[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 95 (Friday, June 28, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E995]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                TRIBUTE TO LT. GENERAL RICHARD J. SEITZ

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. TIM HUELSKAMP

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 27, 2013

  Mr. HUELSKAMP. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to honor and pay tribute to 
the life of Lt. General Richard J. Seitz of Junction City, Kansas. On 
June 8th, 2013, General ``Dick'' Seitz completed a storied life at the 
age of 95.
  Born in Leavenworth, Kansas on February 18th, 1918, he grew up in 
that city and then attended Kansas State University where in 1939 he 
began dating his first wife, Bettie Jean Merrill. That same year Dick, 
foreseeing World War II looming on the horizon, accepted a commission 
as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army. He went through the sixth jump school 
class the Army ever had--thus becoming one of its first paratroopers.
  With the advent of the war, Dick rose rapidly. At the age of only 25 
in March 1942, as a Major, he was given command of the 2nd Battalion of 
the 517th Parachute Infantry Regimental Combat Team. Thereafter, he was 
promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and, as the Army's youngest battalion 
commander, led his battalion throughout its historic combat operations 
in Europe with the personal radio call sign of ``Dangerous Dick.''
  The 517th was flung into combat at Anzio at the time of the breakout 
from that beachhead followed by fighting up the Italian peninsula. They 
then made the combat jump into the southern invasion of France at 4 
a.m., on August 15th, 1944 as the airborne element of Operation Dragoon 
with its subsequent heavy combat in the French Maritime Alps. Finally, 
put in reserve in Northeastern France in December 1944, Dick was 
drawing up Paris leave rosters for his men when Adolf Hitler launched 
the Battle of the Bulge.
  At that point, Dick's 2nd Battalion was married with a Regiment of 
the 7th Armored Division to form what became known as ``Task Force 
Seitz.'' It was pushed in to plug the gaps on the north slope of the 
``Bulge'' every time the Germans tried to make a breakout. In doing so, 
his battalion went from 691 men to 380 through combat losses in some of 
the worst fighting of the second World War. The battalion went on from 
the ``Bulge'' to see even further bloody combat in the subsequent 
battles of the Huertigen Forest.
  Before shipping out to Europe, Dick and Bettie continued to see each 
other whenever they had a chance to do so. In 1942, after graduating 
from Kansas State, Bettie joined the Red Cross and was subsequently 
sent to England in late 1943 to support the bomber groups of the Army 
Air Corp's 8th Air Force. In the fall of 1944, she was moved to Holland 
to run an Army rest and rehabilitation center. There, in January 1945, 
she read in Stars and Stripes that Task Force Seitz was heavily engaged 
in the fighting around St. Vith. By herself, she drove from Holland to 
the front in Belgium and managed to find the Regimental HQ of the 
517th. But they would not allow her to go onto the very front lines 
where Dick was. However, this put them back in personal touch which led 
to their marriage in June 1945 in Joigny, France with one Red Cross 
bridesmaid and 1,800 paratroopers in attendance in one of the greatest 
love stories of the war.
  Dick ended the war with the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, and the 
Purple Heart plus, besides his Parachute Wings, what he most 
treasured--the Combat Infantryman's Badge. Thereafter, during his 
lifelong Army career including nearly 37 years of active duty he also 
received numerous other decorations and awards including the 
Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the French Croix de 
Guerre and Legion of Honor. Along with these awards, his commands 
included the 2nd Airborne Battle Group, 503rd Infantry Regiment and the 
82nd Airborne Division, which he led into Detroit and Washington, DC in 
1967 to quell those cities' riots. He also commanded the XVIII Airborne 
Corps and was Chief of Staff U.S. Army Vietnam in 1965 through 1967 
under General Westmoreland. As a Portuguese speaker he served two tours 
in Brazil, the last as Chief of the Joint U.S./Brazilian Military 
Commission and one year in Iran as a military advisor. He likewise 
served in Japan with the occupation forces immediately after World War 
II.
  Dick and Bettie retired to Junction City in 1975. Unfortunately, 
Bettie died of a heart attack June 1, 1978. Thereafter, Dick was 
blessed to marry Virginia Crane, a widow, in 1980. She also predeceased 
him in 2006. In retirement, Dick remained extremely active with the 
Army through Ft. Riley as well as in the Junction City Community and in 
Kansas generally. During the Iraqi and Afghanistan Wars he would go out 
to Ft. Riley to see off and greet the deploying and redeploying units 
from those fights, no matter the hour day or night. He was past 
Chairman of the Ft. Riley National Bank, very active with the Coronado 
Council of the Boy Scouts, a Trustee of St. John's Military Academy, on 
the Board of the Eisenhower Presidential Library, President of the Fort 
Riley-Central Kansas Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army, and 
Chaired Junction City's Economic Redevelopment Study Commission among 
many other activities. He was also honored as an Outstanding Citizen of 
Kansas, received the prestigious AUSA Creighton Abrams Award, and most 
recently had the General Richard J. Seitz Elementary School named in 
his honor on the post at Ft. Riley. He felt a particular affection for 
the faculty and students of that school whom he visited as often as he 
could. The best way to describe Dick is that he lived his life 
``Airborne all the way!'' to the very end.
  Last year my family and I had the privilege to meet General Dick 
Seitz when he served as the Grand Marshal at the Independence Day 
parade in Junction City. I quickly came to understand why General Seitz 
was admired by so many. Not only was he revered for his extraordinary 
military service, but also for the care, generosity and affection he 
offered others throughout his life. General Seitz epitomized what it 
means when people refer to his generation as ``The Greatest 
Generation.''

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