Flagpole dedicated to WWII hero

Any time retired U-S Army Col. Ben Skardon steps onto the Clemson University campus, all eyes turn to him.  On Military Appreciation Day at the school, the 98-year old Second World War veteran sat in a crowd of news media and admirers at the foot of the Memorial Stadium flagpole.  That day the flagpole was permanently dedicated to him, and Clemson President James Clements said there couldn’t be a better name to affix to the flagpole.  After graduating from Clemson in 1938, Skardon was commissioned into the Army.  But he became a prisoner of war and lived through the infamous Bataan Death March, in which sick and starving soldiers were forced to march 80 miles through the Philipine jungles.  Thousands died.