Posted on 06/06/2004 8:19:49 AM PDT by Mustangcountry
The World War II Pointe du Hoc Ranger Monument is located on a cliff eight miles west of Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, which overlooks Omaha Beach. It was erected by the French to honor elements of the American Second Ranger Battalion under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James E. Rudder. During the American assault of Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, these elements scaled the 100 foot cliff and seized the German artillery pieces that could have fired on the American landing troops at Omaha Beach. At a high cost of life, they successfully defended against determined German counterattacks.
The monument consists of a simple granite pylon positioned atop a German concrete bunker with tablets at its base inscribed in French and English. The monument was formally transferred to the American Battle Monuments Commission for perpetual care and maintenance on January 11, 1979. This battle scarred area on the left flank of Omaha Beach remains much as the Rangers left it.
Pointe du Hoc
(Excerpt) Read more at abmc.gov ...
The very last day of my honeymoon in 7/2000 was spent in France...I had no desire to see Paris so my bride and I took off and toured the Invasion beaches where our brave soldiers fought.
Unless you've seen it in person no picture or story will ever do justice to what our servicemen did over there...especially at Point du Hoc....absolutely amazing!
I wonder if the President brought Karen Hughes and her father along because her father apparently took part in D-day on Pointe du Hoc.
I'm sorry I don't understand. Who is Blech?
I screwed up the link sorry.
Agreed. Nevertheless, here's a photo I took in 2002.
RUDDER, JAMES EARL (1910-1970). James Earl Rudder, soldier, land commissioner, and president of Texas A&M, was born on May 6, 1910, at Eden, Texas, the son of Dee Forest and Annie (Powell) Rudder. He attended John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1928-29. He went to Texas A&M in 1930 and graduated in 1932 with a degree in industrial education. After graduation he was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in the United States Army Reserves. In 1933 Rudder worked as a football coach and teacher at Brady High School. He married Margaret E. Williamson on June 12, 1937. They had five children. In 1938 he worked as a football coach and teacher at Tarleton Agricultural College. He was called into active duty in 1941 and had a celebrated military career during World War II.qv In 1943, as a lieutenant colonel, he became commander and trainer of the Second Ranger Battalion, which had a major role in the D-Day invasion. Rudder's Rangers stormed the beach at Pointe du Hoc and, under constant enemy fire, scaled 100-foot cliffs to reach and destroy German gun batteries. The perilous mission resulted in a higher than 50 percent casualty rate in the battalion. Rudder himself was wounded twice during the course of the fighting. In spite of this, he and his men successfully helped establish a beachhead for the Allied forces. Six months later he was assigned to command the 109th Infantry Regiment, which saw key service in the Battle of the Bulge. By the end of the war he was a full colonel and was promoted to brigadier general of the United States Army Reserves in 1954 and major general in 1957. Rudder was one of the most decorated soldiers of the war, with honors that included the Distinguished Service Cross, Legion of Merit, Silver Star, French Legion of Honor with croix de guerre and palm, and others.
Pluskat was a Nazi officer stationed at a lonely bunker at Normandy Beach.
He stumbles to his post on what would later be known as D-Day. As he's sipping his morning coffee, he gazes out at the horizon -- and sees hundreds of Allied ships there.
He calls his command center for reenforcements and chatters frantically about the Allied ships.
"My dear Pluskat," the Nazi official on the other end of the line asks languidly, "and in what direction would all these Allied ships be heading?"
"STRAIGHT AT ME!" shouts Pluskat.
The above photo pretty much captures his expression at the time. Priceless.
Rudder's influence is evident on campus
By Christopher Ferrell
Eagle Staff Writer
Eagle file photo/Dave McDermand
Texas A&M Rudder Rangers Chris Coates (left) and Patrick Soule stand guard beside the statue of James Earl Rudder in memorial of the 30th anniversary of his death. Rudder died on March 23, 1970.
Today's student body would hardly recognize the A&M College of Texas as it was in the summer of 1959 when Maj. Gen. James Earl Rudder became its 16th president.
But there is a pretty good chance that what they would have seen at Texas A&M University upon the time of his passing in March 1970 would conjure a sense of familiarity.
