THE 36


RANGER’S RANGER


W


hen Ralph Puckett was 4 years old, he would visit his best friend who lived about half a block away on


a dirt road in Tiſton, Ga. “I had to cross the street,” he said. “I would stand on one side and wait until I would see a car coming, and I would dash in front of it. I knew I could be hit, but it never caused me to be cautious. It was just the adrenalin. I am going to beat that car across, and, one day, I didn’t.” Te driver got out, moved him to the side


of the road and leſt. Te family cook got him to the hospital. As he matured, even though the man had hit and run, he felt sorry for him. “I just thought that man must have been


scared to death, and it was my fault. And I don’t race cars any more, but I liked that adrenaline rush that came in and comes in later.”


Columbus and the Valley AUGUST 2013


by Dick McMichael


At Martin Army Community Hospital, 1950


Puckett was awarded his second Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star by President Lyndon Johnson in Vietnam, 1968.


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