!st Batt Memorial

[Ranger2]

I found this on another website. Sounds like a good man.

Ranger2



http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/1125 ... dera.shtml

Guidera: Golf tournament takes a step toward memorial for fallen Rangers

By Tim Guidera
Savannah Morning News
Columnist
e-mail Tim Guidera
912-652-0352

Talk about over-clubbing.

If Declan Finnerty had ever won a closest-to-the-pin competition before, he probably didn't need two propellers, a couple thousand horsepower and a flight crew to do it the way he did Monday at Crosswinds Golf Club.

Actually, all he really had to do was buy a chance and be lucky enough to have his numbered golf ball stop inches from a target on the driving range when 1,000 of them were dropped from a helicopter in one of the most unique contests anywhere.

It was an interesting way to give away $1,000. And it was also part of something far more valuable.

Monday's ball drop at Crosswinds concluded the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment golf tournament, which was not just another event preceded by a cookout, followed by a kooky giveaway and driven by the checks it brought in.

Fund-raising golf tournaments have become what bake sales were in the '60s. Any group that needs money throws one.

And, while most of the causes are worthwhile, some are worth more.

Like the one Dave Ermer put on at Crosswinds Monday that was designed to generate revenue on the way to reverence.

Ermer, who spent a couple of years in the Army and had a brother serve in World War II, has always had an interest in the military. And, like a lot of people around here, he has a particular appreciation for the risk, hard work and service required of Army Rangers.

Last spring, he was thanking the first few he saw back in Savannah after they were deployed to Iraq when he started kidding them about not marching in the St. Patrick's Day Parade this year.

"They told me they were in a fire fight that day, and that they were thinking about the parade," said Ermer. "I'll never forget that they said the best day in the life of a Ranger is St. Patrick's Day in Savannah and they missed it. After that, I went home and told my wife I wanted to throw a party for those guys."

He played golf the next day and had raised $15,000 before he left the clubhouse.

Soon, that total grew to $65,000, enough to pay for the entire Rangers' Ball last spring. It was also enough to spur Ermer onto a bigger, more expensive tribute.

After being advised by Lt. Col. Michael Kersher, the battalion commander, that there is no memorial at Hunter Army Airfield to the 29 members of the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment who have died during military operations since the regiment's inception in 1974, Ermer knew what direction he was going next.

Monday was his biggest step there.

He had 18 foursomes in his tournament, each one paying $1,000 and playing with a Ranger. Including two auctions at a pre-tournament party and the ball drop, for which Ermer sold 1,000 chances at $25 each, he thinks he raised around $50,000 with the event. Add to that $20,000 in donations he had already secured, and it seems the memorial that long should have been at Hunter finally will be.

"I think it's fantastic," said Dave Anderson, whose Ranger son Marc was killed in action in Afghanistan. "It's been a long time coming. All the other battalions have memorials. It's fitting that this one will too."

Although there is still another $30,000 or so to be raised, construction on the memorial has already been scheduled to begin in 2004, when the Rangers will be celebrating their 30th year in Savannah. It is expected to be unveiled when the new barracks at Hunter open in 2005, the ones that will be named in honor of Marc Anderson.

It could even get done sooner than that because one guy's work has become a community project, with several local companies participating at no charge.

JCB will provide free use of heavy equipment. Thomas Hiller will do the engineering. Lowcountry Machinery will landscape and prepare the site and Thomas Griffin Construction will build the site.

Four teams of SCAD students submitted design proposals and one will be selected, with input from local Rangers.

And, by the time the memorial is completed, Ermer figures he'll have moved on to another way of honoring his favorite soldiers.

"I just see these guys around town and they touch me," said Ermer, who moved to Savannah from New Jersey 11 years ago. "I just think they're terrific. You can't be a Ranger unless you're a special person."

They couldn't have gotten an overdue memorial without a special effort.

And this time it came from somebody who didn't jump out of any planes but had a pretty good idea about tossing golf balls into the sky.


Morning News sports columnist Tim Guidera can be reached at tim.guidera@savannahnow.com.

Here are photos of the four proposed designs.

http://www.savannahnow.com/stories/1122 ... hoto.shtml


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