Richard E. Garner lied about his age when he was 16 so he could fight in the Korean War.
Living at the time in College Park with the aunt and uncle who raised him after his parents died, he simply went down to Fort Benning and talked his way in. By the time his relatives tracked him down, he was in parachute school.
“His commanding officer told them he was thriving, and asked them to give him a chance,” said his son Richard A. Garner of Atlanta. “So they did, and he made a career of the Army.”
Mr. Garner served in Korea; Iran, when it had a U.S.-backed government; then two tours in Vietnam and one in Germany, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in the early 1970s. He was awarded two Bronze Stars for heroism.
He died of cancer Jan. 4. He was 77. A private memorial is planned Sunday at his home in Snellville. He will be buried Jan. 13 with military honors at the Andersonville National Cemetery near Americus, beside his wife, who died in 2002. Tim Stewart Funeral Home, Snellville, is handling arrangements. The family asks that in lieu of flowers donations be sent to ArtReach Foundation’s Project America, dedicated to helping veterans heal their wounds, at www.artreachfoundation.org.
Bill Cochrane, Mr. Garner’s neighbor in Snellville, said the two were good friends “even though I was in the Marines and we ribbed each other all the time.”
Mr. Cochrane convinced Mr. Garner to jump out of an airplane three miles high about a year ago, in tandem with a young jumper. Though Mr. Garner was in the airborne in the Army, paratroopers don’t do free-fall jumps, so this was his first.
“He loved it,” Mr. Cochrane said.
Men who served under him in Vietnam praised Mr. Garner as a hero who cared about his soldiers. Howard Toy of Northridge, Calif., attended a reunion of Mr. Garner’s unit at Fort Benning in 2006. “I was ordered to call him Dick,” Mr. Toy said, describing Mr. Garner as “fearless.”
William Roach of Glendale, Ariz., said he owed his life to Mr. Garner’s deeds in Vietnam.
Michael Garner, another son who lives in Atlanta, said he and his dad were “extremely” close and spoke or got together nearly every day.
“He was the Rock of Gibraltar,” Michael Garner said. “He was always there. I was at that reunion at Fort Benning. I had no idea he was so admired by his men. I was awestruck.”
Mr. Garner grew up in College Park and later lived in Albany before moving back to his hometown.
A third son, Steve Garner of Flowery Branch, said the lie his dad told to get into the Army was likely the only one he ever told. “He just wanted to get in so badly, to serve,” he said.
Daughter Cindy Lott of Loganville said when she went on dates, her dad always made sure she had a dime to make a phone call, and that her boyfriends knew “they would be sorry if I had to use it.” She said many of them were intimidated by her father, and knew not to get out of line.
Son Richard Garner said his dad faced death stoically after his final cancer diagnosis.
He told family members he wanted his cremated remains to be placed in the same kind of box made for their mother, with tokens of remembrance dropped atop the ashes.
“He went down fighting,” Richard Garner said. “He died at home, as he wanted.”
Other survivors include a sister, Mary Boggan of Tucker; and seven grandchildren.
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