Roger H. C. Donlon Dedication Service —

By John Stryker Meyer
Originally published in the January 2019 Sentinel

The December 5th official dedication and naming of the 7th Special Forces Group Headquarters honoring Col. (Ret.) Roger H.C. Donlon, the first Green Beret MOH recipient of the Vietnam War, was a classic Special Forces operation, complete with clandestine missions, top secret planning and fundraising that culminated in an unique event before more than 500 people at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

And, like any good Green Beret story, there is a sweet love story behind the successful event that unfolded on a chilly day in Florida, a love between Col. Donlon and his wife of more than 50 years, Norma.

First, the event and the biggest surprise element of the headquarters dedication: Before Donlon spoke, a life size sculpture of the young team captain of ODA-726 was unveiled — a bust sculpted by Douwe Blumberg, the artist who produced the famous Horse Soldier monument at the World Trade Center. “When they unveiled it, I said ‘Oh my God.’ I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t pick up on any of this….I thought there was going to be a little plaque on the headquarters wall, or something. When we walked out with (7th SFG) commanding officer (Col. Patrick T. Colloton) I paid no attention to the veiled object,” said Donlon.

The commanding officer and team sergeant of today’s ODA-726 were present when Donlon and Colloton unveiled the sculpture. “That meant a lot to me, having today’s leaders of A-726 participate in the dedication.” During his brief comments, where he acknowledged the success of his wife’s effort to keep the project secret, “I basically shared with them that I couldn’t believe that my name was on the headquarters building, and I mentioned how in (his hometown) Saugerties, NY, an old Dutch settlement on the banks of the Hudson River, there’s a building with the Donlon name on it, named after my grandfather…I mentioned the 7th Group motto: ‘The family business’, noting that my father, my grandfather, brothers all served our country and now my grandniece, she’s one of eight females to graduate from the Navy Dive and Salvage School.”

After the dedication, they carried the bronze bust into 7th SFG Headquarters, Donlon Hall. It’ll be displayed in an enclosed case with a “display Medal of Honor” draped around the neck. Donlon explained that the MOH on display was presented to him by BG Lester L. Wheeler, after President Lyndon B. Johnson draped his original MOH #3170 around Donlon’s neck at the White House. “That (Wheeler-presented) MOH is special…I had served with General Wheeler as his aide in the Yukon Command in Alaska, in the early 60s. After the White House, General Wheeler hosted a dinner, where he presented the second MOH to me, as a private gesture. I was honored and surprised that night in 1964, as I was surprised by the unveiling at Eglin.” Donlon described Wheeler as the “closest thing I had to a father in my adult life.”

A key element of the unveiling was keeping the secret of having it produced and funds raised to pay talented sculptor Douwe Blumberg, for the bust and a second identical sculpture that will be shipped to the Donlon home in Kansas.

“This all started when 7th Group called, saying they wanted to name the headquarters in honor of Roger,” said Norma Donlon. “I didn’t miss a beat, I said we should hold this on December 5th, which is the day President Johnson presented the MOH to Roger (in 1964)….then I said I’d like to get a sculpture of Roger for the event. Then the question was who will sculpt it. I had seen the Horse Soldier statue, it was magnificent. I called the sculptor. I had seen his name in The Drop. Much to my amazement, when I called Mr. Blumberg answered the phone.

“I told him I wanted to commission the sculpture. I told him I wanted it to be a secret. He told me, ‘how am I going to sculpt him if I can’t see him?’ I told him, ‘you’ll have to do it through pictures….’ He asked me if I had any photos of Roger that were warrioresque. Warrioresque! Can you imagine?! I went to (Donlon’s first book) Outpost of Freedom printed in 1965, where there was a good picture of Roger in it. I remember Roger telling me that when they took that picture the McGraw Hill PR people were bugging him, and he was unhappy at the time, but it worked for Mr. Blumberg.”

Then the question was: How to pay for it? “I went to (SFA Chapter 29 Treasurer) Roy Williams,” Norma Donlon said. He told me he’d take over and raise funds for it. As we talked about the idea, I asked if we could do a two-for-one deal with the sculptor, so we could have the second bust for our home. I don’t know how they did it, but the SF men responded.”

