[2] During World War I he was commissioned as captain in the 20th Engineers (Forestry) and later promoted to the rank of major.
Later, he was selected to handle labor problems at the shipyards in the Puget Sound and Columbia River districts.
After the war, Silcox worked in the private sector for eleven years as a director of industrial relations before being appointed as chief.
[3] Following the death of Robert Y. Stuart, Silcox was appointed Chief of the Forest Service on November 15, 1933.
His work is commemorated in a government organization of highest efficiency and esprit de corps and in the grateful remembrance of great service to many of the worthy civic enterprises that American citizens are carrying on today.