Army Ranger Assn. base at ‘Bama honors oldest living Merrill’s Marauder; Daphne resident Gabriel Kinney was one of the original U.S. Army Rangers

Army Ranger Assn. base at ‘Bama honors oldest living Merrill’s Marauder; Daphne resident Gabriel Kinney was one of the original U.S. Army Rangers

By Fran Thompson
The U.S. Army Ranger Association officially recognized the Flora-Bama as its Gulf Coast base in grand style during the group’s Feb. 5 meeting at the world famous Lounge on the Line.
The Gabriel Kinney Ranger Base will be the first in Ranger history to bear the name of a living U.S. Army Ranger. Congressional Gold Medal recipient and Daphne resident Gabriel Kinney is also one of only four remaining Merrill’s Marauders, the Ranger battalion that fought in the Burma/India Theater in 1944.
At age 101, Kinney is also the oldest living Ranger.
Kinney was joined at the ceremony by 20 family members and at least twice that many members of the U.S. Army Ranger Assn., which was formed in 1973 to strengthen relationships among Rangers past, present and future.
Kinney and all eight of his brothers served in World War II. His last remaining sibling, Patrick, died in 2019 at 107. Patrick was also in Burma, but he did not serve as a Marauder.
The UWF Honor Guard presented the colors, and the 6th Ranger Battalion out of Hurlburt Field also participated in the event. Kinney, who turned 101 on Feb. 2, spoke eloquently during the ceremony that also celebrated his birthday.
Already in the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame at Fort Benning, home of the Army’s largest Ranger base, Kinney was awarded a Presidential Unit Citation, six Distinguished Service Crosses, four Legions of Merit, 44 Silver Stars, and a Bronze Star during WWII.
He and the seven other Marauders who were alive at that time were presented Congressional Gold Medals in 2020. Those surviving Marauders accepted the honor to keep alive the values of duty, honor and sacrifice for country on behalf of their late combat brothers. George Washington, Neil Armstrong and The Tuskegee Airmen are among past recipients.
The Marauders, named after its commander, Army Brig. Gen. Frank D. Merrill, were a jungle warfare unit that served in Burma in 1944. In just six months, the 3,000 men in its three battalions fought five major battles and engaged the much larger, elite Japanese 18th Division 30 other times. Its success opened a critical land route so the United States could supply and support its Chinese allies. The mission was crucial in defeating the Japanese.
By the time it was deactivated in August 1944, Merrill’s Marauders had lost 90 percent of its 3,000 men to fatal or incapacitating combat injuries, starvation and disease.
“When we were disbanded, there was less than 200 that were still fighting,” Kinney said.
Highly trained Special Forces, from Rangers to Green Berets to Navy Seals, look to Merrill’s Marauders as commando role models.
Before volunteering, the Marauders were told only that the mission was top secret and generally considered suicide.
“I was already in a dangerous situation. It was all the same to me,’’ Kinney said.
The Marauders covered an estimated 1,000 miles on foot, crossing treacherous jungle and mountainous terrain from India into Burma and part of the Himalayas to capture a Japanese airstrip and open a supply line into China for C-47 cargo planes loaded with valuable equipment.
No other American force except the First Marine Division, which took and held Guadalcanal for four months, has ever been exposed to as much uninterrupted jungle fighting. And no other American force anywhere has marched as far, fought so continuously or had to display such endurance as those swift-moving, hard-hitting foot soldiers.
“All those guys were something else. I don’t know where they found it or how they were able to dig so deep. But they did,’’ said Chris Rivers, commander of the Gabriel Kinney Ranger Base.
During one 13 day battle against Japanese soldiers in Burma that ended on Easter Sunday of 1944, Kinney sustained two hits from shrapnel and a bullet across his helmet. He and his fellow Marauders went without food or water for five days. They were even more concerned about their dwindling supplies of ammunition.
At the end of their campaign, all remaining Marauders still in action were evacuated to hospitals. Most of them suffered from tropical diseases, exhaustion and malnutrition. Or as the tags on their battered uniforms read, “A.O.E.” (Accumulation Of Everything).
“It still hurts,” Kinney said about the Merrill’s Marauder fatalities. “After we had volunteered and we were put in the situation we were put into, it was do what you had to do in order to stay alive. There was no turning back, no place to go anywhere.
“The purpose of our mission was to get supplies to China,” he added. “It was definitely a success. We completed everything we went out for.”
Although he has since spoken to graduating Rangers at Fort Benning, where he met Georgia’s last living Marauder, Kinney said during a 2016 interview with Alabama Media Group that he still does not like to talk about his war experience.
