Army Gen. Matthew Bunker Ridgway

By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Contributing Writer

In 1993, Murray Kempton of Newsday wrote:

The Old Army is finally dead and departed. . .The funeral of Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway has to be its last rite. He was 98 and had buried every comrade who had served with him. . .

Ridgway led airborne forces in Normandy, United Nations troops in Korea, and served as Chief of Staff of the Army. Yet nothing could compare to his "earliest memories" as an Army brat of "rising to reveille and lying down to the sweet, sad notes of Taps." Ridgway reveled in the life of a soldier, down to his customary accouterments of live grenade and first aid kit. "They were purely utilitarian," he said. "Many a time in Europe and Korea, men in tight spots blasted their way out with hand grenades."

General Ridgway's greatest effort and success came in 1950, when Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, commander of the 8th Army in Korea, was killed in a jeep crash. In less than 48 hours, Ridgway, who had been in the largely diplomatic post of commander-in-chief of the U.S. forces in the Caribbean, arrived in Korea to rally the then-reeling 8th Army troops.

Ridgway's command was in full retreat across the 38th Parallel. A massive Chinese counter-offensive, heavy losses, and bitter cold had brought morale to an all-time low. Ridgway remained at the front exhorting his troops to concentrate on the enemy rather than on lost ground. In a series of common-sense counteroffensives, his soldiers seized strategic territory north of the 39th parallel.

Despite his famous disagreement with Gen. Douglas Macarthur and a disappointing tenure as Chief of Staff, Ridgway remained loyal to the Army way. In 1986, the old soldier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Its citation read: "Heroes come when they are needed. Great men step forward when courage seems in short supply."