US Army General. A highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, he rose in rank to become the Commanding General of the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and was the first African American to command that Division and become a 4-star general in the US Army. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he attended St. Louis University there for a year and in 1947 he transferred to the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating in 1951 with a degree in military engineering and a commission as a 2nd lieutenant of Infantry. His first assignment was a platoon leader with the 3rd Battalion, 188th Airborne, 11th Airborne Division. In 1952 he was sent to Korea and assigned to the 31st Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division as a platoon leader, rifle company commander, and battalion S-2 and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor in the heated battle for Pork Chop Hill. In 1953 he returned to the US and became an instructor in the Airborne Department of the US Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. In 1960 he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, serving successively as the S-4, 2nd Battle Group, 504th Airborne Infantry Regiment and then as company commander of "E" Company of the 504th. In 1963 he attended the US Army Command and General Staff at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. In 1964 he received a Masters Degree in International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1967 he was sent to Vietnam where he commanded the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Air Cavalry Division and the following year he returned to the US and served at the National War College in Fort McNair, Washington DC for three years as the executive officer to the Chief of Staff, followed by an assignment to the US Pacific Command at Camp H.M. Smith in Hawaii. In 1975 he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general and became the Commanding General of the US Army Garrison in Okinawa. The following year he was promoted to major general and assigned to command the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. In 1978 he was assigned to Headquarters US Army, Europe as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, followed in 1980 by the Commanding General of the US Army, Japan. In 1982 he was assigned as the US Military Representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Committee in Brussels, Belgium and he retired in this position with 34 years of continuous military service. Among his military awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver Star (witl1 oak leaf cluster), the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal (with 10 oak leaf clusters), the National Defense Service Medal, and the Combat Infantry Badge. After his military retirement, he sat on a panel who examined the Korean War performance of some highly criticized black army units, was a trustee with the West Point Association of Graduates, and served on the board of Northwest Airlines. In May 1993 he received the Distinguished Graduate Award at West Point. He died of leukemia in Washington DC at the age of 64. In April 2000 a new auditorium at the US Military Academy was named the "General Roscoe Robinson, Jr. Auditorium" in his honor. The Roscoe Robinson Health Clinic at Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg is also named in his honor.