Couple hope to honor war hero

Fort Smith pair want to erect statue of Darby

Monday, January 7, 2013

— A Fort Smith couple are organizing a committee to create a larger-than-life statue of the larger-than-life hometown World War II hero William Orlando Darby.

Liz and Joe Armstrong are recruiting members to serve on a committee and are seeking nonprofit status that will enable the committee to begin raising the estimated $300,000 they think it will take to create the 1 1/4-life-size statue of the commander of the first Army Ranger battalion in World War II.

The Armstrongs made a pitch to the Fort Smith Parks and Recreation Commission last month to have the statue placed at the small downtown Cisterna Park at 10th Street and Garrison Avenue.

The park was named for the Italian town where the Rangers fought one of their most costly battles in World War II.

City directors passed a resolution at a meeting Thursday approving the placement of the statue at the park.Two directors, Kevin Settle and Pam Weber, praised the Armstrongs for taking on the project.

Liz Armstrong said the couple are happy to do it. She said her husband is a Ranger veteran and the couple have always been Darby fans. They “adopted” Darby Junior High School in Fort Smith and raised money for a marquee for the school and for students there to go to band camp.

But Liz Armstrong said they wanted to do more, and the statue project fed the desire. They got the idea, she said, after a statue of famed deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves was dedicated at the downtown Pendergraft Park last summer.

City officials like the idea of having a second statue downtown, especially one with a local connection and the high visibility at a downtown park on Garrison Avenue.

“The statue of Bass Reeves really adds to downtown and this one of Darby would really add to that,” Parks Department Director Mike Alsup said.

The Armstrongs have a concept of what they would like the statue to look like. They have photos from World War II of then-Col. Darby on an Army Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a favorite mode of transportation for him during the war, Armstrong said.

Their hope is for the statue to depict Darby on the motorcycle. Alsup said the park commissioners liked the idea as well. The commissioners will have final design approval, Alsup said.

The Armstrongs tentatively have scheduled the fundraising campaign to start Feb. 8, which will be Darby’s 103rd birthday, pending approval of the nonprofit status, Liz Armstrong said.

People who were involved with the Bass Reeves fundraising campaign have given the Armstrongs valuable advice on running a fundraising drive, although most aren’t interested in taking up another cause, she said.

Once the campaign kicks off, she said, the search for a sculptor will begin. Liz Armstrong said it would be nice if the sculptor was someone near Fort Smith so Darby Junior High School students could visit the foundry and see the statue as it is being cast.

The Armstrongs say it could take three years to complete the project. They are counting on the strong emotional attachment that the military community, not just the Rangers, has for Darby to aid in the fundraising,Joe Armstrong said.

Rangers have a deep respect for Darby, Joe Armstrong said. He said many Ranger veterans name their children Darby.

Besides Darby Junior High School and Darby Community Center in Fort Smith, there is a Camp Darby in Italy and a Darby High School in Cisterna, Italy, he said.

“Our main goal is not to hit Fort Smith as much as reach out to a broader base of people who want to help,” Liz Armstrong said.

She said there are Ranger and Army veterans throughout the country who will want to contribute to the statue. She said she thought there would be support for the statue from many in Italy. Cisterna has been a sistercity with Fort Smith since the 1980s because of the sacrifice of Darby’s Rangers during World War II.

Darby was born in Fort Smith on Feb. 8, 1911. His boyhood home is preserved and now serves as the home ofthe Darby Foundation at 311 N. Eighth St.

He graduated from Fort Smith High School, now Darby Junior High School, and was a 1933 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy.

From 1933 until 1942, he had a number of assignments at military bases all over the country, according to biographical information at the Darby Foundation.

In 1942, he was assigned to organize and command the first Ranger battalion. He led his troops in fighting in North Africa in 1942, Sicily in 1943 and Italy in 1944.

Emory Dockery, executive director of the Darby Foundation, quoted Gen. George Patton, who called Darby “the bravest man I ever knew.”

In the battle of Cisterna in early 1944, Darby commanded two battalions of Rangers - totaling 767 men - who were assigned to take the town of Cisterna as part of the Anzio operation in Italy.

The Rangers were repulsed by the German troopsin heavy fighting that nearly wiped them out.

In April 1944, Darby was promoted to colonel and was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he worked in the Pentagon. In March 1945, he returned to Italy for temporary duty. When the assistant commander of the 10th Mountain Division in Italy was wounded, Darby was named to replace him.

During an operation on April 30, 1944, Darby was standing among a group of officers when a German artillery round exploded over them, killing Darby.

Dockery said orders promoting Darby to brigadier general were on President Franklin Roosevelt’s desk when he died on April 12, 1945. He said President Harry Truman signed the orders after Darby’s death.

Darby is buried in the Fort Smith National Cemetery. During World War II, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross with oak-leaf cluster, the Silver Star, the Purple Heart, the French Croix de Guerre, the Russian Order of Kutuzov and the British Distinguished Service Order, according to Darby Foundation documents.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/07/2013