Rockwall, TX (November 4, 2024) – I am sure that each one of us can remember someone from our past that we cannot forget.
When I first walked into the headquarters of the 10th Special Forces Group in Germany in 1962, I met a man by the name of Rockey Lewis. Rockey happened to be a Sergeant in the US Army who was assigned to my unit.
Rockey was a great guy. He was the typical picture of the fast talking, always likeable, little round Italian guy who was surrounded in friends.
You could look at him and just see him behind the counter of a pizza joint throwing dough in the air.
He also was the same guy who could dive out the back of an airplane at 30,000 feet, fall for 28,000, open his parachute, and land on the ground ready to fight with his Green Beret team of soldiers.
One day I asked Rockey how he had ended up in the elite Green Berets we were in.
And in typical Rockey fashion he told me his story.
“When I joined the Army, I wanted to be a paratrooper. They sent me to jump school and when I graduated, they assigned me to an artillery outfit. They lined us all up and an officer came out and said, ‘OK men, our mission is to move, shoot, and communicate. All of you that want to be truck drivers, fall out over there; those that want to shoot big guns, you go over there; and all of you that want to communicate, just stay in place.’ Rockey said, “I stayed in place and became a communicator.”
Next, he was sent to school to learn how to be a field communicator. While there he ended up in the hospital with a spider bite. The day he was discharged from the hospital he found out that his girlfriend and her sister where on the bus coming to see him. Not knowing when they would arrive, he just went to the bus depot and spent the night waiting for her arrival.
Since his girlfriend had some money, they rented a house near the base while he continued school. Things were fine until he found out that only married men could live off the base while in school. Solution: in typical Rockey style, they just got married over the weekend. When I met him, they were happily married with three kids!
After a short assignment in Germany, Rockey and his family were assigned to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He said, “Things were going great. We were all together living on base housing and then one day the personnel office called and said he was being assigned to some “Sneaky Pete” outfit in Germany. (This is what some in the military called the Green Berets in their early days.)
But before he could go, he was sent to another communications school to learn morse code. This time the school was at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
Rockey said, “Because I was a Ham (amateur) radio operator, I already knew morse code. So instead of learning code, I and one other guy just sat in the back of the room bored to tears making copy sheets for the instructor.”
“One day this impressive looking Special Forces Colonel in his Green Beret walked into the classroom, looked around, and asked the instructor why we two guys were sitting in the back of the room by ourselves. When the instructor told him we already knew code, he said ‘Well quit wasting their time and get them to Germany where they are really needed.’ “
A quick phone call and soon Rockey and his family were arriving in Munich, Germany where they were met by their sponsor and escorted to Bad Tolz, Germany, headquarters of the 10th Group.
They moved right into government quarters, food was in the refrigerator, and they were told to get acquainted with the area and come to work on Monday.
And that is how Rockey explained has assignment to Special Forces. He is retired now with great memories of his buddies and his assignment as a Green Beret.
Soldiers today are deployed around the world. Each one of them has many personal stories just like Rockey.
I bet that if the next time you see a Soldier and you start a conversation, you might also learn a little of their personal story and how much they appreciate you taking the time to learn just a little bit about them.
Jerry Hogan is a former Rockwall County Judge and retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel. He can be reached at jerryhogan@sbcglobal.net or 214-394-4033
Photo courtesy Jack Palmer
A Broad View by Jerry Hogan: A Green Beret Soldier Named Rockey added by Melanie M on
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