Robert Lee Baker

Sergeant First Class Robert Lee Baker died in an automobile accident near Fort Eustis,   Virginia on July 22, 1951 while serving in the U. S. Army Transportation Corps during the Korean War.  He was 32 years old.

Robert Lee Baker was born on March 14, 1919 in Henderson, North Carolina, the son of Cornelius Bennett Baker and Pattie Day Baker.

SFC Baker enlisted in the Army in October, 1941 and served throughout World War II in the Panama Canal garrison.  On 31 July 1942, the Transportation Corps was officially established. Rapidly, the new Corps initiated measures to control military transportation across the world in support of World War II operations. During the war, the Transportation Corps transported more than 30,000,000 military in the United States and 7,000,000 overseas and more than 126,000,000 tons of cargo worldwide.

In 1947, Fort Eustis, Virginia, became the home of the Transportation Corps.  In 1948, Army transporters moved cargo to the airheads for the Berlin Airlift, and transportation units supported United Nations operations in the Korean Conflict two years later. The Corps became a permanent branch of the Army on 28 June 1950.

By the end of hostilities in Korea in 1953, members of the Transportation Corps had transported more than 7,100,000 tons of cargo and 3,200,000 passengers.  SFC Baker was killed in a motor vehicle collision at Fort Eustis on July 22, 1951.

SFC Baker is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Henderson, N.C.

Last edited: 28 April 2026