On Oct. 17, 2024, President John F. Kennedy’s voice echoed across the hills of Arlington National Cemetery as a recording from a speech he delivered at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, on Oct. 12, 1961, played over loudspeakers. Two lines of U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers stood at attention on either side of the president’s grave. “If freedom is to be saved,” JFK’s voice told the large crowd gathered at his gravesite in Section 45, the United States would need, “a whole new kind of strategy, a wholly different kind of force, and therefore a new and wholly and different kind of military training.”
Attendees included Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer, Special Forces soldiers, President Kennedy’s relatives, retired soldiers and civilians. Acting Superintendent Sherry Love and Sgt. Maj. Donnie Davis represented ANC.
The event commemorated both Kennedy’s visit to Fort Liberty and his state funeral at ANC on Nov. 25, 1963, following his assassination three days earlier. The two events were connected by one object: the green beret.
During Kennedy’s visit to Fort Liberty, he noticed Brig. Gen. William Yarborough’s green beret. Yarborough informed the president that his troops had been trying to obtain these berets; Kennedy approved, and soon the Special Forces became known as the Green Berets. Two years later, when Kennedy was laid to rest, Special Forces Command Sgt. Maj. Francis Ruddy removed his green beret and placed it solemnly on the president’s grave.
At the 2024 ceremony, Jack Schlossberg, Kennedy’s grandson, joined three Special Forces soldiers in laying a wreath. Michael Yarborough, the grandson of Brig. Gen. Yarborough was also in the audience — marking the first time that the two men’s grandchildren attended the annual event together.
Once the wreath had been laid, Sgt. Maj. Michael Zachary Clayton stepped forward, removed his green beret and solemnly placed it at the president’s grave like Command Sgt. Maj. Ruddy before him. He then stood at attention and saluted, looking down at the grave as a final tribute. The U.S. Army Special Operations Command team, led by Lt. Gen. Jon Braga, also paid their respects by slow-saluting the slain president.
After the ceremony, both grandchildren spoke highly of the event. Yarborough, who attended for the first time since his father, also a Green Beret, had passed away, said, “This is like a family event for me,” as he nodded towards a group of retired Special Forces soldiers in berets and green blazers. Schlossberg reflected, “I just thought about the Special Forces’ incredible service and devotion,” he said.
Sgt. Maj. Clayton appreciated the honor of laying his beret at the grave. “We only do this once a year, and only one person gets to do it,” he said, “so I’m extraordinarily humbled and flattered to get to do it.”
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and the president’s niece, recalled her father taking her to Fort Liberty to see the Green Berets in action. “This is very special to me because my uncle and my father believed so deeply in the Green Berets.”
Lt. Gen. Braga credited President Kennedy with helping to create the Green Berets. “It’s amazing to see the impact of one small decision made decades ago making such a difference,” he said.
