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Ronald E. Rounds |
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No. 633527 • 8 Apr 1930 – 30 Dec
1951
Died: Died in an airplane crash near Phoenix, AZ
Buried: Interred in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Los
Angeles County, CA
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On 30 Dec 1951, RONALD EDWARD ROUNDS
died as a cadet in a tragic air crash of an Air
Force C-47. Nineteen other cadets and several crew members also perished.
Ronnie was born in Inglewood, CA, to
Ronald F. and Alice (Frame) Rounds. It was
a close-knit family; Ron was especially close
to his sister Joanne. Before he entered high
school, Rounds was president of the student
body and editor of the school yearbook. He
also was active in clubs, played centerfield
in baseball and showed an interest in speech
and dramatics. His father was a manager for
Southern California Edison, and the family
moved several times. Rounds’ first high school
was in Porterville, CA, where he learned to
fish, grow potatoes for pin money, and play
football. The family then moved to Delano,
CA, where he attended and graduated from
Delano High School.
Ron Rounds was an active member of his
high school. He was an excellent student and
played football and track. He was business
manager of the school yearbook and, during
his senior year, was president of the Masque and
Gavel Club, a dramatics club. He also starred
in the junior play, “Our Town.” During his formative
years, he declared his ambition: “To put
my footprints in the sands of time.” His friends
said he was articulate, and he had impeccable
posture that made him imposing and possibly
heralded his attendance at the Point.
Following graduation from high school,
Ron ran in the West Coast Relays, attended
Bakersfield College for electrical engineering,
and joined the California National Guard. It
seems that it may have been more apparent
that war clouds were gathering in Southeast
Asia and the Korean peninsula to those living
on the West Coast. As it turned out, however,
Ron missed the call-up for the Korean War by
32 miles. The 40th division was called up, but
Ron’s division, the 49th, was not. Through a
National Guard competitive appointment,
Ron entered West Point.
Ron Rounds began his life at West Point on
5 Jul 1950. He made it through Beast Barracks
and was assigned by height to Company I-1,
in the 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment. I-1 was the
flanker company of the regiment’s runt battalion.
There was a good measure of esprit de
corps in this company, which was housed in
South Area.
During his year and a half at West Point,
CDT Rounds’ life was routine. He was an excellent
student and a budding “hive.” He often
provided academic assistance to his less fortunate
classmates, even upperclassmen. A classmate
reported, “I do not say it lightly—Ronnie
was a mathematical genius.” In an engineering
course taught by COL “Archie” Higdon, who
had also co-authored the course text, Ron revealed
his potential. The assignment for the
day involved memorizing a formula because its
proof was beyond the scope of the text. CDT
Rounds was so busy helping upperclassmen
the night before, he did not look at the text,
let alone memorize the key formula. Upon
the command “Take Boards,” the rest of the
section quickly wrote the formula on their
board—all except CDT Rounds, who did not
know it. When the rest of the section sat down,
Rounds was trying to derive the formula on
the blackboard. COL Higdon gave the class a
“sshhh” sign and everybody watched the effort
for what seemed like an eternity. Minutes before
the bell rang, Ronnie put his eraser down
and wrote the formula. COL Higdon put
his arm on Ronnie’s shoulder and said, “Mr.
Rounds, that is the finest example of academic
genius that I have had the pleasure of witnessing.
You accomplished in 40 minutes what
it took Higdon and Styles days to derive and
then two full written pages to present. Now,
we shall have to rewrite our book!”
Ron also helped in the Class of 1951 100th
Nite Show and played intramural track and
football. He joined the Radio Club so he could
communicate with his sister Joanne, who
was attending the University of California at
Berkley. He also joined the Mormon (Latter
Day Saints) church group at West Point. ( This
proved to be a great comfort to his father after
CDT Rounds’ unfortunate death.)
One cadet, who was an underclassman
when Ron was a yearling, said that “it seems
to me that he was universally liked by all,
plebes as well as others …. He was so vivacious,
more so than many others. He had
a winning smile and laughter that were
frequently apparent. I also noted that among
the upperclassmen he seemed … to have
a sense of justice about how plebes should
be treated.”
In letters to his sister that final semester,
Ron described his life at West Point as one of
great value; he was happy. He felt the Point’s
value system was right, and the experiences and
instruction were helpful. He commented on
placing often in the 440-yard run (now sprint)
in intramural track. He showed remarkable
understanding of football in the fall of 1951.
He analyzed key plays to
his sister and her husband-to-be, who was a football
player at Berkley and later
for the Philadelphia Eagles.
All the potential recorded
above came to an end
on that fateful day in December
1951, when Ron and
many other West Pointers
died in an airplane crash, returning from
Christmas leave. Ronald Rounds is not forgotten,
not by his companymates, high school
classmates, or the community of Delano, CA.
Recently, he was remembered in the Delano
Record, his hometown newspaper. He was
remembered at the 56th reunion of his high
school class.There is a street named for him in
Delano, and a memorial fountain stands in the
quadrangle of his high school.
He did achieve his ambition,
“To put his footprints in the
sands of time.”
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— Melvyn Remus, classmate
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Originally published in JANUARY / FEBRUARY
2007 TAPS |
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