FRANKS, GENERAL, US ARMY (RET)

 USMA CLASS 1959

 RANGER MEMORIAL DEDICATION

 4 OCTOBER 2000

 1000

 (as given)

 THANK YOU BILL LUTHER FOR THAT INTRODUCTION. THANKS TO YOU AND BILL SCHWARTZ FOR YOUR SENSE OF HONOR AND DUTY AND DOWNRIGHT TENACITY IN MAKING THIS CEREMONY POSSIBLE THIS MORNING.

GENERAL TRAIN, GENERAL LEMOYNE. GENERAL LEUER. FELLOW 1959 WEST POINT CLASSMATES WHO ARE HERE. I ALSO BRING YOU GREETING FROM OUR CLASS PRESIDENT. PETE DAWKINS, WHO IS OUT OF THE COUNTRY AND COULD NOT BE HERE. FELLOW RANGERS AND SOLDIERS.

THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING HERE TODAY. WE ARE ESPECIALLY HONORED BY THE ATTENDANCE OF NEXT OF KIN AND FAMILIES. CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN. OF OUR 1959 WEST POINT RANGER CLASSMATES WHOM WE HONOR THIS MORNING. THEY HAVE COME FROM ACROSS AMERICA. WE ARE HONORED TO BE IN THEIR PRESENCE; THEY WHO HAVE BORNE THROUGH THE YEARS THE PERMANENCE OF THEIR LOSS. YES, IT IS RIGHT THAT WE DO THIS.

I WANT TO ALSO SINGLE OUT THE SOLDIERS AND NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS. RANGERS, WHO ARE SO MAGNIFICENT IN THE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR DUTIES AROUND THE WORLD, AND WHO ARE HERE IN THIS CEREMONY THIS MORNING AND THE BAND OF THE US ARMY INFANTRY CENTER AND SCHOOL WHO ARE HERE AS WELL AND IN THE CEREMONY. CAN WE HAVE APPLAUSE OF APPRECIATION TO THESE SUPERB SOLDIERS AND RANGERS. AS A FELLOW RANGER SCHOOL GRADUATE AND 1959 WEST POINT CLASSMATE, I AM HONORED TO BE ASKED TO OFFER A FEW THOUGHTS FOR ALL OF US ON THIS DAY FOR THIS MEMORIAL STONE DEDICATION. 

"RANGERS LEAD THE WAY.” HOW TRUE THAT SIMPLE PHRASE REMAINS. IT CERTAINLY APPLIES TO OUR RANGER CLASSMATES FROM OUR WEST POINT CLASS OF 1959 WHOM WE HONOR HERE TODAY. LITTLE DID WE KNOW THEN HOW THAT SMALL RANGER TAB, THAT BLACK AND GOLD EMBLEM, SO SMALL ON OUR SLEEVE BUT SO LARGE IN OUR HEARTS AS SOLDIERS. HOW IT WOULD BIND US TOGETHER FOREVER AS IT DOES HERE THIS MORNING. FROM THOSE RANGER SCHOOL TRAINING EXERCISES HERE AT FT. BENNING TO THE SANDY BEACHES AND YELLOW RIVER ENTANGLEMENTS OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA TO THE MOUNTAINS OF DAHLONEGA IN NORTH GEORGIA IN LATE 1959 AND EARLY 1 960 WE WERE TOGETHER BOUND BY A SENSE OF DUTY AND WANTING THE TOUGHEST TRAINING WE COULD GET TO PREPARE US FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE IN SERVICE 10 OUR NATION. WE WERE TOGETHER THEN WITH OUR CLASSMATES WE ARE TOGETHER WITH THEM AGAIN AS WE DEDICATE THESE MEMORIAL STONES IN THEIR HONOR AND INCLUDE THEM IN THIS MEMORIAL TO HEROES OF OUR NATION.

 "RANGERS LEAD THE WAY.”

YES. OUR CLASSMATES LED THE WAY FOR US. JUST AS RANGERS HAD DONE BEFORE US AT OMAHA BEACH AT POINT DU HOC AND KOREA AS THIS SPLENDID MEMORIAL REMINDS US OF IN SO MANY WAYS. OUR CLASSMATES LED THE WAY WITH THAT NEVER QUIT SPIRIT, TOUGHNESS, AND TEAMWORK THAT REMAINS THE HALLMARK OF RANGERS IN ACTION

AND SO NOW WE RETURN ON THIS OCTOBER DAY IN 2000. WE COME BACK NOW IN THE FULL AUTUMN OF OUR OWN YEARS. COME BACK FULL CIRCLE WITH REFLECTION AND WITH GREAT PRIDE THIS MORNING HERE AT HISTORIC FT. BENNING. HOME TO SO MANY HEROES AND TO THE SPIRIT AND CONTINUING PRIDE OF OUR UNITED STATES ARMY INFANTRY. WE COME BACK PROUD YET HUMBLE TO FORMALLY DEDICATE THESE RANGER MEMORIAL STONES IN MEMORY OF OUR FELLOW 1959 CLASSMATES KILLED IN ACTION IN VIETNAM AND OUR RANGER CLASSMATE WHO DIED DURING RANGER CLASS FIVE IN JANUARY 1960.

OUR CLASSMATES AND FELLOW RANGERS.

HEAR A FEW OF THE WORDS OF FAMILY. FRIENDS. AND CLASSMATES TO DESCRIBE THEM.

CLAY FANNIN, "DEDICATED TO THE SERVICE OF OTHERS. AND THE MILITARY WAS ONE WAY TO EXERCISE THAT PHILOSOPHYHE HAD ALL THE RIGHT STUFF.”

