SHIP TO BE NAMED AFTER DEXTER MAN

DEXTER -- Lt. George Kenton Sisler's sister and wife remember him as a daring young man, "the kind of kid who was always looking for excitement."

It was always his way to be in the thick of things, they said, always leading the rest of the group through the next great adventure.

That's why they weren't surprised when on Feb. 7, 1967, he made a single-handed charge using rifle fire and grenades to protect soldiers under his leadership.

Sisler, a platoon leader of a special U.S. Vietnam exploitation force, halted the attack and forced the enemy's withdrawal. He then continued to move about the field, directing air strikes on enemy positions until he was killed.

Said his sister, Rebekah Sisler Wilson of Caruthersville: "It sounds like a John Wayne movie. I can just see him doing that because I knew he'd be in the middle of it just like he was."

She will join former-sister-in-law Jane Sisler and nephews David and Jim Sisler next month when they attend a special ceremony to honor her brother. That's when U.S. Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton is scheduled to dedicate the U.S.N.S. Sisler, a strategic sealift ship, to honor Sisler, one of three Army Medal of Honor recipients to have ships named for them.

The ship will be operated by the Navy's Military Sealift Command and will carry Army personnel, transportation and equipment. It will be stationed at Diego Garcia Atoll, a small island situated east of Africa.

Sisler's heroic life may have been predestined: He was named for ancestor Simon Kenton, a frontiersman who saved Daniel Boone's life and helped settle what are now Ohio and Kentucky.

"He was born for adventure, he really was," said his sister. "It's kind of like another one surfaced."

Sisler's personal adventure began after his 1955 graduation from Dexter High School. He attended Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, where he met his future wife in 1957. After a five-year stint in the Air Force, he returned to ASU in 1962, where he was graduated with a degree in business in 1964.

He returned to the military in 1965 -- this time the Army -- and attended Officer Candidate School, Airborne and Ranger School, and Army Intelligence School at various sites. In June 1966 he was sent to Vietnam.

"We were making it a career; I fully agreed with his choices," said Jane Sisler. "I think I knew (he would die) in January 1967. We met in Hawaii, and I picked up a magazine on the plane and read my horoscope and it said "February 9 will be a day of decision about your future. That was the day I was notified of his death."

She said she was proud of her husband's actions because they embodied his personality. He enjoyed working as an intelligence officer and always gave his best, she said.

Wilson agreed. "It was just his way to lead," she said. "Intelligence officers usually stayed in the back -- they weren't found up front in the thick of things. It didn't surprise me at all to know that's where he was."

Numerous honors have already been made to recognize Sisler's accomplishments. There is already a naval minesweeper named after him, as well as Sisler Rifle Range at ASU and Sisler Hall at Fort Huachuca, the home of the military intelligence school. There is also a Sisler Street at Fort Bragg, N.C., the home of the 5th Special Forces group.

Jane Sisler said the new ship will be the newest and greatest of the honors in her husband's name. It's a fitting tribute, she said, and one he would appreciate.

"He did so many things and I always hoped he would be recognized," she said. "When they named the minesweeper after him I was happy, but the secretary of the Navy said this ship is a really big one -- almost the size of an aircraft carrier.

"It's larger than life, but then, so was he."