SISLER MONUMENT GETS BRONZE PLAQUE

by Gary Exelby - Daily Statesman Editor

"For conspicuous gallantry..."    That's how the citation to accompany the nation'shighest honor starts.  But a plaque commemorating the posthumous award of the Medal of Honor to Dexter native George K. "Ken" Sisler has been missing from the memorial in front of Keller Libary (in Dexter) for several years.  

Now however, there is a new plaque.  So friends and family of Sisler came to the library Community Room yesterday afternoon to view the item at the back of the statue.   And to remember Sisler, who died in a successful effort to save his unit from being over-run by enemy attack on Feb. 7, 1967.  "This is a day for us to honor our own Ken Sisler," said Dexter mayor Joe Weber, "who gave his life in Vietnam to prevent the spread of Communism in that area and assisted preserving freedom in this country." Weber said Sisler, who served in the Army as a first lieutenant until his death, had followed his dream.  "And while training and discipline mean a lot," he said, "you hae to stay focused, particularly when you are saving lives."

M.A. Hart of Dexter described how the new plaque came into being.  "When the monument was dedicated on June 29, 2002, the citation was put in the back under plexiglas," he said.  However, it was not long before water had gotten under the plexiglas and caused deterioration to the citation.  So it was removed, leaving a noticable vacancy in the monument.

In June 2005, Hart said, a relative who had come to Dexter for the annual Hart family reunion heard of the hole in the back of the monument.  "And that disturbed him," Hart said of the unnamed relative --    "He told me before he left that he was going to do something about it." 

He continued by telling the packed community room the unnamed  relative - "he wants to remain anonymous" - had arranged to have the bronze plaque built. "Through the winter he kept me posted on it," Hart said, "and in March it showed up at the library.  "I don't know how much it cost or where it came from."

Dexter attorney John W. Ringer told the crowd of the young Ken Sisler he had known when both were boys.  "He always had a spring in his step," he said, " and he was easily embarrassed.    "I used to call out: "Hey, George!" and he'd turn red -- he never liked 'George'.      Ringer said Sisler, born in 1937, had become a smoke jumper before joining the Army, having attended college at both Southeast Missouri State and Arkansas State Universities.   "He'd be embarrassed (by the plaque and memorial)," said his sister, Becky Sisler Wilson. "But he'd also be thrilled."

Wilson said she took her four sons to the Vietnam War Memorial in the nation's capital, and found it most striking. "It's just a big black wall," she said, "just like they say."     But it stopped me in my tracks.. There are so many names, and I realized as I was reading them, each one was a brother, a sons, a father.

The President of the United Stares of America, authorized by Act of Con­gress.
March 3. 1863, has awarded in the name of The Congress the Medal of Honor, posthumously, to

First Lieutenant George K.  Sisler United States Army

First Lieutenant Sisler, Headquarters  and Headquarters Company, Fifth Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity  at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty in the Republic of Vietnam on 7 February 1967.  Lieutenant Sisler was the platoon leader/advisor to a Special  United States/Vietnam exploitation force.  While on patrol deep within enemy dominated territory, Lieutenant Sisler’s platoon was attacked from three sides by a company sized enemy force. Lieuten­ant Sisler quickly rallied his men, deployed them to a better defensive position, called for air strikes, and moved among his men to encourage and direct their efforts.