“I congratulated the boys on graduating. And I told them if the Rangers from Merrill’s Marauders could see what I was seeing, they would be proud of seeing that (Merrill’s Marauder) crest on their uniforms,” he said.
Kinney was already fighting in the South Pacific Theater when he volunteered for what was supposed to be a three to six week secret mission in 1943. Projected casualties were 85 percent.
“I don’t know why we joined. It sounded like they needed some people with some combat experience, and we volunteered,” he said. “To be honest with you, I was worried every day. Was I going to make the next day? It was just as dangerous one place to another.”
Across the span of 17 months, the Marauders, accompanied by supply mules, marched 1,000 miles. Jungle diseases ravaged their numbers to the point that only about 300 of the approximate 1,300 remaining original Marauders were still considered fit for combat when they reached and captured the Myitkyina airfield, according to Army records.
“There was a point in time we had gotten where the ones who were not alive were the lucky ones,” Kinney told Alabama Media Group. “It got to that point. I’ve seen them look down at one that was in very bad shape and say, ‘You lucky so-and-so.'”
The battle for Myitkyina airfield took several weeks and generated additional heavy losses for the Marauders, who were disbanded shortly after the victory on Aug. 10, 1944.
“I was just out of it then. Not worth living, actually,” Kinney said. “I was really mentally not good at all. I do see now why the soldiers who have been in war awhile are getting psychiatric help. We did not. There was something wrong with us.”
Kinney returned to combat during September and most of October, before he was granted a 21-day leave to return home to see about a young lady who grew up about a mile away from him and his 11 siblings in Cullman County. The two met while attending school in Hanceville.
He would marry Elena Harris in September of 1945 and they would go on to raise six children.
Kinney was honorably discharged from the Army two months later. He worked for U.S. Steel in Birmingham from 1947 until his retirement in 1982. He and Elena raised six children and Elena and many members of his family were still by his side at the Feb. 5 ceremony.
Commander Rivers inscribed the Marauders’ crest on one side of the Kinney Ranger Base coin. A picture of Kinney is
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inscribed on the other side.
“He is our guy,’’ said Rivers.
Formed one year ago as the Ranger’s first Gulf Coast satellite base, the local group usually attracts 15 to 20 Rangers to the Flora-Bama the first Saturday of every month beginning around noon. Wives are invited.
“We needed a base somewhere on the panhandle of Florida and the national association prefers that we find a reputable and sometimes infamous venue that is also well known,’’ Rivers said.
Having been a Flora-Bama patron for 35 years, Rivers had just the right place in mind. And it certainly helps that Flora-Bama co-owner Cam Price is a second generation Army Ranger.
“Cam didn’t even let me finish before he said let’s do it, and we immediately started to build it,’’ Rivers said.
Fellow Rangers Mike Wagers, Joe Stringham and Art Cobb helped Rivers form the base and were later instrumental and supportive of changing the national association laws to allow a living Ranger’s name to be honored with a base.
Rivers said The Flora-Bama generously provides a meal for the Rangers at their meetings and, if the Rangers promise to root for Army vs. Navy (Price is a West Point grad), a few free drink cards.
Rivers said the base’s primary mission, in addition to getting together to drink beer and swap stories, is to look out for the physical and mental well being of its membership. Any funds it raises are presented to the national organization.
Rivers said he and every other Ranger who has qualified for the elite fraternity are in awe of the courage displayed by the Marauders. They feel the same about the companies of the 2nd Ranger Battalion who fought to secure Omaha Beach during the Battle of Normandy and the Rangers who scaled the 100-foot promontory with nothing more than ropes and rickety ladders, as enemy gunfire and grenades rained down, picking them off as they climbed during the battle for Pointe du Hoc.
The story of how those Rangers secured that strategic high ground and silenced a small battery of long-range German guns became one of the most heroic moments of the D-Day invasion and was the basis for the film, “The Longest Day.”
“For a Ranger like me, it was like talking to a living legend,’’ Price said about Kinney’s visit. “I mean this was an opportunity to have a picture taken with one of Merrill’s Marauders – one of the first Army Rangers.
“I was the first to ask to take a picture with him and he was so gracious. He stood for 45 minutes so about 50 other Rangers could get a picture with him. I will always cherish that picture of me and Gabe together.’’
Price said the base “provides fertile ground for comradery to flourish,’’ and that he especially enjoyed meeting of Kinney’s family.
The six Kinney children said for most of their lives, they never knew anything about their father, the war hero and Army Ranger legend when they were growing up.
“One of his daughters said she never knew about all of that, but she always did feel safe around him,’’ Price said.
All Rangers and their guests are welcome at the group’s monthly meetings. For more info, email florabamarangerbase@aol.com or call Commander Rivers at 850-393-4224.