I am Sherrod Emerson Skinner III, so I am related to Sherrod Emerson Skinner II. I am his nephew and I’m not quite sure where this is going to go and I hope I can get through it. First, I wanted to send greetings and love from my dad who was also a Krok. He was my uncle’s twin brother and he’s had some rough times, and can’t move, can’t get out of a wheelchair, couldn’t get here. But he wanted to be remembered to you because this group meant a lot to him. I didn’t know my uncle. He died before I was born, but I’ve carried his legacy because I carried his name. I’ve often been seen as him. I can’t tell you how many times my grandfather cussed me out for something my uncle did!  My uncle was enough a part of my life that it came down to when I was in high school, was I going to play basketball like my dad or wrestle like my uncle? I wrestled. That is one of the things I do not thank him for!  Any of you who have ever wrestled know what I mean. I was out with my dad for a week in February and was digging through family papers and all kinds of stuff.  I found out some things about my uncle. In fact, I hope anyone here who is a contemporary and has some things to share about him, I hope they will, because as I say, I never met him. I found out two things about him, or two elements that pointed to one thing about him. Apparently, he was a pretty wild guy, crazy. One thing I found out that was having never skied before, he went with a friend to the top of Tuckerman’s Ravine and said, “I’ll ski down with you!”  I don’t know if you know Tuckerman’s Ravine but it’s hellacious—people die on this thing—and he, having never skied before just slapped the skis on. Went down. And at the bottom he said, “You know, it was kind of fun. Let’s do it again!” That captured my uncle for sure. The other thing I discovered as I was going through papers is that he was enough of a wild man that he didn’t manage to complete all of his courses by the time of graduation. In fact, he got one of those empty diploma folders! And a lovely letter from the dean saying, Rod, I’m sure you should know that this disappoints me more than it disappoints you that you will not be graduating with your class. But the interesting thing is that in the Korean War that wildness distilled to bravery. Distilled to courage. And my uncle died there saving his men. I don’t know if you know this story but he was in the trenches and they were calling in all kinds of troops, the Koreans were, and he was calling in fire, and at some point—it was pretty rough.  He told his men to play dead because that was the only way they were going to survive the on-rush of the South Koreans. And they did a pretty good job of faking it and then at one point one of the Koreans decided to throw a grenade in just to make sure. My uncle covered the grenade with his body to save all of his men. So the legacy I carry with me has a lot to do with him and a damn good time, and also doing the right thing under pressure and under fire. A lot of people say I look like my uncle. I don’t know if that’s true. I know that certain people at different memorial services have said they can’t really talk to me because it’s too much of a resonance for them at that point. I do know that I had a really seminal moment where I listened to a recording of the Kroks—I think it’s ’52—and I heard my uncle’s voice for the first time singing. And it sounded like my voice, and I felt like I connected with my uncle deeply. You know, there’s that saying, Speak and I will know you. Sing and I will know you. And I heard that voice, and I said, Yeah, ok, now I really get it. And so I don’t know, I didn’t meet my uncle but I like to think that when I was a freshman floundering around, trying to figure out what the heck I was going to do with my life at Harvard and not really feeling as though I really belonged there—I was the mistake in the admissions process! But I like to think that it might have been my uncle’s hand that was sort of guiding me to that Krok audition, to take a shot, take a chance, see if I could get into this group that had just completely blown me away during freshman orientation. I’d like to think therefore that it was my uncle who might have led me to—playing off of what Zorba said — this band of brothers, these guys, I love them more than anything in the world! So thank you.

-From Sherrod Emerson Skinner III at the 60th Anniversary Memorial Service

Sherrod Emerson Skinner Jr. (July 28, 1926 – October 26, 1952) was a United States Marine Corps officer who sacrificed his life in defense of his outpost and fellow Marines on “The Hook” in Korea. For his actions on October 26, 1952, 1stLt Skinner was posthumously awarded the United States of America’s highest military honor – the Medal of Honor.

Biography
Sherrod Emerson Skinner Jr. was born October 29, 1929 in Hartford, Connecticut. He attended grammar school in East Lansing, Michigan. In 1947, he graduated from Milton Academy, Milton, Massachusetts, and entered Harvard University. While at Harvard, he and his twin brother, Mark, entered the Marine Corps Reserve Platoon Leaders program, serving on active duty during the summers of 1948 and 1949. He was appointed a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve on October 9, 1951 and ordered to active duty the following day.

In March 1952, after completing the Marine Officers Basic School at Quantico, Virginia, 2ndLt Skinner entered the Battery Officer Course in the Artillery School, Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and completed the artillery course in July 1952. He then trained at Camp Pendleton, California, until he left for Korea.

Second Lieutenant Skinner was a forward artillery observer with the 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division, in a vital forward outpost when it was attacked by the enemy under cover of heavy artillery fire. He continued the defense of the position until ammunition was exhausted and then directed his men to feign death as the enemy overran the position. When a grenade was thrown among the Marines, he threw himself on it, sacrificing his own life to protect his men.

His parents were notified by General Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., Commandant of the Marine Corps, that their son was the 25th Marine to be awarded the nation’s highest decoration since the start of the Korean War. The medal was presented to his parents at the Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C. by then-Vice President Richard Nixon on September 9, 1953.

Second Lieutenant Skinner’s remains were returned to Arlington National Cemetery for burial in January 1953. His grave can be found in section 3, lot 2032.

Decorations
In addition to the Medal of Honor and Purple Heart, 2dLt Skinner was entitled to the Korean Service Medal with one bronze star and the United Nations Service Medal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherrod_E._Skinner_Jr.