F-2. FEREBEE, ROBERT. Ferebee was a member of the Replacement Platoon. He came from B Battery, 80th AAA Battalion. He left the service after his first enlistment and married Ella. They reside in East Patchogue, NY.
F-3. FIELDS, JAMES H. Jimmy was an original member who came from the 80th AAA. Jimmy was wounded and evacuated back to the States. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for the action at Tanyang. He also became a part of the training cadre at Fort Knox, KY. Jimmy almost reenlisted. He married Sallie. They have a son and reside in Indianapolis, IN, his hometown. He worked as a tool and die maker for General Motors before retirement. Jimmy and Sallie frequently attend RICA and 555th reunions. Jimmy is a great supporter of both organizations.
F-4. FLETCHER, HENRY. “Fletch” was an original member who came from the P&A Platoon of Headquarters Company 3d Battalion. He left the service after his initial enlistment and resides in Okalahoma City, OK. He worked in the Post Office at Tinker Air Force Base until his retirement. He married Anita Mae and has attended several RICA reunions.
F-5. FORD, JOHN E., Jr. John was an original member who came from Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion. He was on duty as a senior rigger with the 82d A/B Division Parachute Maintenance Company. John was an outstanding trooper, and when he made First Sergeant (E-8) in Vietnam, Major General Throckmorton, CG, came down to the unit to give him his stripes. In between times he was assigned to the St. Louis Depot as an inspector and procurer of parachute equipment. John married a newspaper reporter from St. Louis. They had a son who entered the banking business. John died in 1988 while on an inspection tour of a parachute manufacturing facility on an Indian reservation in Wyoming.
F-6. FREEMAN, JAMES E. Jim completed more than twenty years of service. He reached the rank of Captain before reverting to Master Sergeant. Jim was married to Mary before joining the Rangers and was living on post at Fort Bragg. He received a battlefield commission and rotated to the 503d Airborne Infantry Regiment, 11th A/B at Fort Campbell, KY. (The 503d Regimental Commander only very reluctantly accepted racial integration of officers, and almost every black officer had service-connected problems while in the regiment from 1952 to 1956.) Jim and Mary had five children. Jim did not go to Germany with the 11th A/B. He took an early retirement, during the Vietnam War, when they kept the homesteaders who had friends in high places at Fort Dix and began to send combat vets back for a second tour. Jim has taken part in several RICA and 555th events. He and his wife reside in Burlington, NJ.
F-7. FULTON, ROBERT A. Robert was an original member. Robert had less than a year’s service on his first hitch when he volunteered for the Rangers. He left the unit before inactivation and no further contact has been made with him.
G-1. GARLAND, LESTER L. Lester was an original member who came from Company K. He was Captain Allen’s jeep driver. After he rotated Lester re-upped in the 101st A/B and became First Sergeant of Replacement Company. He became the best-dressed trooper in the division, with his special form-fitting uniforms. Lester married Patricia and they had twins (a boy and a girl). Lester and his son were killed in an automobile accident near Eldorado, KS, in April 1952.
G-2. GATLINGTON, OLIVER. “Gat” is our Native American Ranger on the other side of the river. He received his Ranger training secretly and was deployed to Korea in clandestine activities. He gave HALO skydiving training to McBert Higginbotham, in the Special Forces, where he hooked up with the Buffalo Soldiers. Oliver spent almost twenty years in Special Forces and retired when he was sent back for a fourth tour in Vietnam while some homesteaders remained stateside. Oliver resides in Fayetteville, NC.
G-3. GERMAIN, GERARD S. Gerard was an original member who came from B Battery, 80th AAA Battalion. Gerard is from Jamaica, Long Island, NY. He and Joe Wells are from the same hometown, attended the same schools and were members of the same marching bands and Boy Scout troop, attended the same church and both served as altar boys after confirmation; but they didn’t know each other until they joined the Rangers! Gerard remained in the Army for eight years. He married Nellie (deceased), had one son, and started a window-cleaning business. He started parachuting again in April 1985 and didn’t stop until the age of 66. Gerard is a very close buddy of Herc, and they almost always attend RICA and 555th reunions. Gerard is an active supporter of both associations and now resides in Elizabeth, NJ.
