This Military Service Page was created/owned by
MAJ Mark E Cooper
to remember
Davis, Fred E., Sr., SGM.
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Contact Info
Last Address Fayetteville, NC
Date of Passing Sep 21, 1995
Location of Interment Cumberland Memorial Gardens - Fayetteville, North Carolina
RANGER HALL OF FAME
1994
Sergeant Major Davis distinguished himself throughout his 33-year Army career while serving in combat during three wars in Ranger and Special Operations assignments. Always a volunteer, Sergeant Major Davis served with distinction during World War II as a member of the 3rd Ranger Battalion. While engaged in heavy fighting on the Anzio Beachhead in Italy, he was wounded and subsequently captured by enemy forces. After numerous attempts, Sergeant Major Davis successfully escaped from his German Captors and made his way to Allied Lines. In 1950 during the Korean War, a call for Ranger Volunteers was again issued and Sergeant Major Davis rose to the challenge and joined the 3rd Airborne Ranger Company. After heavy fighting at the battle for "Bloody Nose Ridge", he was recognized for his superior leadership ability and awarded a battlefield commission. Following deactivation of the Airborne Ranger Companies in Korea at the start of Armistice Talks, he served with the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team and then volunteered to return to Korea and participate in extensive Ranger-related Unconventional Warfare activities. These operations served as forerunners for the establishment of Special Warfare Schools and later Special Forces units. After reverting to enlisted rank Sergeant Major Davis served several tours in Vietnam as both A and B Team leaders. Sergeant Major Davis' long and distinguished career reflects great credit on himself, past and present Ranger units, and the military service.
WWII - European Theater of Operations/Sicily Campaign (1943)
From Month/Year
July / 1943
To Month/Year
August / 1943
Description (Sicily Campaign 9 July to 17 August 1943) In preparation for the invasion of Sicily the Allies captured the islands in the Sicilian strait, with aerial bombardment forcing the capitulation of Pantelleria on 11 June 1943. By that time Allied air power had begun the attack on Sicily by bombing defenses and airfields. The invasion itself got under way on the night of 9/10 July with airborne landings that were followed the next day by an amphibious assault. The enemy offered strong resistance, but the Allies had superiority in the air and soon had planes operating from Sicilian bases to support Montgomery’s Eighth Army and Patton’s Seventh.
Interdictory operations against communications in Italy and between Italy and Sicily convinced the enemy that it would be impossible to move strong reinforcements. By 17 August 1943 the Allies were in possession of the island, but they had not been able to prevent a German evacuation across the Strait of Messina.