Parenting, Texas History

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible,” said Gen. Ken Bridges Dwight D. Eisenhower. Such words describe the life of Gen. William O. Darby, a hero of World War II and an Arkansas native. The integrity and courage of Darby was an important contribution to the American victory and the future of the U. S. Army through his efforts leading the Army Rangers.

William Orlando Darby was born in 1911 in Fort Smith, Arkansas. His father made a respectable living as a printer. He attended local schools as a child, and graduated Fort Smith High School in 1929. Darby earned an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where he was respected among his fellow cadets.

After his graduation from West Point in 1933, he was assigned as a supply officer with a field artillery unit at Fort Bliss, Texas. He spent a year in the El Paso area. A year later, he was assigned to command a nearby mounted artillery unit in New Mexico. He then attended the field artillery school at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1937, and spent the next several years moving from post to post. In 1940, he was promoted to captain.

The entry of the United States into World War II in December 1941 led to a massive reorganization of the army. The success of British commandos early in World War II had inspired American leadership to similarly create a new, specialized fighting unit. Ranger units were part of an army tradition that found its roots in the American Revolution. Sometimes called “partisans,” these early Ranger units were known for their mobility and relative self-sufficiency. The army, however, had not had a formal Ranger unit since the Civil War. Having worked with the commandos starting after his arrival in January 1942, Darby was tapped to organize and train an American unit with a promotion to major. He organized the 1st Ranger Battalion in Northern Ireland in July.

‘“Darby’s Rangers,” as they came to be called, which was also the title of the 1958 James Garner film on their exploits, saw their first combat in North Africa. They conducted a series of daring night raids in November 1942 as American forces stormed into Nazi-occupied Algeria. Darby led the raid himself, braving machine gun fire and grenades to win the day. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions. A few months later, as American and British forces in neighboring Tunisia linked up, Darby’s Rangers were sent to the new front lines. The success of the 1st Ranger Battalion prompted the army to expand these units. As a result, by early 1943, Darby, now a lieutenant colonel, had organized and trained the 3rd and 4th Ranger Battalions. These Ranger units played important roles in the last battles that swept the Nazis out of Africa.

With the invasion of Sicily months later, the Rangers played a crucial role in the landing at the beaches. Darby’s Rangers were also the first to land on the mainland of Italy in September 1943. His forces continued their push through Italy. At Cisterna, just south of Rome, they battled the Nazis for days. The Americans would not give in, and the city fell to the Allies in March 1944. The battle was won, but 96% of the city lay in ruins. The people of Cisterna, so grateful for American efforts to liberate their city, would later name a school after Darby, and in 1984 became a sister city to Fort Smith, Darby’s hometown.

After the battle, he was promoted to full colonel. He was reassigned to the general staff at the Pentagon. He returned to Italy a year later on an inspection tour in the war’s final weeks. On April 23, Gen. Robinson Duff of the 10th Mountain Division was injured, and Darby assumed command. The Nazis put up bitter resistance as they retreated. Darby in response was planning to cut off their retreat and capture their remaining forces.

On April 30, in the midst of the fight, an artillery shell exploded, killing Darby instantly.

The last Nazi forces in Italy surrendered two days later. The entire Nazi regime surrendered on May 7.

On May 15, the army posthumously promoted Darby to brigadier general. His bravery and contributions to the military were not forgotten. In 1955, Fort Smith’s junior high school was renamed in honor of Darby, with the mascot changing to the Rangers to further honor the general. The army itself bestowed many honors on Darby. Army camps in Italy and Germany were named for him after World War II as well as a Ranger camp at Fort Benning, Georgia. Ranger training would continue after the war, producing generations of elite army troops. The Ranger School now offers the William O. Darby Award for Ranger trainees who show the best leadership qualities. If the following testimony, received from a thirty-eight year veteran of the teacher wars, was a oneoff, it could be disJohn Rosemond missed, but the sad, sad truth is that it is but one of hundreds of such teacher testimonies I have obtained over the course of my career.

She reports: “I have often had a student, while in class, surreptitiously text a parent about a poor grade without discussing the matter with me first. Then I would receive an angry phone call or email from the parent accusing me of treating her child unfairly, or a request from the counselor for a meeting with the parent. ‘My student is an A student, so if she isn’t getting an A in your class, you are not doing a good job’ is one of my favorite lines, heard many times.On numerous occasions, parents would accuse me of lying when my explanation of a situation contradicts what their children have told them.”

One indication that I’ve stepped on a parent’s toes with something I’ve said in this column is the accusation that I engage in “Golden Age Thinking,” by which my antagonist means that I idealize the childrearing of a bygone era. So, without apology, here comes more indication of my supposedly unreliable memory.

When fellow boomers and I talk about the sort of parenting phenomenon reported by the above veteran, we agree that it “never” happened during our school days. I put quotes around “never” because I will yield to the likelihood that it happened once in a very blue-green moon.

In our day—before “parenting” possessed the land—parents had the good sense to know that children (a) are unable to accurately describing adult behavior (which is why they are not allowed to testify in court) and (b) tend to describe adult behavior to their own advantage.

So, when a teacher said one thing and a student said another, the preenlightened parent believed the adult. What a concept!

Take my parents, for example (and they seem to have been typical): When a teacher reported delinquency of one sort or another on my part (i was not an “easy” child), and I attempted to set the record “straight,” they immediately interrupted with, “We don’t want to hear your side of the story. We’ve heard all we need to hear.” And that was that.

A parent once told me that she came to her child’s defense concerning school matters because “I love him.” Sorry, lady, but that’s not love in the least. That’s enabling, and enabling is a mere facsimile of true love. Giving your child license to falsely accuse teachers of unprofessionalism is an abdication of parental responsibility. It is cruel. It is borderline sociopathic. There is no rational justification for it. I trust I’ve gotten my point across.

More often than not, if a child is guilty of misdeed, and a teacher handles the situation in a way that wasn’t abusive but could have been approved upon, the parent should still support the teacher. Perhaps the parent should provide the teacher, privately, with some helpful counsel, but the child in question needs to know that adults stick together.

When dealing with children, one must always keep in mind that when a child claims to have been treated “unfairly” by an adult, it usually means either (a) he didn’t get his way or (b) he didn’t get away with “it,” whatever “it” was.

In the final analysis, Golden Age Thinking prevails!

Family psychologist John Rosemond:parentguru.com,johnrosemond. com.

John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology. In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society.