Roudiez, Leon Samuel (0453890): Difference between revisions

Leon Samuel Roudiez was born on 18 November 1917 in Bronxville, New York, the son of Colonel [[Roudiez, Leon S. (0453890)|Leon S. Roudiez]] and Lulu Roudiez. After his father retired from the U.S. Army in 1921, the family lived in Germany and France. He graduated from Stanislas College in Paris in 1935, earned a law degree from the University of Paris in 1938, then returned to the United States and completed an M.A. At Columbia University in 1940 (he later earned a Ph.D. There as well).

On 9 December 1940 he enlisted in the G-2 section of the Second Corps Area at Governors Island and served with the Counter Intelligence Corps in New York City until November 1941. He then attended Signal Corps Officer Candidate School at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1942. From April 1942 he served with the Alaska Defense Command at Fort Richardson, Dutch Harbor, and Attu Island as signal, cryptographic, postal, and censor officer.

He later instructed at the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland (class 8). In December 1943 he was ordered to the European theater with headquarters in London, lecturing U.S. Troops on the coming invasion of France and on the "Baby Blitz," including V-1 and early V-2 attacks. He landed on Omaha Beach about a month after D-Day, took part in the Normandy and Northern France campaigns with 12th Army Group headquarters, and after the liberation of Paris worked there with the Counter Intelligence Corps. He returned to the United States in October 1945, went on terminal leave at Fort Dix on 14 October 1945, and reverted to inactive status on 10 January 1946 as a captain.

 

After the war he taught French at Columbia University, serving on the graduate faculty until he retired in 1987 as professor emeritus and former head of the French department. He lived in Stevensville, Maryland, and died there on 18 June 2004.