G-4. GIBSON, CULVER. Culver is not listed as one of the original members, but he seems to have been with the unit very early. Culver was awarded the Bronze Star for Valor in the battle for Hill 581 in May 1951. He was another one of the Sergeant BAR Gunners because he could carry two basic loads and was very aggressive with the weapon. Culver rotated to the 187th when the unit was inactivated but he has not been in contact since that time.
G-5. GLOVER, RICHARD H. Glover was an original member of the Company. Richard was stocky and became a BAR Gunner. He was killed in the firefight on 14 January 1951, at Majori-ri Village, just west of Tanyang Pass. Surviving family members could not be located.
G-6. GORDON, ANDREW C. Andrew was one of the original members coming from Company K. After he left the service he went to Washington, D.C., where he and Roland “Monk” Hodges married sisters. Andrew pursued a career in the D.C. Metro transit system in which he became a coordinator, and he still resides in the city.
G-7. GORDON, MORGAN S. Not much is known about Morgan except that he was one of the original members. It is believed that he came from Company L. In late January 1951 he accidentally shot himself in the hand with his .45 pistol while 2d Ranger Company was in Chechon-ni. None of the Rangers of 2d Ranger Company recall seeing him after that event. His last known address was in Pecos, TX.
G-8. GRASTY, ISAAC, JR. Isaac was one of the black-leg replacements who was placed on special duty with the Company for additional training. Isaac was drafted from Washington, D.C. He recognized Big Jim Queen during training and was “volunteered” for Ranger and Airborne training. General Ferenbaugh allowed ten of the more than three hundred men to be transferred in because of the lack of adequate replacements. Isaac worked in the D.C. public school system as a building supervisor/engineer before retiring. He married Juanita and they had two children; one son entered the U.S. Air Force and became a Major and a C-141 pilot. Isaac still resides in D.C. and was active in RICA and the 555th Associations.
G-9. GRAY, WALTER E. “Iron Head” was an original member from Company I. He was short and stocky in stature. Iron Head didn’t rotate to the 187th with the men. We have not been able to locate him since.
G-10. GREEN, HERMAN J. Herman was an original. He was on his first enlistment and was another young soldier with less than a year under his belt when he volunteered for the Rangers. There has not been any contact with him since we joined the 187th ARCT. Herman was an ideal Ranger; he came in as a private in September 1950 and went to the 187th as a Buck Sergeant.
G-11. GUDE, JAMES H. James was one of the original members coming from the 80th AAA. James was living in Cleveland, OH, when contact was lost with him about ten years ago.
H-1. HALL, CARL D. Carl was a member of the Replacement Platoon and came over with Lieutenant Anthony. Carl came from the 80th AAA Battalion. After rotation Carl re-upped for the 82d at Bragg. He stayed in the service for seven years before becoming a policeman in North Carolina’s Fayetteville Police Department. Later he moved over to the Sheriff’s Department of Cumberland County, NC, where he worked until his death on December 26, 1988. Carl married and had one son who served in the Army.
H-2. HARDY, JAMES. Hardy was a member of the replacement platoon from Medical Company 505th. He went back to Japan for a second tour and married Yoshiko, who died in 1983. Jim has been very active in RICA and has been an American Legion Post Commander. He resides in Phoenix, AZ.
H-3. HARGROVE, WILLIAM. “Nite Ears” was an original member, believed to have come from the Machine Gun Platoon, Company M. He was on his second hitch, having already served eleven months overseas before coming to the 3d Battalion. He is best remembe
red for his contribution to the firefight at Tanyang Pass, where he was awarded the Bronze Star. He was a Sergeant when he volunteered but made Sergeant First Class by the time of inactivation. Hargrove was always the smallest person in his squad. He came to the 187th ARCT and became an acting Platoon Sergeant, but no contact has been made with him since that time.
H-4. HAWKINS, WILLIE C. Willie was an original member who came from the 80th AAA Battalion. Hawkins was one of a half-dozen troopers on a six-year hitch. He had enlisted in July 1950 immediately after the Korean War started, but he was Corporal in less than six months and volunteered for the Rangers. Willie came from the northwest part of the country. He made Sergeant before inactivation. There has not been any contact with him since 2d Ranger Company was inactivated and the Rangers joined the 187th ARCT.
