Leo Strausbaugh - US Ranger

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JG-TC.com > News > Charleston man joins Army Ranger Hall of Fame

CHARLESTON — When first approached about volunteering for a new Ranger Battalion during World War II, Leo Strausbaugh said he didn’t know what being a Ranger meant.

Strausbaugh, whose mule pack battery had just been disbanded, said the alternative was to remain with the 98th Field Artillery Battalion, where he would be “low man on the totem pole” and serve as a forward observer.

“I thought, ‘Hell, I am going to try out the Rangers.’ I did and I am glad I did. The camaraderie of it is worth a lot,” Strausbaugh said. “I just felt such a bond with those guys.”

Strausbaugh, 88, of Charleston, joined the ranks of those in the Ranger Hall of Fame on June 11. The retired colonel, a Hillsboro native, was inducted along with 13 other veterans during a ceremony at Fort Benning, Ga.

Fort Benning’s public affairs office reported that Ranger units and regimental associations nominate a maximum of three Rangers per year for induction into the Hall of Fame. A selection board scrutinizes the nominees and selects the inductees.

Each nominee must be a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School, deceased or retired from active military service for at least three years, and must have served in a Ranger unit in combat. Strausbaugh fought in the Philippines.

After a friend nominated him for the Hall of Fame, Strausbaugh said he was thrilled to get a letter announcing his selection. The letter included an invitation to the induction ceremony.

“I would have been extremely disappointed if I could not go,” Strausbaugh said.

Each inductee was given the opportunity to speak during the ceremony. Strausbaugh said he talked about why he became a Ranger and his last mission.

During June 1945, Strausbaugh’s B Company was chosen to take the town of Aparri from the Japanese. As company commander, the young captain led his Rangers on a 400-mile journey to a position along the Cagayen River in Luzon.

Strausbaugh said he had to temporarily leave his company due to an illness that caused his weight to drop by approximately 30 pounds. He left a field hospital three days later when he heard his company was preparing to cross the river.

“I was not discharged, so I discharged myself,” Strausbaugh said.

B Company took Aparri and secured the air strip south of the town, just before a jump by a paratrooper battalion from the 11th Airborne.

After this operation concluded, Strausbaugh said he arranged for his company to fly back to their base aboard C-47 cargo planes. He said the planes flew between a treacherous valley below and rough weather upstairs.

“It was the worst flight I have ever had,” Strausbaugh said. “The wind a bucking and the plane a dancing.”

Back at his station, Strausbaugh said his commanding officer Robert Prince convinced him to take a leave. Prince reasoned that Strausbaugh had been away from home for three years and would need a break before the upcoming invasion of Japan.

The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 quickly brought an end to the war, and the need for an invasion.

Prince, famed for planning the rescue of American prisoners at the Cabanatuan camp in the Philippines, was among the friends who turned out for Strausbaugh’s induction into the Hall of Fame.

“We are such a close-knit bunch we almost feel we owe it to each other to come,” Strausbaugh said. “One of the best things of all is getting to meet up with your buddies.”

Strausbaugh also is proud that his son, his daughter, and his four grandchildren accompanied him to the ceremony.

“I took my whole family,” Strausbaugh said. “They will never see anything like that again. I can’t go any higher.”

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A fitting tribute.