Feeling the Hot Breath of History: The Influence of Forrest Carlisle Pogue on US Military History

Richard B.  Davis will discuss the significant role Forrest Pogue, a native of Crittenden County and a graduate of Murray State, played in the development of the US Army history program beginning during World War II.

Forrest Carlisle Pogue graduated from Murray State and taught history there from 1933 to May 1942, when he was drafted into the army. He was quickly assigned to a historical unit and sent to Europe. He was initially assigned to write the history of the Second US Army and interviewed wounded soldiers and others at Normandy, Bastogne, and other sites close to the front lines.

He was then assigned to write the history of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force from 1945 to 1946. He was later assigned by Dwight D. Eisenhower to write the official history of the Supreme Command in Europe. Pogue spent seven years as a military historian, and two conducting operations research at United States Army Garrison Heidelberg with the Operations Research Office at Johns Hopkins University. He returned to teach at Murray State in 1954. In 1956, Pogue was hired by the George C. Marshall Foundation to write the official biography of George C. Marshall, completing four volumes. He was also director of the Marshall Foundation from 1956 until 1974 when he became director of the Eisenhower Institute for Historical Research.

Richard B. Davis is a graduate of Murray State University who completed his PhD in history at Florida State University. He retired from the Kentucky Army National Guard as a Major with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He is currently Curator at the General George Patton Museum of Leadership at Fort Knox. He previously served as Curator of the US Army Adjutant General’s Corps Museum at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

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