H-5. HIGGINBOTHAM, McBERT. “McBert/Higg” was an original member from Headquarters Battery, 80th AAA Battalion. Higg was known by Big Jim Queen for more than fifty years, starting when they were both recruits at Fort McClellan, AL, in 1944. Higg served an early tour in Germany with the 777th Honor Guard, under Lieutenant Minton Francis (West Point, 1944). He participated in the Berlin Airlift and was widely known for his boxing skills (“The Brown Bomber”). He married Betty Jeanne Morgan, and entered training at Fort Benning. McBert was one of the first to be awarded the Bronze Star for bravery in the firefight at Majori-ri Village. He was Big Jim’s First Sergeant in Headquarters Company, 3d Battalion, 511th AIR, 11th A/B Division, in Augsburg, Germany (1956-57). McBert was the first black EM to serve in the 10th Special Forces Group (1960) in Bad Tolz, Germany (1962-64). Although he repeatedly volunteered for tours in Vietnam, his requests were repeatedly denied, on the basis that “he was needed on Post.” Higg retired from Special Forces as a Sergeant Major in June 1967 and he was immediately accepted by the Department of State (AID Program) as the Hospital Administration Officer for II Corps in Vietnam from 1967 to 1972. After retiring from the Department of State he returned to Fayetteville, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Fayetteville State University in 1977 and accepted a position as one of the University’s administrative officers for the Fort Benning campus (1977-1984). Whenever RICA or the 555th gathered in the Fayetteville area, he and Betty always hosted the Buffalo Rangers in their home. Higg passed on to that Great Heavenly DZ in 1994.
H-6. HODGE, ROLAND. “Monk” was one of the original members who came from Company K. After being with the 2d Ranger Company he enlisted in the Air Force and served a tour in France. He and Andrew Gordon married sisters and settled in Washington, D.C. Monk drove a truck for a commercial photo company. He only lived about five blocks from Big Jim, and frequently walked past the house after retiring. He died suddenly in 1994, and his death was not known until his wife wrote to Herc about four months later.
H-7. HOLLEY, J.T. Holley was one of the original members. He was a WWII draftee who had already served fifteen months overseas and was one of those who had found a home in the Army. He was on a six-year hitch. Holley was killed in the firefight at Majori-ri Village on 14 January 1951. George Rankins recently reported that Holley’s widow still lives in New York City.
H-8. HOWARD, BENNIE. Howard was an original member who came from Company I. He was short in stature and of quiet demeanor. He frequently worked in the kitchen with “Pop” Jones. Howard didn’t go to the 187th ARCT after inactivation. He lived in Macon, GA, near Fort Benning and worked as a barber until a couple of months before his death.
J-1. JACKSON, GEORGE, JR. Jackson was the original personnel clerk and came over from the 80th AAA Battalion. He worked mostly at the Division Rear, but he had to come up and spend some time on the line to earn his CIB. The Company never had any records or pay problems, outside of the fact that he couldn’t keep up with us on the Morning Report. He is believed to be a barber in Bedford, VA, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
J-2. JACKSON, GEORGE. This George Jackson also came from 80th AAA. He came on separate orders as a replacement. Because he was black and Airborne, he was assigned to 2d Ranger Company. He fit in and served very well. When he returned to the States he re-enlisted in the Special Category Army Reassigned with the Air Force (SCARWAF). George attended the Ordnance Technical and Nuclear Weapons, Explosive Ordnance Demolition (EOD), and several aircraft repair and maintenance courses. George learned to fly choppers by repairing them. In 1957 he was appointed as a Warrant Officer. He served in Germany three times and flew downed aircraft recovery missions in Viet Nam. George retired from duty at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Flight Detachment as a W-4 in September 1969. George married, but his wife died in 1996. He is an avid golfer and resides in Silver Spring, MD, near Washington, D.C. He is a great participant in RICA and the 555th PIA.
J-3. JACKSON, HERMAN C. “Ole Cat Eyes” was an original member who came from Company M. Herman was one of the most experienced troopers in the unit. He was seriously wounded on Hill 581, and recently had his wounds re-evaluated and his VA disability increased. He did a second tour in Korea just after the truce, where he was the 81mm Mortar Platoon Sergeant for Captain Harry “Smiling” Jack, who was the former XO of Company M. Jack went over to Thailand and got married. His recollections of the Munsan-ni Jump and the battle on Hill 581 are very vivid. Cat Eyes is the only member of the Buffalo Rangers who has returned to the Munsan-ni jump area. He relates that there is a large U.S. Army garrison with a big PX located there now. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA, and has become very active in the RICA and 555th reunions.
