John Kingsland Terry

West Point, 1965

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Denny Coll on February 22, 2015:

To know Jack Terry was to know a very good, yet very complex, guy, always with that sly grin of his.. He and I were teamed up as Ranger "buddies" in Ranger Class in the late Fall of 1965. I still have the picture of Jack, Tom "Boris" Borkowski (who we also recently lost) and myself at the "ropes" station trying to master some arcane knot at the Mountain Ranger Camp in Dahlonega, GA.. Jack, as usual, was looking at the camera with that sly grin of his. Jack was a fullback on the West Point Plebe team and I was a quarterback. Whenever I would call his number, that same sly smile always popped up. Even back then, fullbacks were mainly blocking backs, so getting the ball to run would always elicit his smile. As Ranger buddies, you learned very quickly that when the temps fell into the freezing zone in the Ockefenokee Swamp (the site of the Jungle Ranger Camp), Rangers kept warm overnight using a tried and true method of "male bonding," namely, two guys on the outside do an "oreo" on one Ranger in the middle. Although it was theoretically warmer in the middle, I still laugh at the fights we had over how this trio thing was going to work. After Ranger School, we each went our separate ways until we hooked up again in civilian life when Jack was working in upstate New York. Always lots of laughs with Jack, although he had fallen on some hard times, which would eventually get worse. When I saw Jack at the 45th, I was truly saddened for my old Ranger buddy - he had clearly had numerous health issues and did not look well. We managed to have a good chat and again, laughed at some of the funny stories, especially about Ranger School. In the interim, I happened to have occasion to visit Dahlonega for a wedding and arranged to take my kids and their kids into the Mountain Ranger Camp, which amazingly, was still there and much the same after some 40 years. The Camp XO, who was our guide, walked us over to the ropes station, and I had to smile, because I remembered my Ranger buddy Jack and all the good times we had, mostly laughing! I will miss you, my dear friend, but I am reasonably sure that you are in a much better place, that good old Ranger Camp in Heaven. Grip Hands, Strength & Drive!

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