'This was my Army unit': 82nd Airborne Division inducts fourth Hall of Fame class
FORT BRAGG — The 82nd Airborne Division named eight honorees who were inducted into its fourth Hall of Fame Class this month.
The Hall of Fame honors veteran paratroopers based on their service within the division, their lifelong commitment to the division’s values, valorous combat action, and contributions to their chosen field outside of the division.
Twenty-one paratroopers were inducted in the inaugural class in 2018, 16 were inducted in 2019 and 12 were inducted in 2020.
More: Fort Bragg’s 82nd Airborne Division inducts 12 more veterans into Hall of Fame
This year’s class includes eight individuals who served as officers and noncommissioned officers with the division from World War I to the most recent Global War on Terror.
They were honored during a Nov. 19 ceremony outside of the division’s Hall of Heroes at Fort Bragg.
Maj. Gen. Christopher Donahue, the division's current commander, said the division has a document called “who we are,” which he said inductees live up to, as paratroopers “take care of each other in combat and in garrison.”
More: 'Stay hungry': 82nd Airborne Division recognizes top enlisted paratroopers of the year
“This division is paratroopers, and there is no rank of a paratrooper,” Donahue said. “Everyone must do the right thing. These members lived up to that document.”
This year’s honorees are:
Pfc. Albert B. Dravland
Pfc. Albert B. Dravland served during World War I as part of the American Expeditionary Force in the 82nd Infantry Division from 1917 to1919 in the G Company, 328th Infantry Regiment.
Dravland served in the division in both the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns.
“He worked 48 straight hours searching the battlefield for wounded and saved 50 wounded men who were over 1,700 meters from an aide station and ensured they all got evacuated,” Donahue said.
He earned the Distinguished Service Cross and the World War I Victory Medal with three clasps.
After the war, Dravland dedicated his life to education and served on school boards in Pickering and Carbury, North Dakota.
Staff Sgt. William 'Bill' Owens
Staff Sgt. William “Bill” Owens joined the division in April 1943.
He made four combat jumps during World War II into: Sicily and Salerno in Italy; Operation Overlord into France, where he encountered heavy mortar and machine-gun fire; and Operation Market Garden into the Netherlands, where he climbed a fence while under fire to set up a base of covering fire to aid his platoon’s advance to destroy enemy positions.
Owens was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his actions during World War II.
Capt. John J. 'Red Dog' Dolan
Capt. John J. “Red Dog” Dolan commanded the A Company 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment as a first lieutenant at the Battle for La Fiere Causeway in Normandy, France, in June 1944.
His company’s mission was to seize and hold the La Fiere Bridge crossing at the Merderet River to prevent Germans from crossing to attack the beachhead.
Dolan was wounded during Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and medically retired as a captain after a lengthy recovery.
Donahue said when division leaders talk about paratroopers being “unbeatable,” Owens and Dolan epitomize that.
Capt. Charles L. Sartain Jr.
Capt. Charles L. Sartain Jr. was serving as the Alpha Battery Commander of the 319th Glider Field Artillery Regiment when he took command of a group of E Company, 325th Glidermen.
Sartain led the group’s defense of Finger Ridge after encountering an attack by German armored forces on Sept. 24, 1944.
“He gathered up paratroopers of all types, (and) successfully held that area in complete chaos,” Donahue said. “The Germans were using flamethrowers, armored vehicles.”
He was awarded the Silver Star for his actions, which helped the company repel three enemy attacks and allow friendly forces to hold the high ground of the division's southeast flank.
Donahue said Sartain later became a Louisiana judge and cried every time the national anthem played.
“He understood what it meant to love this country,” Donahue said.
Maj. Gen. Alexander R. Bolling Jr.
Retired Maj. Gen. Alexander R. Bolling Jr. served with the 94th and 84th Infantry Divisions as a lieutenant during World War II, fighting in Belgium and France, before becoming wounded and captured for 27 days.
