The Descendants of WWII Rangers (www.wwiirangers.org) organization is seeking assistance in getting the Congressional Gold Medal awarded to all members of the WWII Ranger Battalions. There were at least seven West Point graduates in those WWII Ranger Battalions: COL Bill Darby '33 (pictured left); LTC Hank Mucci '36 (pictured right); CPT Ralph Colby, '40; MAJ John Dobson '39; LTC Robert Garrett '41; CPT James Greene Jun 43; and CPT John Raaen Jr, Jan 43. The Congressional Gold Medal, when awarded, will be presented to all WWII Rangers collectively. This is an honor much-deserved by these WWII Ranger veterans for their combat actions in all overseas theaters; for their six night-time assault landings; and for their consequential recognition through eight (8) Presidential Unit Citations.
These are the Rangers who climbed the cliffs, neutralized the guns, and about whom President Reagan spoke in 1984 in his famous "The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech. These are the Rangers who freed 516 Allied POWs at the Japanese Camp at Cabanatuan before they were executed, and became the heroes of the nation as well as subjects of the book, "Ghost Soldiers" and movie, "The Great Raid." These are the Rangers who led the way off of "Bloody Omaha" Beach, and gave today's Rangers their motto of "Rangers Lead The Way!" These are the Rangers who experienced almost 10% Killed-in-Action (KIA) during WWII. These are the Rangers who suffered when more than 750 of their Ranger buddies were captured or killed behind enemy lines at Cisterna one-week after their successful Anzio landing. There are 55 known WWII Rangers still with us today – one of those being MG (Ret) John C. Raaen, Jr. 'Jan 43. There have been approximately 57,000 West Point graduates since the Ranger School began in 1952, and many of those graduates attended Ranger training. Please call/email/write your Senators to ask them to sponsor the Senate bill S.1757 for the "United States Army Rangers Veterans of World War II Congressional Gold Medal Act". Questions can be directed to RonHudnell@gmail.com (Son of a WWII Ranger, Class of 1969, and Ranger School 4-70.)