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The U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) inducted six retired officers into its Commando Hall of Honor at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, on 18 April 2018: Major (MAJ) Raymond P. Ambrozak, Generals (GEN) Bryan D. Brown and Stanley A. McChrystal, Major General (MG) James E. Rudder, U.S. Army; Captain (CAPT) Charles M. Heron, U.S. Navy; and Colonel (COL) William J. Kornitzer, U.S. Air Force. Following the ceremony, James E. ‘Bud’ Rudder Jr., the son of the WWII 2nd Ranger Battalion commander, provided the author a letter. It revealed the depth of a commander’s sense of duty.
Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Rudder’s 2nd Ranger Battalion was split into three groups to assault the French coast at Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944. While LTC Rudder led Force A to scale the cliffs at Point du Hoc and seize the enemy guns believed to be emplaced there, Force B, consisting of C Company, 2nd Battalion, landed at Omaha Beach. Force B was to fight overland through Point de la Percée and Vierville-sur-Mer, and clear three miles of coastal road guarded by enemy emplacements enroute to linking up with Force A.1 What was supposed to be accomplished in two hours took more than two days. As Ranger historian Robert W. Black wrote, “No Ranger unit engaged in the invasion of Europe suffered as heavily as the men of C Company.”2 Of the sixty-eight Rangers that landed with C Company, twenty-one were killed and another eighteen wounded.3 Among the dead was Corporal (CPL) Willie C. Caperton.
Less than a week after securing Pointe du Hoc, with the battle for Normandy still raging, LTC Rudder made time to write the familes of his soldiers killed in action. MG Rudder’s son provided a copy of a letter sent to the family of CPL Caperton. Additional research located his family. They still had the letter sent by LTC Rudder from Normandy seventy-four years ago. We thank the Rudder and Caperton families for providing a sobering reminder of the terrific costs that soldiers pay in their service to the nation. The letter is a testimonial to the impact on the families who suffer tragic losses in war, and to the leadership and character exhibited within the Army Special Operations Community.
