The eyes of Americans were once again focused on the sacrifices made by America’s military when three former soldiers were presented the Medal of Honor by President Joe Biden during White House ceremonies Thursday.
Earlier this year, President Biden presented what is America’s highest military decoration to another veteran, Col.
Ralph Puckett, for his courageous actions in the Korean War many years ago.
Although that event was highlighted in the national news on May 21, just as the one on Thursday was for the other three, his story had one other chapter that has been minimally highlighted: Col. Puckett had attended Baylor School way back in the early 1940s.
To my knowledge, his Baylor connection was not covered in the local media, unless I overlooked it, and I only learned of it after reading the Summer 2021 edition of the Baylor magazine published for alumni and friends. I was privy to the printed magazine as a 1978 alumnus, although it can be accessed by anyone for free online.
The magazine story talks about the White House ceremony for the then-94-year-old (who is now 95), and it mentions some information on his activities while attending Baylor from 1942-43. That included being involved with the boxing and baseball teams and serving as a member of the Victory Corps, a national World War II participation effort for high school students that in Baylor’s case meant having a farm with animals and a garden on the school’s lower fields.
The yearbook writeup later passed along to me by Baylor also called him a “neat” cadet in the military program.
After reading the brief magazine article, I thought it might be interesting to try and interview him and get him to recall his memories of attending Baylor and what it was like to receive the Medal of Honor.
I intended to write a story about it in connection with Veterans Day this year, but after locating a phone number for him down in Columbus, Ga., with the help of Baylor, I talked with his wife on the phone. She said that he was unfortunately no longer able to do interviews, apparently due to his age.
I was disappointed, but in the spirit of a good American military man, I tried to persist. I started looking online and happened to notice that he had written in 2017 with D.K.R. Crosswell a memoir called “Ranger: A Soldier’s Life.”
Hoping it might provide a little insight into how he ended up at Baylor from South Georgia, I ordered the University of Kentucky Press book. When it arrived a few days later, I glanced through the first few pages and, much to my satisfaction, he outlines for a page or two information about how he ended up at Baylor and what the experience was like.
He said that as a schoolboy, he had dreamy visions of being in the Army Air Corps, and he even took civilian flying lessons, a hobby also noted in his Baylor yearbook writeup. But his family also focused on getting a college education at that time when fewer people went to college, and he dreamed of going to Georgia Tech, where his father, Ralph Puckett Sr., had been a standout baseball and football player.
His father after college had run a wholesale grocery firm and a corn-shelling business. He was also a respected citizen, and once after being asked for help by some black men in town, went to a jail and prevented some whites from breaking into it and possibly lynching a black man. He apparently did that through his glare, physical presence, and respect alone.
It would be a trait passed along to his son.
When his son, Ralph Puckett Jr., made plans to go to college after thinking he had received a good education at Tifton High School, he wanted to study aeronautical engineering and pursue his military flying-related plans, perhaps as an airplane designer and flight tester.
But through a conversation his father had with a dean and former classmate at Georgia Tech, Ralph Jr. realized after finishing the 10th grade that he needed some more math classes not offered at Tifton High to get into the Tech engineering program.
The dean also suggested how he could get the needed math classes – by attending a college military preparatory school in Chattanooga named Baylor as a boarding student.
So, in the fall of 1942, at a time when he was supposed to be an 11th grader in a state that did not then offer 12th grade, he enrolled as a senior, or 12th grader, at Baylor. It turned out to be a blessing for him.
Of that one year at Baylor, he writes in the memoir, “Studying hard in the closely supervised environment of Baylor, I performed well academically, scored straight As, and made the honor roll in each grading period.
“All the teachers were superb. The classes were small, and most of the students bright and motivated. Attending Baylor became a great source of pride; I thanked my father for his foresight.”
However, he writes that in other areas besides academics, especially athletics, he struggled some. He likely realized that he was at Baylor at a time when it had an outstanding football program under coach “Humpy” Heywood. The Red Raiders could beat about any team around, much as rival McCallie has been able to do in recent years under Ralph Potter.