After serving as vice president of his alma mater for a year and a half, Rudder became president of the all-male military college with an enrollment of about 7,500.
By the time of Rudder's death, A&M had been transformed to a coed university with an enrollment of more than 14,000, including students from all 50 states and 75 foreign countries.
"General Rudder was key in helping the institution to transition from the 1950s into the future," said John Adams, A&M historian and member of the Class of '73. "[It was] a time of change and no one could have done it better than the general."
Rudder's administration oversaw tremendous social change in the mid-1960s. During a three-year span, the landscape of Texas A&M was forever altered.
In 1963, the A&M Board of Directors — renamed Board of Regents in 1975 — voted to allow wives and daughters of faculty and staff into undergraduate programs and to allow any woman to enroll in graduate studies. In 1965, the board voted to allow any woman to be admitted to undergraduate studies at the discretion of the president. Rudder readily gave his blessing to any woman who wanted to come to A&M who met the school's academic requirements.
In 1964, James L. Courtney became the first black student to enroll at A&M. Then in 1965, the A&M System Board of Directors chose to make membership in the Corps of Cadets optional.
Perhaps even greater were the changes being made on the academic front. Rudder chaired the drafting of an extensive study and report in 1961-62 called the Blue Print for Progress, which led to expansion in the areas of teaching, research, and extension.
Rudder
Both undergraduate programs and graduate studies flourished under his watch, as did an aggressive building program that more than doubled the value of A&M's facilities.
A&M College of Texas' name was officially changed by the 58th Texas Legislature to Texas A&M University in 1963. Names of schools within A&M changed to colleges and divisions became schools.
The colleges of Liberal Arts, Science, Geosciences, Business Administration, Education, Architecture and Environmental Design were all established in the years that followed.
Rudder, a member of A&M's Class of 1932, was the second Aggie alumnus to hold the office of president. The first was the man he succeeded as president, Marion Thomas Harrington.
Rudder would follow in Harrington's footsteps again in 1965, becoming chancellor of the A& University System. He held both positions of president and chancellor until his death in 1970.
Even to this day, Rudder casts considerable weight on the Texas A&M campus.
Students coming to town from the northeast or southwest more than likely do so by driving on Texas 6 — or the Earl Rudder Freeway as it has been renamed through Bryan and College Station.
His presence is felt in the Corps of Cadets, where one of its most elite groups — Rudder's Rangers — bears his name.
On campus the Rudder Center, which the Texas A&M Board of Directors named in his honor, is one of A&M's most recognizable landmarks. It includes Rudder Tower, Rudder Theater Complex and the Rudder Fountain, which stands near the Memorial Student Center.
Just beyond the complex stands a life-size statue of Rudder. He is one of only a handful of men to be immortalized on the campus in such a way.
"He is one of the true giants of A&M," Adams said.
http://www.theeagle.com/aandmnews/anniversary/1rudderbio.htm
These veterans will not receive the recognition that the vets of Normandy did but they contributed just as mightily. Another side note, the airborne that dropped into Normandy had a terrible death toll. The German airforce strafed them mercilously on the way to the ground as well as machine gunners from the ground.
In case anyone is curious, this nearly unpronounceable place sounds something like "PWA DWOC."
Oh yeah that guy. I remember that film. The thing that was so dishonest and leftist BS about is that Zanuck made the film potray the attack at Pointe du Hoc seem worthless(silly pacifi...wait-...Anti-Americanism). In reality the Rangers after finding the nest empty ventured inland and found the guns in an orchard(I believe) and disabled them with special grenades that blew some substance that locked up the mechanisms in the guns-destroying their capability to fire.
They then for a few days defended the road that came across PDH suffering heavy casualties.
God bless them.
Photo: General Douglas MacArthur (right) talks with Maj. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright (U.S. Army photograph).
Photo: View of Pointe du Hoc from the east (U.S. Army Military History Institute)
Photo: Soldiers of the 3d Ranger Battalion board LCIs that will take them to Anzio. Two weeks later, nearly all would be killed or captured at Cisterna (U.S. Army Photograph)
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