I could do a "sit down". For real.

[Lockbar]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXekiio28Z4

[luvie]

It is good. Bet it makes you smile, as you can hear his voice as you read the words. :)

[TMN78247]

MG Wood is the namesake of the Army post that our MP School is located upon.

Yours, TMN78247

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Lockbar, for that video...the coal heat caught my ear.

" The heat in our barracks came from a coal fired heating plant in a downstairs boiler room. For any inspection of the facilities someone had to scrub down that boiler room. The coal dust was on everything and was very hard to remove.

And we thank you for your service to our country.

[E.G.C.]

A very pleasant good Monday morning and ((HUGS)) to everyone at the Canteen and to all our military at home and abroad. Thanks for your service to our country.

How's everyone doing this morning?

[MoochPooch]

Winter has been mild. Just small snow flurries Saturday. Since I’m mending from an injured knee, I am very grateful I don’t have to navigate the sidewalks. (I definitely don’t belong in Alaska!)

[radu]

Howdy, E.G.C. ((HUGZ))

How’d your outing go with Gizmo yesterday? Was it warm enough you had to share the lake with other folks?

[luvie]

I think I know where part of your sinus problem might be coming from...all the dusty manuals. LOL! Makes me want to sneeze just thinking about them.