THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 4, 1996 TAG: 9601030169
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: GUEST COLUMN
SOURCE: BY WILLIS IRVIN JR.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
As a nation awaits with anxiety the news of the peace mission in former Yugoslavia, we can only remember that peacemakers are soon forgotten.
A case in point is the memory of Gen. Gilbert Hume Woodward, a Suffolk native, who had key roles in negotiating the release of the crew of the American spy ship, ``Pueblo,'' captured off North Korea, and the withdrawal of the U.S. military forces from Vietnam.
Gen. Woodward was known as the ``Peace General.'' He died on an unpublished mission to London aboard an American airliner Oct. 17, 1973. He had suffered a massive heart attack. His grave is marked by a small plaque in the Cedar Hill Cemetery in Suffolk. He was the inspector general of the U.S. Army.
Gen. Woodward was a soldier's soldier. Once when he spoke to the Exchange Club in August, Ga., requests from the military at nearby Fort Gordon to hear the general speak doubled the capacity of the club to provide for them. As he was introduced to the audience that day, he was greeted with a rousing cheer. This is the kind of a response one would expect from a George Washington or a Robert E. Lee.
Born in Suffolk, the son of a former mayor (Popa Dick Woodward), Gen. Woodward graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1940. He had combat experience with the 94th Infantry Division in Europe in World War II. After the war, he served occupation duty in Czechoslovakia and returned to teaching duties with the War Department. He studied political science at the University of Virginia and law and government at Columbia University. He attended the Armored Force School at Fort Knox and later commanded the Second Armored Division in Berlin.
As commander of the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea in 1968, he became the ranking officer to serve on the U.S. commission to negotiate the return of the crew of the spy ship ``Pueblo.'' Then the secretary of state announced to a grateful nation that a possible nuclear conflict had been averted. Gen. Woodward received little thanks from a grateful nation.
When the Vietnam War became so unpopular, Gen. Woodward headed the commission to withdraw American troops from this war torn country and for the release of American prisoners of war.
American history has never been kind to a soldier who fought for peace, yet Gen. Woodward had a part in preventing war with North Korea and ending a war with Vietnam. Millions of American families were the benefactors. The Peace General was again forgotten.
Mrs. Stuart Hensley Woodward, his widow, resides outside of Fort Belvoir. A son, Charles Hensley Woodward, and a daughter, Stuart Delves Woodward, both live in California.
In the Book of Matthew in the Bible, we read that Jesus taught his disciples, ``Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.'' Gen. Woodward was a peacemaker! MEMO: Willis Irvin Jr., a former Army information specialist, served with
the Second Armored Division as sergeant in five major battles in Europe
in World War II.
He is the brother of Helen Irvin Dowling, architect, of Suffolk.
Willis Irvin Jr., a former Army information specialist, served with the
Second Armored Division as sergeant in five major battles in Europe in
World War II.
He is now a Presbyterian U.S.A. minister, working in the jails and
prisons near Augusta, Ga.
ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Gen. Gilbert Hume Woodward, who died in 1973, was known as the
``Peace General.''
by CNB