Roscoe Rouse Jr. was born in Valdosta, GA in 1919. He graduated from Valdosta High School in June of 1937. He was working to attend college when WWII broke out. Roscoe entered the U.S. Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force) in 1941. After several postings, he passed examinations to enter Air Corps officer flight training. Roscoe was sent to East Central State College at Ada, OK, where he earned a semester of college studies and was trained to fly a plane. While at Ada, he met a freshman co-ed, Charlie Lou Miller, who would later become his wife.

He was sent to Randolph Field at San Antonio, where he qualified for any one of the three commissioned assignments on a military flight: pilot, bombardier or navigator. When asked which position he preferred, Roscoe promptly replied, ”Navigator.”

In August 1943, he received his wings and was designated a second lieutenant with the U.S. Air Force. He was trained to fly B-17s and was stationed at the 8th Air Force’s 384th Bomb Group (Heavy) at Grafton Underwood, England.

During his first mission on New Year's Day, 1945, his plane lost two engines due to antiaircraft fire and Roscoe was forced to find a safe place to land. He selected Luxemburg, and despite a rough landing that ended with the plane nose-down in a plowed field, no one was seriously injured. By the time Roscoe returned to his air base three weeks later, however, his belongings had been packed up and his family was about to be notified that he was MIA.

Roscoe completed a total of thirty-three missions over Germany, including another mission where he was shot down, earning the Air Medal and four Oak Leaf Clusters, each cluster representing seven missions.

He married Charlie Lou Miller in Ada, Oklahoma as soon as he returned home from the war., then set about fulfilling his lifelong dream of attaining a college education. He earned a B.A. degree in Library Science from the University of Oklahoma in 1948; an M.A. from O.U. in English Literature in 1952; an M.A. in Information Services at the University of Michigan in 1958; and a Ph.D. at Michigan in 1962.

During his military service, Roscoe served on many B-17s of the 384th because of the shortage of navigators. Many missions were on the Screaming Eagle. Upon completing his mission obligations, returning home, gaining his education, he ultimately retired as the Dean of Library Services at Oklahoma State University.