Professional Soldiers ® - Bust of Special Forces legend unveiled at Special Operations Museum

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Bust of Special Forces legend unveiled at Special Operations Museum

RELEASE NUMBER: 051006-03
DATE POSTED: OCTOBER 12, 2005

Quote:

Bust of Special Forces legend unveiled at Special Operations Museum
Story by Spc. James P. Hunter
49th Public Affairs Detachment (Airborne)

FAYETTEVILLE, NC (USASOC News Service, Oct. 12, 2005) — The Airborne and Special Operations Museum here unveiled a bust of retired veteran Lt. Gen. William P. Yarborough, a famed World War II, Sept. 30.

Rudi Gresham, Special Forces retiree, believes a former preident's specific motto is the best way to describe the 93 year-old Yarborough.

Former President Ronald Reagan once said, "...there is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit."

Yarborough never minded who got the credit while he led Paratroopers in four successful combat jumps during World War II and helped modernize the U.S. Army Special Forces.

Special Forces Soldiers of the past and the present gathered to witness the unveiling of the bust.

The bust, a sculpture that represents the upper half of the body, stands tall in the museum, sitting upon a podium.

It replicates Yarborough from his uniform name tapes to the top of his Green Beret, featuring the peculiar knife known as the “Yarborough Knife” to his front, the Fifth U.S. Army patch on his shoulder and his master parachutist wings sitting proudly upon his chest.

Originally, Voight Gilmore, Special Forces retiree from Southern Pines, came up with the idea of developing a pair of statues of President John F. Kennedy and Yarborough from when the president made his visit here in 1961, which eventually led to the authorization of the green beret, said Edward Matney, retiree, U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School.

"(Yarborough) convinced President Kennedy that the Green Berets were the answer to the problems in Vietnam," Matney said, "and he wanted to make them distinctive from the rest of the Army."

The idea for the bust came about when the original idea for the sculptures were turned down because of funding, said Matney.

"After the project was turned away because of funding," said Zenos Frudakis, "they wanted to abandon the project."

Frudakis read extensively about the retired general and his outstanding career in special operations and decided he wanted to continue with the sculpting and create the bust.

"It's not all or nothing. It's better to have something in the museum than nothing," he said. "He needs to be here. How can this museum be complete without him?"

Using photographs of Yarborough from the presidential visit in 1961, Frudakis was able to capture the sharp, aggressive and intelligent features.

"I wanted to make this a poetic biography," he said. "I wanted to give him eyes of a piercing falcon, meaning he has a goal that he is going to achieve."

Yarborough achieved a lot during his 36 year career, said Matney.

He was influential in forming airborne forces in the U.S. Army during the early 1940's, said retired Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow, former commanding general of the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Yarborough led Paratroopers in four combat jumps during World War II into Sicily, Salerno and twice into North Africa.

The father of the Green Berets designed the jump wings that all Paratroopers wear today, said Shachnow. The "Yarborough Knife" that all Special Forces troops receive after earning their Green Beret is named after him.

"He was more than just a visionary," Shachnow said. "He was a hands on combat leader who led Paratroopers."

Speaking to a filled auditorium in the museums theater, Shachnow, recited a paragraph from a letter written by President Kennedy to the U.S. Army that approved the wearing of the Green Beret.

"Green Beret: a symbol of excellence, a badge of courage, a mark of distinction and the fight for freedom," Shachnow read.

Past, present and future Soldiers who wear the Green Beret can be grateful and thankful to Yarborough because of his efforts and dedication, he said.

-usasoc-

Congratulations to General Yarborough, this is a well deserved recognition.

I have seen high resolution images of this work in progress and it is outstanding work.
Zenos Frudakis, who did the bust, is an extraordinary sculptor, both in terms of applied skills and as a human.
Zenos called here and asked permission to include the knife in the work. We loaned him one to get details correct with.

Please note, this project continued on because of Zenos, so many thanks to you also Sir.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Harsey

Why isn't he posting here, Bill?

TR

Time for a Visit

It's time to run down there this weekend and view all the new stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Why isn't he posting here, Bill?

TR

I'll call and invite Zenos to this website.

Congratulations to you Bill! Your work of art becoming art! Look forward to seeing the Bronze my next trip to that beautiful museum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CoLawman

Congratulations to you Bill! Your work of art becoming art! Look forward to seeing the Bronze my next trip to that beautiful museum.

Credit first to General Yarborough on this one. He did the important work.

I spoke with Zenos earlier this afternoon and invited him to log on here after telling him about both this website and thread.

Message from Zenos:

Quote:

Zenos was honored to meet and sculpt General Yarborough. In order to create this sculpture, we went to the General's home where Zenos measured General Yarborough's face and head with sculpture calipers while I took photos to be used later in the studio. Research included finding copies of every photograph available of General Yarborough to use in creation of the bust. Jim Phillips played a critical role in providing many additional photographs that were useful, in addition to clothing, the Green Beret, and various -- I am not sure what you call them -- the metal insignias and objects distinctive to General Yarborough. When Zenos had the novel and appropriate idea to include the Yarborough Knife with the bust, we were fortunate to have the assistance both of Bill Harsey and Jim Phillips in this creative endeavor. Zenos felt that the Knife would reflect the "warrior with his weapon", like Excalibur. Although the Knife is cast in bronze and welded onto the sculpture, Zenos also put the Knife there so that people would touch it and make the sculpture interactive.

Zenos brought the bust back to the General's home while it was still in clay so that he could continue to work on it from life. The originator of the idea to create a sculpture of General Yarborough was Voit Gilmore, because he saw Zenos' sculpture of Payne Stewart at Pinehurst. The folks on the Committee, Voit Gilmore, Ed Matney, Norris Hodgkins and Dr. Bruce Warlick, could not have been nicer to work with. The folks at the Museum, John Duvall and especially Sandy Klotz, were truly remarkable.

Some of the clay used to create the the bust of General Yarborough was formerly used by sculptor D.C. French in creation of the Lincoln Memorial. It is a special oil-based clay that gets rolled down and re-used, reincarnated from sculpture to sculpture.

Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to visit your website and to give you some information about the sculpture. We have a few very fine photos of it that I could email you to post if you'd care to do so.

Sincerely and cordially,
Rosalie Frudakis, for Zenos

Ms. Frudakis:

Thank you very much for your kind explanation and details on the creation of the bust.

You and your husband do great work and I have never seen a piece of yours that was not accurate to the last detail and complementary of the subject.

His works remind me on those of Donald DeLue and Larry Ludtke which also honor SF heroes on Fort Bragg.

TR

Rosalie and Zenos,
Thank you for the work you have done to honor General William Yarborough.
It is great work.
I really appreciate your accepting the invitation to join us here and share some of the background behind this sculpture.

This is not an easy group of folks (here at professionalsoldiers.com) to describe to someone else but what I have learned is that they are an amazing group.

Bill

Rosalie and Zenos,

Your work is fantastic! It is great to have you both as members of this site.

De Oppresso Liber

Doc

Thanks, Zenos! We would love to see the photos!

Trivia that begs an answer

Mr. Harsey, I had the pleasure of seeing the sculpture at the museum this past week. The knife made as part of the display has the "Harsey" signature as well as the serial number 0001. My question is (if you can answer it) does the Yarborough family actually have the Yarborough with ser. # 1?

The changes to the museum were excellent.

Just one minor complaint, I took the young kids on that simulator.............the only thing it simulated was motion sickness!:D

Congratulations Gen Yarborough, and Thank You Zenos for honoring him with your sculpture.