Edward L. Rowny
Edward L. Rowny
Edward L. Rowny's career reflects the diversity of duties that an Engineer officer
may be called upon to perform-soldier, engineer, combat leader, senior commander,
diplomat, and negotiator.
Rowny began his military career in 1937 when he entered the United States Military
Academy at West Point. He graduated in June 1941 and attended the Basic Engineer
Course at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Upon completing the course, he was assigned to the 41st
Engineer Regiment, Fort McClellan, Alabama, where he was a company commander and
later the S-3 of the regiment.
Later Rowny became the operations officer for Task Force 5889, the designation
of the 41st Regiment when sent to Liberia, Africa, to build an airfield. It would be the
first unit to go overseas in World War II.
The commanding officer of the 41st Engineer Regiment, Colonel "Smokey Joe"
Wood, was promoted to brigadier general in 1942 and returned to the United States to
establish the cadre for the 92d Division, and he brought Rowny back to work for him.
The 92d was an all black division with white officers.
The division was located in four areas with each regiment in a different state.
After a year of training separately, the division moved to Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where
it assembled as a unit for the first time. Initially, Rowny was a company commander and
later an assistant G-3. When the 92d assembled at Fort Huachuca, he became the division
engineer and commander of the 317th Engineer Battalion.
The 92d Infantry Division landed in Italy in April 1944 with Major General Ned
Almond as the division commander. By that time, most of the white officers in the
Engineer battalion had been replaced by black officers. During severe fighting by the
division, seven of the nine infantry battalion commanders were either killed or wounded
in one week, and Rowny was selected to command an infantry battalion. He later
commanded a division task force that drove through to the German rear to attack and keep
occupied the German reserve while the division tried to punch through the German front.
The task force performed admirably as a "decoy," but the division failed to achieve its
objective.
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