05.27.2022
Governor Hutchinson’s Weekly Handle | Remembering Our Fallen Warriors
Governor Hutchinson’s weekly radio tackle could be present in MP3 format and downloaded HERE.
LITTLE ROCK – Monday is Memorial Day, and this week, a whole lot of volunteers are inserting an American flag in entrance of each headstone in every of Arkansas’s 5 navy cemeteries.
We observe Memorial Day, which started shortly after the top of the Civil Struggle, to honor the reminiscence of those that died in service to the US. The flags honor everybody who served in one of many 5 branches of our navy – the Army, Air Power, Coast Guard, Marines, and the Navy.
The three nationwide cemeteries are in Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Fayetteville. The state’s Veterans Cemeteries are in North Little Rock and Birdeye.
On Wednesday, simply 5 days earlier than Memorial Day, the commander of all U.S. navy particular operations requested to go to the Fort Smith Nationwide Cemetery. It was Basic Richard Clarke, who’s the twelfth commander of U.S. Particular Operations Command, and he needed to go to the grave of Basic William O. Darby.
Basic Darby is a local of Fort Smith, and a graduate of Fort Smith Senior Excessive and West Level. In 1942, the commander of the thirty fourth Infantry Division promoted William Darby from captain to main and assigned him to prepare an elite commando unit taken from all branches of the navy. This was the beginning of the US Army Ranger Battalion, typically known as Darby’s Rangers.
Main Darby fulfilled a number of assignments within the theater of battle and on the Pentagon. He returned to Europe in early 1945, and volunteered to take command of the Tenth Mountain Division. On April 30, 1945, as he outlined technique for the subsequent day, a German shell exploded within the midst of his assembly and killed him. He was 33.
So on Might 25, seventy-seven years and 25 days after Basic Darby died in World Struggle II, Basic Clarke visited Basic Darby’s grave in Fort Smith.
Marshall Murphy, director of the nationwide cemeteries in Fort Smith and Little Rock, stood by as Basic Clarke and Consultant Womack visited the grave.
Mr. Murphy, a veteran who served within the Marines, says that Basic Darby is a patron saint for Army Rangers. He additionally famous that Basic Clarke carries on the custom of Basic Darby with a quiet dignity. You’ll by no means guess by his phrases or method that he instructions all U.S. particular forces, which carry out probably the most harmful, delicate, and secret missions around the globe.
This week in Fort Smith, Basic Clarke did what he all the time does – he led the best way along with his go to to honor Basic Darby. The volunteers who work within the cemeteries to put a flag at every headstone share within the Basic’s mission to recollect our fallen warriors.
CONTACT: Press Store (press@governor.arkansas.gov)
