Papers (1908-1967, undated) pertaining to the military career and personal life of Lieutenant General Robert Frederick Sink (1905-1965), a graduate of West Point, a pioneer in the use of airborne warfare, who commanded the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army Airborne Corps, during World War II, 1942-1945, participating in the Allied Invasion of Normandy (1944) and the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne, Belgium (1944-1945); and served as Chief of Staff of the RYUKUS command based on Okinawa, Japan (1949); as Assistant Commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Korea (1951); as a member of the Joint Airborne Troop Board at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (1954); and as commander of the Strategic Army Corps (STRAC) and the 18th Airborne (1958); he was promoted to lieutenant general, in 1959, and took command of the U.S. Army in the Caribbean, a post he held until he retired in 1961 due to poor health; he died in 1965; the collection consists of correspondence, clippings, manuscripts, photographs & printed materials.
The majority of the collection relates to Captain Leslie Avery Shaw's military service in the U.S. Army, especially during World War II when he served in the 11th AAA, 49th AAA Brigade, VII Corps, U.S. First Army in Europe. Included are maps and overlays concerning operations at Utah Beach at Normandy, orders, citations, reports, photographs, letters, postcards, military ribbons and insignia, and items from his personal military file. Additional items including many photographs document his personal life after the war. Photographs, printed material and memorabilia from the 1950s and early 1960s relate to the early years of his son Robert Avery Shaw's life in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.