Edward Rice Ardery – Colonel, United States Army

Edward Rice “Ted” Ardery, 85, a retired Army colonel who served in three wars and later built power plants for Pepco, died of cancer June 9, 2006, at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington. He was an Alexandria, Virginia, resident.

Colonel Ardery was born in the District and graduated from Culver Military Academy in Indiana in 1939. He received a bachelor’s degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1943 and a master’s degree in civil engineering from MIT in 1949.

During the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, he was commander of A Company, 3rd Army, 11th Armored Division, 56th Armored Engineer Battalion. The 11th Armored Division met elements of the 1st Army in Belgium, ending Nazi attempts to reach Antwerp to divide the Allied forces and retake Belgium and Luxembourg.

After the division liberated the Mauthausen and Gusen concentration camps near Linz, Austria, Colonel Ardery organized care for the survivors. He remained in Europe after the war to aid reconstruction projects, including replacement of many of the bridges destroyed during fighting.

From 1947 to ’48, he worked with Navy surveyors aboard the icebreaker USS Edisto as an observer in Antarctica for a development project code-named Operation Windmill. The mission was to determine whether wheeled planes could land on the continent. He discovered 50 years later that an island surveyed during the expedition was named for him. Ardery Island is a Specially Protected Area for petrels, a kind of bird.

During the Korean War, Colonel Ardery was assigned to the Korean Military Advisory Group. During the Vietnam War, he oversaw maintenance and repair of U.S. facilities throughout Vietnam as chief of Facilities Divisions with 8th Army Headquarters.

Shortly after retiring from the military in 1973, he joined Rummel, Klepper and Kahl Consulting Engineers, for which he supervised construction of Metro’s Farragut North Station and adjacent tunnels. From 1975 to 1994, he was manager of construction for Pepco and was involved with construction of plants.

After retiring a second time, he was involved with several professional organizations, serving on committees dealing with construction and safety issues and publishing articles and papers. He also played golf, bicycled and skied and, in his eighties, was a medal winner in various ski races in Colorado.

His wife, Muriel Moran Ardery, died in 1999.

Survivors include five children, Edward P. Ardery of Arlington, Ann B. Ardery of Alexandria, Richard C. Ardery of Bethesda, Joan Ardery Sullivan of Potomac and Lisa J. Ardery of Atlanta; a sister; and five grandchildren.

ARDERY, EDWARD R., “TED” COL., USA (Ret.)

On Friday, June 9, 2006 of Alexandria, Virginia. Beloved husband of the late Muriel M. Ardery; devoted brother of Ann Ardery Gilmore; loving father of Edward, Ann, Richard, Joan and Lisa Ardery; dear grandfather of Chelsea, Elizabeth, Haley, Meredith and Caroline; father-in-law of Deborah, Tim and Therus

Funeral services with Full Military Honors will be held at Fort Myer Chapel, Fort Myer, Virginia, 0n August 7, 2006 at 11 a.m. with interment to follow in Arlington National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in his memory to the West Point Fund, Association.

Michael Robert Patterson

Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.

Reviewed by: Michael Howard