Charles P. Gross

Major General Charles Philip Gross (14 March 1889 – 18 July 1975) was a United States Army officer who served in World War I and World War II. During World War II he was the Chief of the United States Army Transportation Corps. A graduate of Sibley College at Cornell University and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, class of 1914, ranked third in the class, Gross was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. During World War I he was awarded the Purple Heart for bravery in the fighting in the Gérardmer sector of the Western Front and commanded the 318th Engineer Regiment in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. After the war he commanded an engineer battalion engaged in a survey of the Inter-Oceanic Nicaragua Canal. He became Chief of the Transportation Corps in July 1942. In this role, he attended the top-level wartime conferences in Quebec in 1943, and Malta, Yalta and Potsdam in 1945. He was Chairman of the New York City Board of Transportation from 1945 to 1947. He returned to active duty in Germany in 1948 during the Berlin Blockade, and was Land Commissioner of Württemberg-Baden from 1949 to 1952.