“We’ve been friends a long time,” said Roy Williams, “I told her we’d do it….the approach we took was typical SF. I put out the word that this was to be kept a secret from Roger and that we were doing this for Roger Donlon. I didn’t ask for money. People responded, like Chapters 75 and 78, to name only a few. We reached an agreement with Douwe Blumberg, we raised the money over six months and we reached our goal, to make enough money to cover the costs of two bronze statues.” When Williams learned that MOH recipient CSM (Ret.) Bennie G. Adkins drove to Eglin AFB on his own expense to honor Donlon, Chapter 29 wrote a check for $250, from the remaining funds from the project, to cover Adkins’ expenses for the trip. “We all were honored to have Sgt. Maj. Adkins attend Roger’s dedication.”

Col. (Ret.) Paul Longgrear represented Chapter 78 at the event. “The most impressive thing to me about the headquarters dedication was the number of (SFA) chapters that gathered to honor the torch bearer for Special Forces, Col. Roger H.C. Donlon. I was pleased with the number of old soldiers that showed to honor one of our finest leaders in SF history.” Longgrear was surprised at how today’s SF troops responded to a Chapter 78 coin box he presented to 7th Group, which had a Chapter 78 20th Anniversary coin and the Jack Singlaub challenge coin that Chapter 78 designed for Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Singlaub.

Col. Colloton said, “Sir, your inspirational acts of service will continue to encourage generations to come, which you have certainly done here at 7th Group, and through your lifelong volunteer work with the people of Nam Dong.”

And, for the love story that played out behind this event — while Norma Donlon was working on the sculpture project, “it was difficult keeping it secret from Roger and our family. There were times Roy would call and Roger was there, so I had to go to the other room, like a woman having an affair or something, so he couldn’t hear me,” said Norma.

She didn’t realize during those early months of 2018 that Roger was quietly assisting the Special Forces Charitable Trust (SFCT) to honor Norma at its annual Martha Raye Award Ceremony held in Washington D.C. during the Green Beret Family Reception in October. Roger was able to keep his clandestine efforts from her, so that when SFCT invited them to attend, “I thought it was just another case where Roger was going to speak,” Norma said. The SFCT event brought Special Forces families, veterans, civilians together to celebrate SF families and to recognize women who support SF. (At the 2017 SFCT event Lena Elyscio, the hard-working wife of Chapter 78 Member Hank Elyscio, received a Martha Raye award for her decades of service to SF and Army troops.)

“I was surprised, real surprised and honored when they called my name,” said Norma. Roger added, “This year SFCT presented 12 awards to well-deserving Special Forces wives for 25 years of service to SF. Then they presented one to Norma for 50 years. I thought I had pulled that one off good, real good. It was nice to see her honored…I didn’t realize at that time that all the while, she was working behind the scenes on the sculptures!…I have to say, that based on that effort Norma pulled off a SOG mission.”

Thus concludes another chapter in the lives of a remarkable husband and wife team, each working in true SF fashion to surprise and honor each other in 2018. Of course, when they left Florida, they didn’t return immediately to Kansas. Roger received a phone call asking for assistance in placing 10,000 Christmas wreaths at Normandy, France gravesites from the Wreaths Across America project. “That 10,000 was part of 1.7 million placed on veterans graves this year by the Wreaths Across America program,” Roger said. He called retired Maj. Gen. Ken Bowra to assist in the France project, “and everything worked out,” he said. Eventually, they arrived on Long Island to oversee the placement of 80,000 wreaths on two national cemeteries that covered 365 acres. “I had the honor of placing wreaths on five MOH recipients gravesites, for veterans that went all the way back to the Spanish American War.”

At the end of the Donlon interview, both Roger and Norma wanted to thank the nine members of SFA Chapter 75 — the Roger H. C. Donlon Chapter who attended the event, and Paul Longgrear representing Chapter 78, and the “many other Green Beret veterans and friends,” who traveled to honor Donlon. They and Roy Williams also gave a special tip of the beret to retired 7th SFG MSG Charles Pendergrass, a former 7th Group team sergeant and the Facility Operations Specialist who worked behind the scenes to bring together the December 5th event.

Roger said he ended his remarks at the dedication by quoting the inscription inside his wedding band, which Norma gave him: “What we are is God’s gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.”