FRANK GERCZ. "HE WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN THE DIVISION’S ASSISTANCE PROGRAM TO PROVIDE FOOD AND SHELTER TO DISPLACED CIVILIANS. KILLED IN A MORTAR ATTACK ON HIS BIRTHDAY IN LAI KHE WHILE SERVING WITH THE BIG RED ONE.”

DICK JORDAN, "HE HELD THE WELFARE AND SAFETY OF HIS MEN IN HIS COMMAND ABOVE HIS OWN; HIS FINE HOME TRAINING HAD INSTILLED IN HIM A DEGREE OF CHARACTER AND INTEGRITY WHICH MADE HIM RESPECTED BY EVERYONE WHO KNEW HIM."

ROGER QUINN "WHEN HE WAS HIT, HE WAS PERFORMING HIS DUTY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT AND WITH THE ZEST AND ENTHUSIASM WHICH WAS PROMINENT IN EVERYTHING THAT HE DID."

LARRY SHUCK "A TRAGIC ACCIDENT IN RANGER SCHOOL. HIS UNTIMELY DEATH CUT SHORT A CAREER THAT HAD NOT TAKEN A BACKWARD STEP. WHEN SOMEONE NEEDED A HELPING HAND, LARRY WAS THERE OFFERING BOTH OF HIS."

BILL TRAIN "THE SIXTH AMERICAN AND FIRST WEST POINTER KILLED IN VIETNAM. THE SYMBOL OF WHAT WEST POINT AND THE ARMY STANDS FOR—HE HAS OUT SOARED THE SHADOW OF OUR NIGHT."

BUSE TULLY "HE ALSO SATISFIED HIMSELF THAT HIS MEN HAD BEEN WELL LED, AND THAT HE HAD SAVED LIVES BY HIS PRESENCE. KILLED TWO MONTHS AFTER RETURNING TO COMBAT WITH THE AMERICAL DIVISION WHILE LEADING AN AIRMOBILE ASSAULT FORCE"

ROCKY VERSACE, WITH A WOUNDED LEG, SURROUNDED BY DEEP MUD TERRAIN AND A CAMP FULL OF GUARDS. HAD TRIED TO ESCAPE BEING A MAN TO WHOM. I KNOW, DUTY. HONOR. AND COUNTRY MEANT MORE THAN WORDS, THEY COULDN’T EVEN BEND HIM: THEY COULD NOT BREAK HIM...AS A STRONG MINDED AMERICAN SOLDIER HE WAS DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY TO THE END”

TIME NEITHER DIMS OUR MEMORIES NOR THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THEIR HONORABLE AND COURAGEOUS CONDUCT OF THEIR DUTIES IN THEIR INSPIRING SERVICE TO OUR NATION. TODAY WE HONOR THOSE WHOM WE HAVE KNOWN AND SERVED WITH AND WHO ARE NO LONGER IN OUR RANKS. AS IN THE WORDS OF OUR SONG. THE CORPS,” TODAY. WE “GRIP HANDS” WITH OUR CLASSMATES. OUR FRIENDS. OUR FELLOW SOLDIERS, OUR FELLOW RANGERS. THOSE, WHO WHEN THEIR NAMES ARE CALLED ON THE ROLLS THERE IS NOW ONLY SILENCE.

[PAUSE]

THOSE WHO REMAIN SO SPECIAL TO US WEST POINTERS WHO DID THEIR DUTY TO THE LAST. AND WHO JOINED THE RANKS OF HEROES WHO TOOK UP ARMS TO FIGHT FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED IN AND FOR THEIR FELLOW SOLDIERS.

WILLING TO DO THEIR DUTY IN COMBAT AS SO MANY HAVE BEFORE, AS WE CAN SEE TESTIMONY TO IN THIS RANGER MEMORIAL AND GIVE AS PRESIDENT LINCOLN SAID OF ANOTHER GENERATION OF AMERICANS, ‘THAT LAST FULL MEASURE OF DEVOTION’ TO OUR COUNTRY AND WHAT WE STAND FOR AS A PEOPLE. THEIR MEMORY AND THEIR STORY OF COURAGE AND SERVICE TO NATION WILL LAST FOREVER. OUR CLASSMATES, WHO BEGAN THEIR PREPARATION FOR THEIR HONORABLE AND COURAGEOUS CONDUCT OF THEIR DUTIES IN COMBAT HERE AT FT BENNING AS GRADUATES OF RANGER SCHOOL YES. “RANGERS LEAD THE WAY.” AS THERE WERE NO RANGER UNITS IN THOSE DAYS. OUR CLASSMATES DID THAT BY COMPLETING RANGER SCHOOL AND THEN SERVING IN THE LINE IN THEIR COMBAT ARMS BRANCHES OF INFANTRY, ARMOR. AND ARTILLERY.

SOON AFTER VIETNAM OUR ARMY RECOGNIZED THE ELITE AND SPECIAL NATURE OF RANGERS AND FORMED THE RANGER REGIMENT. WHOSE MEMBERS HAVE BEEN OUT IN FRONT LEADING THE WAY IN ALL OUR OPERATIONS AND COMBAT EVER SINCE AND THEY ARE HERE TODAY. IN THIS CEREMONY, AND WE APPLAUDED THEM EARLIER FOR I AM PROUD TO BE KNOWN AS A 1959 WEST POINT CLASSMATE OF THESE RANGERS.

GOD BLESS OUR FALLEN CLASSMATES. THEIR FAMILIES. OUR SOLDIERS AND ARMY. AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.