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MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Jul '92
Richard Lincoln Ruble No.16110
Class of 1946 Died 7 April 1970 at Fort Belvoir,
Virginia, aged 47 years. Interment: Arlington National
Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia |
Richard Lincoln (Dick ) Ruble was born 12 February 1923 in
Albert Lea, Minnesota. Dick's great-grandfather, John Ruble,
and his brother, Henry Ruble, were the founders of Albert Lea
in the early 1800s. They named the town after Captain Albert
Lea, USMA 1831, who originally mapped the area. One of
eight children, Dick attended Albert Lea High School. Besides
playing the clarinet in the band, Dick was an avid fisherman
and skier. He also participated actively in the Boy Scouts, gaining
Eagle Scout status. One of his older brothers, Harold, graduated
from Annapolis, Class of 1933. This encouraged Dick to seek an
appointment to West Point. He attended junior college in Albert
Lea for a year and then attended Cochran-Bryan Preparatory School
in Annapolis. His brother Byron, USNA '50, recalled that Dick
made frequent trips to the halls of Congress to secure an appointment.
He was successful and joined the Class of 1946 on 1 July 1943.
Life as a cadet was a great adventure for Dick. A roommate,
Edwin Basham, recalled: "He was the first cadet, other than
the beast barracks roommates, that I knew. He had a friendly
manner and a sense of humor that made being around him a relief
during those trying days." Always in trouble with the Academic
Department, Dick's skirmishes with the Tactical Department were
legendary. One of a small group, some say the leader, known as
the "The Regulars," Dick led a foray into Highland
Falls and engineered the liberation of the "Navy Goat"
just before the 1945 Army-Navy game in Baltimore. Dick was a
member of the Hop Committee, Ski and Fishing Clubs his entire
time at West Point. Graduation found Dick commissioned a second
lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps.
During graduation leave, Dick married his childhood sweetheart,
Barbara Wayne, in Albert Lea on 14 July 1946. Dick's first assignment
was as a platoon leader in an antiaircraft artillery unit in
Japan. After a short time, he received his first taste of intelligence
work with Headquarters, 7th Division in Japan. In early June
1950, Dick returned to Fort Lewis, Washington and the 501st AAA
Gun Battalion. In 1951, Dick moved to Fort Bliss, Texas to become
a test officer with the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Board. After
completing the Artillery Officer Advanced Course at Fort Sill
in 1953, Dick transferred into Military Intelligence. He and
Barbara moved to the Army Language School at the Presidio of
Monterey, where Dick studied Japanese for a year. Dick became
an area intelligence officer in Korea in 1955. Barbara joined
him In Japan, where Dick transferred in 1956 after a year in
Korea.
In 1959, Dick attended the Command and General Staff College
and the University of Wisconsin, where he received his master's
degree in geography. In 1962, the Rubles moved to Washington,
D.C., where Dick attended language school in Spanish. Dick then
traveled back to Fort Leavenworth to serve as an instructor in
the newly formed Department of Strategic Subjects. His boss at
the time, Robert E. Drake, Colonel, USA, Retired, (USMA '44)
recalled: "... I got to know him as a wholly dedicated professional
who served with enthusiasm and boundless energy. As a new department,
the few of us charged with its creation had our work cut out
for us. Dick Ruble had a major role in organizing our subject
matter, searching for guest speakers and developing our lesson
plans. He was an exceptional instructor-popular with his students.
... We rode horses together. ... We worked together on revitalizing
the Fort Leavenworth Hunt-dead since World War II.... That was
the man always willing to help others, always willing to be engaged,
always willing. He was a people man."
Dick volunteered to go to Vietnam in 1966. After serving as
commander of Company C, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion
and commander of the 149th Military Intelligence Battalion, Dick
became the S-2 of the 5th Special Forces Group. Classmate Tom
Huddleston recalled: "When Dick was attached to the 5th
Special Forces Group, he came not only in a baseball hat (not
a green beret), but he was also a 'leg' (not parachute qualified).
Frank Kelly (Group Commander) convinced Dick that he had to be
jump certified to be effective in the group. So, Kelly assigned
a couple of Special Forces sergeants to teach Dick the rudiments
of parachuting. After making five jumps from a helicopter at
Nha Trang, Dick was awarded his wings. Dick did some very good
things for the 5th. The downward flow of tactical intelligence
improved, and we had several ASA radio locating teams moved into
our camps. He was also very levelheaded about what was real information
security and what was bothersome paperwork...."
In his book, Inside The Green Berets, Presidio Press, 1983,
Bill Simpson paid tribute to Dick Ruble's contribution. He wrote:
". . .The solution to the 5th Special Forces Group's intelligence
dilemma appeared about a month later in the person of Lieutenant
Colonel Dick Ruble, a professional Intelligence officer assigned
to MACV... The detachment brought with it a number of code word
clearances and billets, so that the senior officers of the group
were allowed inside the 'green doors' all over Vietnam, and the
lights went on!... Dick and his men labored deep into the night
every day for six months. It was a shock to learn all the things
of which we were ignorant and which we were doing incorrectly....
Intelligence was provided the CIDG camps for almost the first
time...."
Dick attended the Army War College and then became director
of operations, Office of the Chief of Staff for Intelligence.
Brigadier General DeWitt C. Armstrong, Retired (USMA Jan '43)
recalled: "....Dick Ruble was a splendid officer, a most
honorable man. His consistently sound judgement won him universal
trust, even in the murky field of secret Intelligence activity.
He got solid results quickly. ... Our association came during
a particularly critical time, at the end of the 1960s. Anti-war
protesters, a hostile press, an unsupportive Congress, and an
aggressively thrusting USSR all complicated the tasks of Army
Intelligence. Dick's stalwart presence in the vortex of all this
was a Godsend. Dick's most lasting contribution, in my view,
was in helping bring the Army into unprecedented cooperation
with other intelligence organizations, to the profound benefit
of all - and the nation he served so faithfully and well."
On 7 April 1970, Richard Lincoln Ruble suffered a fatal heart
attack. He was survived by his wife, Barbara; four daughters,
Laura, Patricia, Janet and Barbara; two sons, David and Richard,
Jr.; his mother; two sisters; and four brothers.
Dick Ruble loved what he was doing in the Army. He had so
much more to offer the country, the Army, his friends and especially
his family. He had only one love, his Barbara, with whom he had
grown up in Albert Lea; and he always made time to be with her
and with his children, upon whom he doted. Dick always kept his
marvelous sense of humor and never failed to look at the bright
side of things. He felt his talents and abilities were God-given
and therefore meant to be shared with others. His memory will
remain always with those who knew and loved him. His West Point
roommate, Edwin Basham, said it best: "Richard Lincoln
Ruble imparted good to everyone during his quarter century of
Duty, Honor and Service to Country,"Well Done, Dick; Be
Thou At Peace!"
'46 Memorial Article Project and His Family
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