As commander of the division's 3rd Brigade in December 1966, he led troops on a training jump in Puerto Rico and deployed to Detroit to help with civil unrest there in 1967.
The unit deployed to Vietnam during the Tet Offensive in February 1968.
"They went out there and they showed other formations how to fight at a time period when we needed people to do it more than any other time," Donahue said.
Command Sgt. Maj. Steven R. Slocum
Command Sgt. Maj. Steven R. Slocum first joined the division in 1968, after a deployment to Vietnam.
He returned to the division in 1972 and again in 1989 to become the 2nd Brigade Combat Team’s command sergeant major, leading the brigade through Desert Shield and Storm, assisting in the liberation of Kuwait.
In 1991, he became the division's command sergeant major and led the division through the Green Ramp disaster, where 24 paratroopers died during an aircraft accident near Pope Air Force Base.
Donahue said Slocum took “care of people,” during the incident.
Slocum, who was present at this month’s induction, said he considers it a significant honor to be included in the Hall of Fame.
“The officers, the NCOS, the soldiers are the best in the Army,” Slocum said. “The motivation and esprit de corps here can’t be beat. There are many other good units, but this was my Army unit the 19 out of my 30 years.”
Gen. David Rodriguez
Retired Gen. David Rodriguez was commander of the division from April 2006 to August 2008 and is the division's longest-serving commander who served in combat, with a total of 15 months.
Earlier in his career, he commanded the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment and deployed with the 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment during Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Rodriguez was commander of the division during the 2007 enemy surge in Afghanistan.
He said his daughter, who is also a paratrooper, was part of one of the first brigades that deployed to the region.
“Then we set a lot long quickly after that ... They went into a chaotic situation right outside of Baghdad,” he said.
Rodriguez said he’s honored to be selected for the Hall of Fame.
“It’s a great organization,” he said. “It’s filled with great people who do amazing things every day, whether it be in combat, in peacetime or just training out here ... The spirit and the morale that lives in a place like this is very special.”
Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas R. Capel
Also named to the Hall of Fame was retired Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas R. Capel, who served as the division's command sergeant major from May 2006 to July 2010.
Enlisting in the Army in 1977 at 18, his first assignment was with the division.
Other assignments he’s had have included as the senior enlisted leader for the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and command sergeant major for U.S. Army Europe.
During his career, he deployed six times, including an 18-month deployment with ISAF, and spent more than five years overseas during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We started taking our guys and girls into an awful unfamiliar territory to fight an enemy that sometimes didn’t have a face,” Capel said after the Nov. 19 ceremony. “They planted bombs on the side of the road, and the toughest times I had was sending my guys and girls back home. I feel it today, and I feel it every day.”
Though he said the soldiers trained hard, were prepared and equipped, he said he prays for the Gold Star families of the division daily.
After retiring in 2013, Capel joined a nonprofit group that works to build homes with veterans, prevent suicide and provide service dogs to veterans.
Capel said his induction into the Hall of Fame and his 36-year Army career weren't accomplished by himself.
“I had thousands, if not millions of young guys and girls who helped me to get to where I am,” he said. “I had subordinates that worked for me that did everything I asked them to do. I had peers that were more than just friends to me, brothers and sisters. They stood next to me in the tough times, the rough times and we had good times together.”
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony was part of the division’s “All American Days,” which was held this week in place of All American Week.
All American Week, which honors veteran and current paratroopers, was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the deployment to Afghanistan of the division's Immediate Response Force in August.
Also attending the induction ceremony was Maurice Renaud, who was 2 years old when paratroopers liberated his Sainte Mere Eglise community, where his father was mayor.
Renaud said Germans would have burned his community, and his father who was a World War I veteran would have been the first person Germans would have killed.
He said 78 years later those who the paratroopers liberated are still grateful, which is why he attended the ceremony to honor the World War II inductions who had a role in the liberation.
“We were actually totally saved by the 82nd Airborne Division,” Renaud said.
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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: 82nd Airborne Divison names 8 to 2021 Hall of Fame Class
