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Posted: 12/31/1969 Name: ron rice Message: i will begin with a little on pappy hudson. he was well known throughout the rangers and well liked, i did not know any of his family. i do not know when or how he died. i do have a picture of him and i standing outside of mrc hq and i have several other pictures of the mrc rope comm and stafford and i. now to move on about stafford. he was from mt hope (beckley are) west va. ( i am from, and now live in martinsburg, WV) he has a younger brother and sister i know not where they are. his twin brother believe has the same first name as mine) his twin was a capt in the 82d in the early sixties thats all i know about him. stafford and i both was in the 1st abn battle gp 504th inf 82d in 58 i was in a co and he was in e co i believe. we both gyroed to europe Mainz germany in dec 58 on the uss buckner it was a terrible trip. both of us came back to bragg in 61 and subsequently both attended ranger school i in 61 and i think he in 62. we both were assigned to mrc in 63. he had married a german girl named hannelore and he had 3 children mike, larry and shirley. he left bragg in a vw bus with a uhaul on the back and almost did not make it up the mountain coming from gville into dah. they lived out of town on the right towards dawsonville until he bought in cane creek. oh yeah we were both assigned as a abn bg to a leg div the 8th in mainz. in the sixties where you seen stafford, you seen rice we were joined together at the hip. he purchased a 64 lemans i purchased a 64 chev ss. we were all 4 of us noll, phillips at the nco club drinking barley pop and we were getting a little buz and decided to go to d the gold city rest which was a pool hall at that time. but that L shaped curve to the right on the main rd stafford tried to take at 60mph we flipped on to the top and slid about 50 yds i kicked open the back window and we exited no one got a scratch. i forget what happened later on. a short time later my ss was stolen and stripped while i was o/n on yonah. i bought a new one from fred jones who was subsequently murdered behind his garage later. no one was caught for that as far as i know. by the way stafford had picked up a few pounds hannelore said it was because he usually ate 4 ham sandwiches before the evening meal. so he got as knew name affectionately known as "round man". everyone called me uncle ben or ben because of uncle bens rice, even tony. stafford and i liked to play with snakes. so one day we caught a big black snake and we decided to put it in his fastigue shirt and go to g c rest. when the waitress came over stafford let its head pop out of the shirt. waitress made a quick exit. we always played pool with a mail carrier that had a wooden leg wwll i believe. one time we were up on yonah and i caught a copper head and stafford wanted it. just so happens ltc g, tassey was up there to and stafford decided to show it to tassey and it bit stafford on the finger and tassey got really shook, because you know the normal reports to benning. any way stafford did not get excited at all he calmly put the snake into a sand bag and tassey made him go to gville to get treatment. now this is the part you won't believe. the snake died. hoyt phillips and gary littrell (MOH) witnessed it. thats a fact. more later i do ot wish to bore you. |
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Posted: 12/31/1969 Name: Joe Mattison Message: Thanks Jimmy: I believe I was with the 25th when this happened, or possibly Vicenza. I wasn't Ranger School, that much I do know, otherwise I would have heard the true story instead of getting the word that it was a "Power Failure". At any rate, everything being said, I have to acknowledge that it happened many years ago. I think all of us remembers that the pendulum swings to totally different directions, and it rarely ever just swings to "center" where it should be at all times. "Extremes" is where we go and I'm sure thats exactly what happened after this one. Anyway, it's over, and it was a long time ago. We sometimes would get a Commander who thinks he's in Command of a TOE Battalion, and wants to train Ranger Students as though they were TOE Infantry Squads and Platoons. Making them do "Collective Training Tasks" that maximize the Command and Control aspect, but does very little for the individual and small unit training which is the mechanism used to train Infantry Platoon Leaders and Squad Leaders. Airfield seizures, being the more prevalent "mission" that the Company sized Ranger Class would have to do, and other nonsense that was really all about "me" when it came to identifying who is to be trained, and what the training task and standard is supposed to be. At any rate...I guess I have processed that story enough. I don't like it, but there it is....we killed someone through negligence and thats the end of it. I don't care how tough, or dangerous a particular training task is, if it properly organized, adequatly staffed with trained, genuine experts, and done at the "crawl/walk/run" paces, anything can be accomplished, and no-one dies. |
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Posted: 12/31/1969 Name: Doug Perry Message: Tom Wilburn. Myself and Danny will be there.Maybe we can get some meat for the Critter Cook-out.Went to Garrett Farms and got some chestnuts, the ones out there did not have worms in them this year.Danny says he can't wait to have some of your scrambled egg sandwiches. Roy Close can you and Gus make it??? Hope all is well with you,Amy and Gus..RLTW |
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Posted: 12/31/1969 Name: Owens Message: Al ?-- In that situation would that not make Steve Hawk the "National Commander of Clandestine RANGER Forces". Just a thought? JIM |
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Posted: 12/31/1969 Name: Joe Mattison Message: For All Rangers: If you ever served as a Ranger Instructor in Ranger School, at any Camp, and at any time, or if you ever served in one of the three present day Ranger Battalions, please get included on the contact rosters that are being developed. There is a lady who lives in Minnesota who is an expert at developing and maintaining updated and current contact Rosters, and she does this because she wants to. Her Father In Law (Deceased) was a WWII Ranger, and through that association with him, she developed and maintained the contact rosters of the WWII Ranger Battalions Association. That group is now declining rapidly due to age, etc. This lady who lives in Minnesota is Sherry Klein and has years of "connections" with Ranger Associations due to her involvement with the WWII Ranger Battalions. She is an annual attendee of the 75th Ranger Regiment Association Rendevous and is well know in the different Ranger Associations as being a steadfast and silent supporter of preserving Ranger Rosters and Contact Rosters. As I said, if you ever served as a Ranger Instructor at any time, in any of the three Camps, and/or served in any of the three present day Ranger Battalions, she asks that you contact her and get yourself added to the contact roster(s) that applies. You can email her at: sherrymcklein@gmail.com Once you're added to the contact roster, she will periodically email you back with an updated roster as new names and email contacts are added. The different rosters that she has in development right now are quite extensive, with well know names and email addresses that many of us know, and once served with. This is no fee for this of any kind. Take care Rangers....Joe |
