LTG ARTHUR G . TRUDEAU

As a young boy in Middlebury, Vermont, Arthur Trudeau avidly read Horatio Alger stories, played soldier with a friend whose grandfather had graduated from West Point, and developed a strong desire to be the best at whatever he did . He realized his dream of attending the Military Academy when he secured an appointment by way of the competitive exam in 1920.
Trudeau’s 1924 graduating class at West Point was the largest to date. Impressed by the Corps of Engineers' contributions to the development of the West and its World War I record, he believed that the Corps offered him the greatest career opportunity and a chance for a high degree of decision-making, responsibility. By finishing seventeenth in his class of more than 400, he chose a commission in the Corps of Engineers along with classmates of later note--Emerson Itschner, Herbert Vogel, and Howard Ker.
General Trudeau’s first 15 years of active duty included graduate school at Berkeley; a senior administrative position with the New Deal Works Progress Administration in New York City ; a civil works assignment in the Seattle District, which turned out to be the only one of his career ; and a stint as an instructor with the 104^th Engineers in the New Jersey National Guard . As an instructor at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth in 1941, he was charged with the development of doctrine for the new motorized division.
Working with Walter K . Wilson, later Chief of Engineers, in early 1942 Trudeau put together the college's first amphibious assault problem . As a case study they chose the site of our 1944 English channel crossing.
When a new Engineer Amphibian Command under the Army Service Forces was ordered in 1942, Trudeau’s experience at Leavenworth served him well. He became chief of staff for the command and played an instrumental part in its organization and training . In 1942 Trudeau also headed a mission to the Pacific which resulted in an urgent appeal from General MacArthur for Engineer Amphibian troops. Trudeau selected Cairns, Australia, as the site for a plant to assemble pre-fabricated landing craft that would be shipped to the theater fromthe U .S . Within an amazingly short period of time the plant was turning out some 300 vehicles per months – The water was MacArthur's highway up the island chain, and his Amphibian Engineers gave him the means of transport and supply. In addition to the Amphibian Command, during World War II Trudeau served' as Deputy Director and then Director of Military Training, Headquarters, Army Service Forces, and in the Philippines as commander of Base X (the port of Manila and surrounding depots and facilities) . Base X was charged with reequipping Sixth and Eighth armies for the final invasion of Japan. While in Manila, General Trudeau also served as a senior member on the War Crimes Tribunal . Its most noted case was that of General Masukara Homma, overall commander in the Philippines, whose numerous charges included responsibility for the atrocities against Americans during the Bataan Death March. Homma was condemned to death, but the trial left serious questions in Trudeau’s mind . To what degree should commanders be held guilty of crimes committed by subordinates operating largely on their own in the confusion of battle over vast areas or on scattered islands? As the Army scaled down to peacetime strength in March 1944, General Trudeau returned home to serve on the War Department General Staff in positions relating to military training and as Chief of Manpower Control. Two years later the, Army sent him to Germany. General Clarence R. Huebner, an old admirer, had been holding a command position open for him with the First Constabulary Brigade. Trudeau arrived on the day the Russians moved into Czechoslovakia. This assignment proved to be one of the most rewarding of his career, one which opened the door to broader opportunities. Being an engineer, he recognized the Army's difficult position in case of attack and focused on extensive demolition and barrier plans.
Another "sponsor," General Matthew Ridgway, was responsible for bringing Trudeau back to the U .S. in 1950 as Deputy Commander of the reactivated Army War College. The school started up at Fort Leavenworth but largely through Trudeau’s efforts moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in 1952. While assigned to the War College, Trudeau transferred from the Corps of Engineers to Armor.  Volunteering for the Korean War, General Trudeau returned to the Far East in 1952 as commander of the 1^st Cavalry Division in Japan and then of the 7th Infantry Division in Korea. Within days of his arrival in Korea, the Chinese drove his troops from old Baldy. Until the armistice was signed in July 1953, they fought back successfully at the T-Bone, Alligator Jaws, and Pork Chop Hill after a concentrated effort at reorganizing their position.
Later that year Trudeau returned to Washington in the key position of Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2. For the better part of the next two years he worked to gain respect for Intelligence in the Army by bringing in officers of general-officer potential, emphasized the development of language training and technical Intelligence, and was responsible for improvement in combat Intelligence training. During these years, accompanied by others from the Intelligence community, he visited all but two countries that had an American embassy . His strong views on `national security policy resulted in abrupt reassignment to the Far East in September 1955.
Trudeau returned to the States for his final assignment as Director of Army Research and Development, in February 1958. It was the beginning of the Space Age.
During the next four years, General Trudeau brought concepts of value analysis and engineering and the use of computers and the armed helicopter to the Army. He also pushed for development of ground nuclear weapons and stressed programs of fire power, communication, and mobility along with basic research. In numerous speeches General Trudeau established himself as a firm anticommunist and advocated a strong national defense. General Trudeau retired from the Army on 30 June 1962.
He spent the next ten years in positions as president of Gulf Research and Development Company, a division of Gulf Oil, and as assistant to the chairman of the board of North American Rockwell. In addition he has continued to work as a consultant and sponsor of new technologies.

