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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Apr '52
Richard Henry Mealor NO. 16036 CLASS OF 1946
Died October 27, 1950, In Korea, Aged 27 Years. |
Dick entered West Point after two years at the University of
Georgia and brought with him those personal qualities which made
him a real friend to all who knew him. Good natured, easy to
get along with, hard working, always ready to help a friend—
that was Dick. He possessed the qualities which are necessary
to make an officer and he liked to work with men.
Dick went to Fort Benning, Georgia, after graduation at West
Point, and there married the former Anna Catherine Jones of Atlanta
and Athens, Georgia. From Benning, Dick was sent to Korea for
two years and after returning to the United States he was stationed
at Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D. C.
On October 23, 1949, a daughter, Sharon Marcia, was born to Dick
and Cathy at Walter Reed General Hospital in Washington.
In September 1950, Dick was sent back overseas to Korea and
there he died on October 2, 1950.
One day in March 1949, Dick turned up in my apartment in Arlington.
Virginia, for duty in Washington, and there began, what was for
me, the warmest and most sincere friendship in my experience.
I had known Dick only slightly before; a face during West Point
days and an acquaintance at Fort Benning in 1947. It wasn't until
we served together in the Third Infantry Regiment, and later
in the same rifle company in Korea, that I realized my wealth
in possessing his friendship.
To make friends quickly is an enviable attribute, but to make
completely lasting friends is a mark of greatness. Dick's was
a lasting friendship with all who learned to know him, and there
were many.
Quick to discern between mediocrity and superiority, Dick
was equally as alert to praise or criticize actions of subordinates
or superiors. But with criticism and praise alike, there was
always loyalty, complete and absolute.
Possessing a wide professional knowledge for a soldier of
his experience, his initiative, sound judgment, and keen grasp
of the principles of leadership, made him an equally fine commander
and staff officer.
Not a religious man, in the common use of the term, Dick's
practice of Christian principles was absolute. He might have
used profanity to explain, with his own personal conviction,
to a subordinate one of the Ten Commandments.
An Infantryman, in the finest sense, Dick possessed all the
unselfishness and devotion to cause required of a good doughboy.
Without his knowledge he won the most coveted badge of an infantry
soldier, the Combat Infantryman's Badge.
To his intimates, Dick was a faithful friend. To his superiors
he was a fine, promising officer, and to his subordinates, a
just and capable leader.
—Bob Lamb.
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