'Rangers lead the way'

NORWALK — Excerpted from Richard Price Geer's Ranger Hall of Fame nomination: On the night of Feb. 13, 1951, the Chinese began wave attacks lasting until near daylight. The assault was resumed early on the night of Feb. 14, with more wave attacks and Chinese soldiers piling up in windrows. Still, the enemy fought on, with American and French forces fully engaged. A composite counterattack force that included one platoon from 1st Rangers under Lt. Mayo Heath got into the action. Moving forward, the platoon faced a barrage of heavy machine-guns, automatic weapons and small-arms fire. Rangers Joseph Phillips and Robert Geer reached the top of the hill. "We've got the hill," they shouted. "Hold your fire and get some men up here!" There was none immediately to send; the situation was especially desperate, including a mistaken report that the hill had been retaken. Wounded Rangers crawled to the top of the hill. Robert Geer saw his brother, Richard Geer, crawling into the position, wounded in the left leg, below the knee. While they assessed the situation, a tracer came from the left (Company G position) and passed through Richard Geer's knee. His brother fired wildly in that direction and the shooting stopped. Robert Geer was in the act of reloading when a stick grenade bounced off his Browning Automatic Rifle. He braced for the explosion, which lifted him from the ground, blinding his left eye and bending his BAR. Unable to hold position without more support, Robert Geer grabbed Phillips's BAR for cover fire during the withdrawal from the hill. Hand-to-hand fighting broke out as the Rangers worked back downward. Armed only with a knife, double leg-wounded Richard Geer fought a desperate battle against a bayonet- armed enemy soldier, killing him. Blinded in one eye and with vision in the other eye blurred, Robert Geer picked up a BAR and continued to deliver devastating fire on enemy forces. At that point, nearly all of his fellow Rangers were dead or wounded. Under his direction, the living continued to fire on the enemy. With their ammunition gone, he ordered the few survivors off the hill. Lacking clarity of sight and bloodied from shrapnel, Robert Geer carried the wounded Richard Geer down the slope, depending on Richard's verbal directions. Richard was struck again by a bullet on the trip. At the base, a 3/4-ton truck was being loaded with wounded soldiers. In all, 20 Rangers were wounded in action, nine were killed in action. Generous of spirit and valor, continuing to live up to his lifelong nickname of "Spunk" — even in a desperate, life-threatening situation — Richard put his fellow Rangers before himself. Despite having been shot three times, he declined to take a spot on the truck platform, saying that someone more seriously wounded should have the opportunity to lie down. He offered to sit in the front seat of the truck. Later, propped against the side of a MASH unit, Richard was hit with Chinese sniper fire just above his heart. Medics worked to save him, but Corporal Richard Price Geer died in a Korean hut as his brother, Sergeant Robert James Geer, called to him from a litter outside the doorway. For his exploits in "saving the day that night," Robert James Geer was inducted to the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame at Fort Benning as its 123rd member in 2001. "Rangers Lead the Way"