Lieut. Gen. Arthur Trudeau, 88, Retired Chief of Research in Army

By ALFONSO A. NARVAEZ
Published: June 08, 1991

Lieut. Gen. Arthur Gilbert Trudeau, retired, a former chief of the Army's Research and Development Command, died Wednesday at his home in Chevy Chase, Md. He was 88 years old.

He died of heart failure, said his daughter Joan.

General Trudeau retired from the Army in 1962 and became president of the Gulf Research and Development Company in Harmarville, Pa. He later served as assistant to the chairman of what is now Rockwell International and as a management consultant.

He was named chief of Army intelligence in October 1953 but was relieved of his command 20 months later when Allen W. Dulles, Director of Central Intelligence, sent a scathing memorandum of complaints to the Pentagon. Although the contents of the memorandum were not made public, General Trudeau was noted for his vigorous anti-Communist statements, and he often clashed with other Government officials over their differing views of Communist intentions. Trouble-Shooter for Eisenhower

The general was then named commander of the I Corps in South Korea and served until 1958, when he was named chief of research and development, a position that would allow him, he said, to inject a "vigorous attitude" into missile and weapons programs.

He was a specialist on amphibious warfare. In the fall of 1942 he organized the manufacture of thousands of amphibious vessels in Australia. He also served as a trouble-shooter for Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to break invasion bottlenecks in Europe. He was later assigned to Gen. Douglas MacArthur to help plan the invasion of Japan.

After the Japanese surrender, he served on a military panel that convicted and sentenced to death Lieut. Gen. Masaharu Homma, the commander of Japanese forces in the Philippines who had authorized the death march of Bataan.

General Trudeau was an outspoken advocate of racial integration of the military. He also said it was in the nation's best interests that educational opportunities be provided for the disadvantaged so they could take advantage of new career openings. Medal for Gallantry

During the Korean War, as commander of the Seventh Infantry Division, General Trudeau earned a Silver Star for gallantry by making a personal reconnaissance of a strategic position, Porkchop Hill, while it was under heavy enemy fire.

General Trudeau was born in Middlebury, Vt., on July 5, 1902, and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1924. He was the recipient of dozens of military and civilian awards, including the Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit, as well as honorary degrees from several colleges and universities.

He is survived by his wife, Rosalie, whom he married in 1965 after the death of his first wife, Helen; a daughter from his first marriage, Joan T. Kane of Carlisle, Pa.; three stepdaughters, Susan Walsh Day of Bethesda, Md., Mary Lozano of Laurel, Md., and Margaret McCloskey of Auburn, Me.; a stepson, Raymond A. Walsh Jr. of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.