and his mother was born in Eureka where her parents, the Andrew Gerberichs then lived. General Duff recalls that his father was in the drayage business when they lived in El Paso at 29 East First Street, and that he had one bay team which performed the additional duty of hauling the city fire engine. Because of that team's especial training for this, Con Duff was very proud of them.

While General Duff was still young his parents moved to Wolcott, Indiana, but Robinson Duff Jr. made a number of trips back to El Paso to visit his grandparents who retired from the farm to live in town. After graduating from high school in Wolcott, young Duff attended Purdue University for two years. On the 15th of August, 1917, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to active duty with the 46th Infantry Regiment of the Ninth Division. After the first World War he was transferred with his regiment to Fort Sam Houston, Texas, where he served as assistant post adjutant. A year later he became Assistant Professor of Military Science and Tactics at the R. O. T. C. of the University of Oklahoma in Norman. In October, 1923, he went to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii where he served with the 35th Infantry, returning to the States in 1927.

He completed the company officer's course at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, and then served as an instructor there for three years. He next entered the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in August, 1931, and completed a two-year course, after which he was assigned as an assistant instructor of the Arizona National Guard. In July, 1935, he entered the Army War College, from which he graduated the following June, and then served as a battalion commander in the 13th Infantry at Fort Devens. In July, 1938 he was assigned to the G-4 section of the War Department General Staff in Washington, D. C.

As a colonel, Duff assumed the command of the 398th Infantry Regiment in September, 1942, a part of the 100th Division at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. In May, 1944, he was appointed as assistant commander of the highly-trained 10th Mountain Division, and went into Italy with it in November, 1944. In April, 1945, while commanding a special force known as Task Force Duff in the final phases of the northern Italy campaign, Brigadier General Duff was wounded and hospitalized. Upon his recovery, he was transferred through the United States to the Pacific Theatre of War, where he served in the Philippine Islands. In August, 1945 he was in Japan with the occupation forces, and in July, 1946, he was again sent to the European Theatre where he served in the occupation as assistant commander of the Ninth Infantry Division. In October he was assistant chief of staff G-5 of the Third Army in Europe, and in April, 1947 he assumed command of the Frankfurt Military Post.

This native of El Paso returned to the States in May, 1949, to become the deputy director of the Plans and Operations Division of

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