Elvy Benton Roberts
Lieutenant General, U.S. Army

Elvy Benton Roberts was born on 21 August 1917 in Manchester, KY.

A graduate of the class of 1943 at the U.S. Military Academy, Roberts entered military service in World War Two with the 101st Airborne Division. He served with the 501st and 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiments, 101st Airborne Division, as a Company Commander, Regimental Operations Officer and Battalion Commander. He made combat jumps into Normandy and Holland and participated in the five major campaigns of the 101st Airborne Division, including the Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne, as a Battalion Commander.

After serving two years in Iran as a Military Advisor to the Shah, he assumed command of the 1st Airborne Battle Group, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division in 1961. He subsequently became Chief of Staff, 11th Air Assault Division.

In Vietnam, he was Assistant Division Commander, 9th Infantry Division, and Commanding General, 1st Calvary Division, in May 1969. He led combined U.S. and South Vietnamese forces in the assault against the Cambodian strongholds on 1 May 1970.

After Vietnam, Roberts was assigned to posts in Japan, China, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and Yugoslavia, before being appointed as the head of the U.S. Delegation for Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction in Vienna.

In 1973, Roberts was Commanding General of the U.S. 6th Army based at the Presidio of San Francisco, a post he would hold until retiring from the Army in 1975.

Besides the US Military Academy, he also attended the Command and General Staff College, Armed Forces Staff College, and the Army War College.

Medals and Awards

Distinguished Service Medal
Silver Star Medal
Bronze Star Medal
Purple Heart

In Retirement

For more than two decades after his retirement Roberts was in the insurance business with Johnson and Anton, Inc. and in food services with Guckenheimer Enterprises, Inc. He served on several boards and maintained membership in the Bohemian Club, the St. Francis Yacht Club, the Rotary Club, the Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the Meyer Friedman Institute for Cardiac Research, to name but a few.

Death and Burial

Lieutenant General Elvy Benton Roberts died on 11 October 2005 in his home at Alameda, CA, seven weeks after his 88th birthday. He is buried at San Francisco National Cemetery in San Francisco, CA.

Roberts was survived by his wife, Kim; and his children, William of Fairfield, CA; Catharine Repine of Miami Beach, FL; Sandra Halford of Cedar Rapids, IA; in addition to five grandsons, four great grandchildren; and a brother, Charles, of Virginia.