J-4. JACKSON, WINSTON. Winston was another leg replacement from Washington, D.C., who volunteered out of the 7th Division’s black replacements. He served in combat with the 3d Platoon. He attended a company-level jump school in Korea in July 1951. He made three jumps in one day to qualify. When he went to the 187th he was lucky enough to find a home in the S-4 shop under Captain “Moon” Mullins. He often rides Paul Lyles about the special orders that he had to submit for Lyles’ extra-large-size combat boots. Winston returned to civilian life and opened a barber shop in Washington, D.C. He recently began to participate in local 555th and RICA activities.
J-5. JENKINS, GLENN JR. Glenn was a member of the replacement platoon that Lieutenant Anthony trained and brought over in late February. Glenn was from the motor pool of the 80th AAA Battalion. He was slightly older than most of the men, and since he was a former mechanic and the Buffalo Rangers had acquired (via moonlight requisitions) an assortment of vehicles, he was assigned as the Motor Corporal. He rotated to the 187th after inactivation and was assigned to Service Company. There has not been any contact with him since that time.
J-6. JENNINGS, EUGENE. Eugene was an original member. He entered the service at the tail end of WWII and served ten months overseas. Eugene left before the unit was inactivated. There has not been any contact with him since Korea.
J-7. JOHNS, JOHN A. Johns was an original member who came from the 80th AAA Battalion. He was a WWII veteran on an indefinite enlistment (only Sergeant First Class Watkins, 3d Platoon Sergeant, was also in that category). Johns had served 26 months overseas before volunteering for the Rangers. He went to the 187th’s artillery unit at Camp Woods when the unit was inactivated. There has not been any contact with him since Korea.
J-8. JOHNSON, BRUCE A. Bruce was an original member coming from Company K. After leaving the service Bruce went on to become New York City Mayor Edward Koch’s personal bodyguard. At the same time he coached pre-Olympic-level divers. Bruce was one of the best swimmers in the unit, and frequently swam under Higg (McBert), who was one of the best swimming fakers. Bruce is still in excellent physical condition and always carries the Company Guidon on the reunion runs. Bruce is a very close buddy of Herc and a rabid RICA and 555th supporter. Bruce has been the main financial supporter of the placement of memorial bricks on the Ranger Memorial Walkway at Fort Benning, for the Buffalo Rangers KIA whose families we have not been able to contact. Bruce is married to Jackie and resides in Brentwood, NY.
J-10. JOHNSON, EMMETT L. Emmett was an original member. He had just re-enlisted in September 1950 before volunteering for the Rangers. Emmett remained in the service and was killed in Vietnam (circumstances are not known).
J-11. JOHNSON, HAROLD A. Harold is another lifer and original member coming from Company L. Harold was one of a few who didn’t enlist in the Army immediately after graduating from high school. He had been on the Camp Campbell, Benning, and Florida maneuvers with the 3d Battalion. Harold remained in the service and became a flying Warrant Officer. He attended engineering electronics school for Raytheon Electronics in Lexington, MA, worked as a technical advisor for Raytheon during the Gulf War in 1991, and in the Hawk Missile and Patriot Missile systems, so he was frequently overseas during world crises. Harold lived in El Paso, TX, with his wife Mary Jo, with whom he had a daughter. Harold suddenly died in June 1998.
J-12. JOHNSON, MILTON. An original member. He was killed in the firefight in Majori-ri on 14 January 1951. No surviving family members have been located.
J-13. JONES, JOHN A. An original member of the company, and its oldest, hence his nickname “Pop.” He was the first man in the company awarded the Silver Star. There has been no contact with “Pop” since coming back from Korea.
K-1. KELLY, JOSEPH. Joseph was an original member who came from the 80th AAA Battalion. He was a veteran soldier from WWII who had served 25 months overseas. He was on his second three-year hitch when he volunteered for the Rangers. Joseph left before the Company was inactivated.
K-2. KING, FRANK JR. Frank was an original member. He had just enlisted for three years in April 1950. He survived Ranger training in good shape but was killed in the firefight at Majori-ri Village on 14 January 1951.
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