Lt. Col. Robert Lee Wolverton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (June 2008)

This article does not cite any references or sources. (June 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

This article may not meet the general notability guideline or one of the following specific guidelines for inclusion on Wikipedia: Biographies, Books, Companies, Fiction, Music, Neologisms, Numbers, Web content, or several proposals for new guidelines. If you are familiar with the subject matter, please expand or rewrite the article to establish its notability. The best way to address this concern is to reference published, third-party sources about the subject. If notability cannot be established, the article is more likely to be considered for redirection, merge or ultimately deletion, per Wikipedia:Guide to deletion. This article has been tagged since June 2008.

Lt. Col. Robert Lee Wolverton was the commander of the 3rd Battalion, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from 1942 until his death on D-Day, June 6, 1944.

Part of the same regiment to which belonged the legendary "Band of Brothers," Wolverton's men fought in the epic Operation Market Garden and Battle of the Bulge in Bastogne.

Despite being killed, according to published accounts, "before his boots touched French soil," Wolverton's legacy endured, particularly on the strength of a widely remembered prayer spoken to the 750 men in his battalion hours before the D-Day parachute drop behind enemy lines.

The colonel's words were cited by President Reagan in a 1984 speech from Normandy on the 40th anniversary of the invasion and recounted in numerous books and in Newsweek and Associated Press stories on a battalion reunion held in Kansas City on the first D-Day anniversary after the war.

Following is a recounting of the prayer:

The men were called together, and they stood in the orchard on either side of a low earthen mound which fenced the fields. Upon the earthen hedgerow stood Lt. Col. Robert L. Wolverton, commanding officer of 3rd battalion, 506th PIR. And the colonel said:

"Men, I am not a religious man and I don't know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do.

"God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.

"We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right.

"Oh Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you."

All were silent for two minutes as the men were left, each with his individual thoughts. Then the colonel ordered, "Move out."

A few hours later, Wolverton was killed by German machine gun fire in an orchard outside St. Come-du-Mont, Normandy, France.