Arlington National Cemetery, Washington D.C.: In this photo by Elizabeth Fraser, Soldiers assigned to the 1st Special Forces Command (Airborne) hold a wreath-laying ceremony at the gravesite of former President John F. Kennedy to commemorate the President’s contributions to the Army’s Special Forces. The former president holds a special place in the hearts of America’s unconventional forces for helping establish the special operations community.
In October 1961, President Kennedy visited the Army's Special Warfare Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina where he outlined his vision for a dedicated counter-insurgency force. It was after this visit that Kennedy authorized Special Forces Soldiers to wear a distinctive uniform item as their official headgear. From then on, these unique Soldiers would be known as "The Green Berets".
He continued his unwavering support for these "unconventional warriors" in a commencement speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In his address, Kennedy detailed ways to confront Communist-inspired “wars of national liberation” other than with large-scale conventional warfare or nuclear retaliation. He declared that the Army’s leading unconventional warfare experts, Special Forces, were central to his security strategy.
Kennedy told the graduating cadets that: “This is another type of warfare, new in its intensity, ancient in its origins, war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat; by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him.”
Kenedy went on to call for “a whole new kind of strategy, a different kind of force, and therefore a new and wholly different kind of military training.”
Sadly, a year later these same 1st Special Forces Soldiers would serve as the Honor Guard at Kennedy’s funeral. At the ceremony, Command Sergeant Major Francis J. Ruddy laid his own beret at Kennedy's grave in the ultimate gesture of gratitude and respect. That same beret is now on display at the John F. Kennedy Library in Washington.
Every year following, a contingent of Green Berets and members of The Old Guard, who stood watch that day in November 1963, remember this gesture by laying a wreath and a Green Beret at the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.