Ranger Infantry Company of the Korean War

Ranger Hall of Fame

CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE

Nathan Hale is inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame for his outstanding service to the infant United States of America as a Ranger of the Continental Army. During the late summer of 1776 Captain Hale was selected to command a company in Thomas Knowlton's Battalion of Connecticut Rangers. A short while later, General George Washington asked for a Ranger officer to gather intelligence behind British Army lines in New York. Hale quickly volunteered despite a friend's attempt to discourage him. He penetrated British lines, disguised as a schoolmaster. After gathering information on the dispositions of British regiments for about a week, he was compromised and arrested. He proudly admitted that he was an American soldier and that he was spying on his captors. The British commander ordered him to be executed, without trial. The next day, September 22, 1776, as he was being readied for hanging, he declared to his British captors, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country". He was buried in an unmarked, Manhattan, New York grave. He knew that his special mission was extremely dangerous, but he did not hesitate to serve his country with his very life. During the last two hundred years Captain Hale's dying words have become the classic expression of American patriotism.

RANGERS LEAD THE WAY!!!