Forrest Pogue

Forrest Carlisle Pogue Jr. (1912–1996) was an official United States Army historian during World War II. He was a proponent of oral history techniques, and collected many oral histories from the war under the direction of chief Army historian S. L. A. Marshall.

Forrest Pogue was for many years the Executive Director of the George C. Marshall Foundation as well as Director of the Marshall Library located on the campus of Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.

Early life
Forrest C. Pogue was born in Eddyville, Kentucky. His parents, Marion Forrest Pogue and Betty Matthews Pogue, were farmers, and the young Pogue spent much of his early life in Frances, Kentucky, where the Pogue family owned a tract of land.

Pogue cited his grandfather, Marion Pogue, as an early influence:"He interviewed many of the older people of the county and as a young teacher wrote numerous pieces for the county paper on early settlers. Perhaps I got the idea of oral history from that."