New statue at Bragg

The latest graduates of the Army’s Special Forces course donned their berets for the first time in front of statues which represent the meeting between President John F. Kennedy and then-Brig. Gen. William P. Yarborough which established the distinctive head gear as the standard for the unit. From the Fayetteville Observer;

H. Ross Perot donated the 7-foot bronze statue that depicts Kennedy and then-Brig. Gen. William P. Yarborough during the presidential visit to Fort Bragg on Oct. 12, 1961.

The larger-than-life likenesses of the two men stand on a marble base about 5 feet high in front of Kennedy Hall, one of the two main buildings on the campus of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

Special Forces were founded in 1952 during the Cold War at Fort Bragg for a possible role behind enemy lines if war broke out in Europe. In the early 1960s, Yarborough had been trying to persuade a reluctant Army to approve the green beret as the official headgear of the specially trained men well adapted for United States’ growing fight against communist insurgencies worldwide.

“He found an ally in President Kennedy,” Perot said during the dedication and graduation ceremony.

Kennedy called the green beret “a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction in the fight for freedom,” Perot said. Those words are inscribed on the base of the statue.

Category: Military issues