As Col. Puckett wrote about that time, “Dreams of glory on the diamond and gridiron – and in the boxing ring – quickly faded. My aspirations far exceeded my capabilities – but I tried.”
He also writes that, unlike his brother, Tommy, he was tongue-tied around girls and very easily embarrassed. “I always looked at myself as pretty square and of no interest to the opposite sex.”
The fact that Baylor was then all-male probably did not help, although social occasions took place periodically.
However, he would go on to succeed on a faraway field of a different kind – and probably impress a few girls along the way.
Only 16 years old, he did achieve his goal of enrolling at Georgia Tech in the fall of 1943 and got a job as a concession stand assistant manager at Grant Field. The star of the Georgia Tech football team that year was Eddie Prokop, who had graduated from Baylor in 1941 as a post-graduate and would finish fifth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy that year.
Also a member of Sigma Chi fraternity at Georgia Tech, Col. Puckett soon joined the military during World War II and still tried to get into the Army Air Corps program. But with the need for pilots dwindling down, he was eventually discharged from active duty.
With the help of Georgia Congressman Eugene Cox, though, he was able to get an appointment to West Point beginning in the fall of 1945 and graduated in 1949.
And then on Nov. 25, 1950, while commanding a Ranger company of 50 men, the group miraculously held a strategic hill near the Chongchon River against attacking Chinese forces during the Korean War. Col. Puckett was wounded three times, but the hill was still held.
For his service, he received the Distinguished Service Cross.
And as he became somewhat of a legendary figure and was nicknamed the “Ranger,” he helped repel an attack by the North Vietnamese in August 1967 during the Vietnam War, with the soldiers apparently inspired by his arrival to help lead them.
For that, he received another Distinguished Service Cross.
Little did he know, but he had one more honor coming, but not for many years. After retiring from the military in 1971, he would enter the business and educational world, holding such titles as program coordinator for Outward Bound and working with the Westminster School adventure program in Atlanta.
He later moved back to Columbus and became a highly respected military veteran there as a speaker in demand at Fort Benning and elsewhere and as an inaugural member of the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame.
And then this April, he was notified that he would receive the prestigious Medal of Honor, with White House ceremonies being held a few days before Memorial Day 2021.
From Baylor Hill to that hill in faraway Korea, Col. Puckett has managed to leave a positive mark.
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Another Medal of Honor recipient who went to Baylor was Charles Coolidge, although Chattanooga City High alumni also proudly claim him. He attended Baylor from 1936-38, before attending City High for his senior year in 1938-39 when the school was on East Third Street, where Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences now is.
His son, Charles Coolidge Jr., a member of the Baylor Class of 1964, said over the phone that his father played on the tennis team at Baylor and ended up transferring to City likely to make working for his father’s printing business easier, with fewer constraints.
“In those days learning a trade was as important as earning an education,” said his son, who graduated from the Air Force Academy and went on to become a lieutenant general.
Charles Coolidge Sr.’s older brother, Walter Coolidge Jr., had graduated from Baylor in 1938 after enrolling as a seventh-grader in 1932.
The father’s business, Chattanooga Printing and Engraving Co., was located at 300 (and 302 and 304) Market St. at the time Charles worked there in high school as a bookbinder and while serving in the Army.
The family residence was at 607 Carolina Ave. on Signal Mountain while Charles was in high school. But the family moved to 504 Carolina Ave. about the time he went off to war.
While Col. Puckett has received his Medal of Honor late in life, Mr. Coolidge received his in 1945, some 76 years before his death this past April at the age of 99.
Charles Coolidge Jr. said he had followed the news about Col. Puckett receiving the Medal of Honor, adding that sometimes awards are given not long after a battle and before a thorough study can be made. He thinks maybe a push was made by others in more recent years for Col. Puckett to receive the Medal of Honor.
“Some people felt very strongly he should have gotten the Medal of Honor in the first place,” Mr. Coolidge Jr. said. “But they didn’t have sufficient justification at the time.”
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Jcshearer2@comcast.net