Thomas Franklin Woodhead was born on 24 November 1924 to William Winters Woodhead and Mary Gertrude Easterly.
Died 10 December 1944
Buried at Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, TN
Staff Sergeant
30th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, Company F
The Chattanooga Daily Times, 28 November 1947
The body of S/Sgt Thomas F. Woodhead, son of Mr. and Mrs. W.W. Woodhead of 5208 Tennessee Avenue, who was killed on Dec. 10, 1944 when his platoon led an attack on a little German town in the Siegfried line, will arrive at the Terminal Station for burial here. Following his death, his commanding officer wrote his parents here that he was killed in an attack on the town of Obergeich, Germany. “Woody was a bit behind me,” the officer wrote. “I had gone up the street to scout a stronghold when machine gun started firing across the street. Woody and Mac (another sergeant) started for that machine gun which was cutting down our men ffrom the first platoon on our left. They had to cross a 50-foot open space to Woody and Mac. They went after that machine gun. Halfway across the street they fell together but their efforts were not in vain for when the gun was turned on them, the other platoon came in and wiped it out. Woody died the most glorious death a man can die, dying to wipe out a machine gun that was killing his buddies. Greater love hat hno man than that he lay down his life for his friends.”
Sgt. Woodhead was awarded the bronze star posthumously for the act of gallantry. He was 20 years old. He was buried in the Henri Chapelle Cemetery in Belgium.
He was graduated from Baylor School in the Class of 1942 and attended the summer session of the University of Chattanooga. In the fall of 1942, he entered The Citadel at Charleston, S.C., as a pre-med student. He volunteered for the army on his 18th birthday and was called to active service at Fort Oglethorpe on June 12, 1943. He trained at Camp Barkley and Camp Wolters in Texas and was promoted to the rank of sergeant while in Texas. He went overseas and arrived in England on D-Day, June 7, 1944. While in England he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point by Rep. Estes Kefauver but he refused the appointment and asked that it be deferred until the war was over. He first saw action on the front near Aachen and was wounded three days later for which he received the Purple Heart and was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant. An expert rifleman, he served as a sniper and was sent to many dangerous reconnaissance patrols at the front.
- Rank: Staff Sergeant
- Date of birth: 24 November 1924
- Date of death: 10 December 1944
- County: Hamilton
- Hometown: Chattanooga
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 30th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division
- Theater: Europe
- Conflict: World War II
- Awards: Purple Heart, Bronze Star
- Burial/Memorial Location: Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar X, Top Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Thomas F. Woodhead
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