Pendleton Woods was recruited into the Oklahoma ESGR Committee in 1987 as Public Affairs Chairman. His principal involvement in this program is to write and send out individual news stories to home town newspapers recognizing supervisors and companies which have received the Patriotic Employer Award.  Penn was instrumental in naming the “My Boss is a Patriot” Award in the original beginning of this outstanding award many years ago.

In 2002, Penn was inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame and in 2005; he received an award from the American Ex-Prisoners of War Organization as the Nation’s Most Outstanding Ex Prisoner of War (an annual award given to an EX-POW for civic service and service to veterans).

He served in the 99th Infantry Division which went to the Western front in the Belgian Ardennes forest as a BAR gunner in an infantry line company.  On December 10,1944, Pendleton Woods was captured on a reconnaissance patrol behind enemy lines when his reconnaissance patrol became surrounded by a German unit during their build-up for an attack which came six days later, and became known as the Battle of the Bulge.

Pendleton Woods escaped from a German prison labor camp on April 20, 1945 (Adolf Hitler’s birthday), when the Russians were firing artillery into the area and had blown down fences.  He made it back to the American lines five days later. 

Following the war and later discharge from the Army, He remained in the Army Reserve Corps, and returned to the University of Arkansas.  He obtained a degree in journalism and was commissioned as a second lieutenant through the ROTC program.

Following graduation, he took a job in Oklahoma City with OG&E, editing the Company’s magazine and working in press relations. He was soon recruited into the Oklahoma National Guard, where he became the Public Information Officer for the 45th Infantry Division. Penn served in this capacity with the division in Korea during the Korean War, writing news releases, working with war correspondents and overseeing the division newspaper.

Following the war Penn worked in a variety of related capacities with the National Guard, including five years as an Oklahoma Liaison officer to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.  He retired from the Oklahoma National Guard, with the rank of Colonel in 1983, with 41 years of active and reserve military service.

Among military related activities since the war, Pendleton Woods has been a volunteer at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Oklahoma City for 28 years, going to the hospital every Sunday morning to set up the equipment for Sunday chapel services, including the equipment for telecasting the services to rooms of patients desiring it. He also delivers newspapers to the patient floors to be passed around and he assists anyone wishing to go to chapel who needs to be wheel-chaired to the services from their room.  Penn has donated more than 7,000 hours of volunteer service to patients at the VA Hospital.  He is a past chairman of the Oklahoma Veterans Council, and was on the original Board of Directors of the VA Hospital’s Medical Research organization.

Penn is 87 years and still on the job at Oklahoma Christian University, as director of its American Citizenship Center, a youth outreach program.

COL (RET) Pendleton Woods is an outstanding and exceptional example of an ESGR “Volunteer” who continues to serve our service members, employers, and the United States of America.