Memorial Day is a time to revere the memories of deceased ancestors, relatives and friends who are buried in area cemeteries.

However, for some families there are the deceased from past years, especially veterans and members of the armed forces, who are buried elsewhere in the nation. These final resting places include Fort Snelling National Cemetery and even overseas in Europe and the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

For several area families, one of the people they’ll be honoring on Monday is Col. Richard Lincoln (Dick) Ruble. He’s buried in Arlington National Cemetery, located just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.

He was born Feb. 12, 1923, in Albert Lea. His great-grandfather, John Ruble, and John’s brother, Henry Ruble, were among the city’s first residents.

One of eight children of Harry and Naomi Ruble, he attended Albert Lea High School and graduated in 1941. Besides playing the clarinet in the band, Dick was an avid fisherman and skier. He also participated actively in the Boy Scouts, gaining Eagle Scout status.

One of his older brothers, Harold, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy,

Annapolis, Md. in 1933. This encouraged Dick to seek an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y. He attended junior college in Albert Lea for a year and then attended Cochran-Bryan Preparatory School in Annapolis. Ruble went to West Point in July 1943 and graduated in 1946. (A younger brother, Byron, graduated from the Naval Academy in 1950.)

Upon graduation, Ruble was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps.

During graduation leave, Dick married his childhood sweetheart, Barbara Wayne, in Albert Lea on July 14, 1946.

His first assignment was as a platoon leader in an antiaircraft artillery unit in Japan. After a short time, he received his first taste of intelligence work with Headquarters, 7th Division, in Japan. In early June 1950, Ruble returned to Fort Lewis, Wash., and the 501st AAA Gun Battalion. In 1951, Dick moved to Fort Bliss, Texas, to become a test officer with the Antiaircraft Artillery Board. After completing the Artillery Officer Advanced Course at Fort Sill, Okla., in 1953, he transferred into Military Intelligence. He and Barbara moved to the Army Language School at the Presidio of Monterey, Calif., where Dick studied Japanese for a year. He became an area intelligence officer in Korea in 1955. Barbara joined him In Japan, where Dick transferred in 1956 after a year in Korea.

In 1959, he attended the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and the University of Wisconsin, where he received his master’s degree in geography. In 1962, the Rubles moved to Washington, D.C., where Dick attended language school in Spanish. Dick then traveled back to Fort Leavenworth to serve as an instructor in the newly formed Department of Strategic Subjects.

He volunteered to go to Vietnam in 1966. After serving as commander of Company C, 519th Military Intelligence Battalion ,and commander of

the 149th Military Intelligence Battalion, Dick became the S-2 of the 5th Special Forces Group, the &uot;Green Berets.&uot;

One of the requirements of this unit was to be &uot;airborne qualified. Thus, several Special Forces sergeants were assigned to teach Dick the rudiments of parachuting. After making five jumps from a helicopter at Nha Trang, he was awarded his wings.

After his return to U.S., Col. Ruble the Army War College and then became director of operations, Office of the Chief of Staff for Intelligence, at the Pentagon.

Brigadier Gen. DeWitt C. Armstrong, Retired (USMA Jan ’43) recalled:

&uot;… Dick Ruble was a splendid officer, a most honorable man. His consistently sound judgement won him universal trust, even in the murky field of secret Intelligence activity. He got solid results quickly. … Our association came during a particularly critical time, at the end of the 1960s. Anti-war protesters, a hostile press, an unsupportive Congress, and an aggressively thrusting USSR all complicated the tasks of Army Intelligence. Dick’s stalwart presence in the vortex of all this was a Godsend. Dick’s most lasting contribution, in my view, was in helping bring the Army into unprecedented cooperation with other intelligence organizations, to the profound benefit of all – and the nation he served so faithfully and well.”

(Gen. Armstrong, who is retired and now lives in Alexandria, Va., has a close association with Albert Lea. His father, Brigadier Gen. Clare Hibbs Armstrong (1894-1969), was born in Albert Lea and lived in the city for his first 17 years or so.)

On April 7, 1970, Col. Richard Lincoln Ruble suffered a fatal heart attack at his Fort Belvoir, Va., home. He was survived by his wife, Barbara; four daughters, Laura, Patricia, Janet and Barbara; two sons, David and Richard Jr.; his mother; two sisters; and four brothers.

He was posthumously awarded the Legion of Merit medal.

A memorial article written by members of Ruble’s West Point Class of 1946 to honor his quarter-century of military service commented:

&uot;Dick Ruble loved what he was doing in the Army. He had so much more to offer the country, the Army, his friends and especially his family. He had only one love, his Barbara, with whom he had grown up in Albert Lea; and he always made time to be with her and with his children, upon whom he doted. Dick always kept his marvelous sense of humor and never failed to look at the bright side of things. He felt his talents and abilities were God given and therefore meant to be shared with others. His memory will remain always with those who knew and loved him.&uot;