From the March 12, 2021, Fayetteville (NC) Observer 'We lost a phenomenal paratrooper, leader and airborne legend': The loss of World War II veteran" by Rachael Riley.
Kenneth "Rock" Merritt was well-known around the Fayetteville and Fort Bragg area. He jumped into WW II battles and retired as the 18th Air Corps' top enlisted senior advisor.
He died March 10.
Originally from Oklahoma, Merritt was an 18-year-old mess attendant working with the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He had already gotten the nickname "Rock" by picking up rocks around the camps he was at.
"It was raining. Someone threw me into the cement mixture," Merritt said. "It was powdered and I got out and my uniform would stand up and they dropped hard rock and came up like a rock
Merritt said a general came over and called him "Rock." The name stuck.
When the CCC closed down, he joined the Army at age 19. (He almost joined the Marines, though, as he thought their uniform looked better. The recruiter convince him to join the newly-formed paratroopers unit after saying he could make $50 more a month in it.
"They had a large picture of a paratrooper floating down, and across his reserve was a Thompson submachine gun and the caption below says, 'Are you man enough to fill these boots?' I told them, 'I can fill them boots, and since you're going to give me $50 more we can forget about them Marines."
--GreGen
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