Author Topic: Great Americans  (Read 153496 times)

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #100 on: December 28, 2011, 03:03:58 PM »
What a terrific kid.

Boy Greets Troops at Airport
Updated: Tuesday, 27 Dec 2011, 6:23 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 27 Dec 2011, 6:02 PM EST
Julia
Reynolds
By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF/myfoxatlanta

ATLANTA - Returning troops at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta are getting a big morale boost from a little boy on a mission.

Cody Jackson, dressed in fatigues, walked through the airport Tuesday and saluted each soldier he ran across.

“I told them, ‘Thank you for protecting us,’” said Jackson.

Jackson, nicknamed “One Boy USO,” also gave the troops a piece of candy. The boy said that his grandfather served in the military, and wants to let those serving know how much he appreciates it.

Cody’s mother, Kelly Jackson, said her son began saluting troops at a Wal-Mart one day and it soon spread to the airport.

“It just turned into a tradition,” Kelly Jackson said. She said he comes to airport about three times a month and greets the troops.

Many of the soldiers Tuesday were returning to the Middle East after a short break. They said they were glad to see Cody’s efforts.

“That’s great. I love to see that. It’s wonderful,” said Army Staff Sgt. Roger Rucker, who was headed to Kuwait.

Cody has a Facebook page dedicated to his mission.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/dpp/news/local_news/Boy-Greets-Troops-at-Airport-20111227-pm-pk

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #101 on: December 28, 2011, 03:04:25 PM »

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #102 on: January 17, 2012, 05:06:49 PM »
Calif. family of fallen Marine given Navy Cross
Published January 17, 2012
Associated Press

 
Jan. 17: US Marine Lance Cpl. Donald J. Hogan, 20, on display at the memorial service.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. –  A Marine who died from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan was awarded the highest honor given to members of the Corps for his heroic actions as he hurled his body into a fellow serviceman and warned the rest of the his squad of the blast.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said Tuesday that 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Donald Hogan is "now part of a part of Marine lore along with the great heroes of the Corps" as he presented the fallen hero's parents with the Navy Cross. He said his actions placed him among the "bravest and finest" in the Marines.


Jan. 17: Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, left, presents the Navy Cross posthumously to the parents of Lance Cpl. Donald J. Hogan, as Hogan's mother, Carla Hogan, wipes tears and father, James Hogan, looks on.

Mabus spoke in front of new barracks at Camp Pendleton that will be named after Hogan, who was from nearby San Clemente, Calif. The barracks will house troops wounded in the war and those resting.

There will be enough rooms to house more than 1,000 Marines.

Hogan was killed in 2009 in Helmand Province in Afghanistan while on patrol. The rifleman had volunteered to wear a metal detector that day and help look for explosive devices.

He spotted a kite string on the road go taut in Taliban territory, a sign that a roadside bomb was about to go off. He flew into into action, hurling his body into a fellow Marine and then running to the road to yell a warning to the rest of his squad before the blast killed him.

Hogan had wanted to join the Marine Corps since he was a young boy.

His father, Jim Hogan, said he was always proud of his son for following in the footsteps of his father, a Marine veteran of three wars from World War II to Vietnam. Speaking at the morning ceremony, Hogan thanked the Marine Corps for helping his son fulfill his lifelong dream.

"We will always be grateful," Jim Hogan said.

His wife wiped a tear after Mabus presented her and her husband the award.

Lt. Col. Terry M. Johnson, the commanding officer of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, said Hogan's fellow troops described him as having "a heart bigger than life, generous, unwavering commitment toward his fellow Marines, loyal, selfless, and always with a smile."

Marine Corps officials had recommended the Silver Star for Hogan, but Mabus said he decided to honor the fallen Marine's legacy with its highest honor because of his dedication in putting himself before his fellow Marines. His actions humbled and awed his fellow troops, Mabus said.

"Lance Cpl. Hogan made a choice that is unimaginable for most of us," Mabus said. "But it was a choice of a Marine."

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/17/calif-family-fallen-marine-given-navy-cross/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #103 on: January 18, 2012, 04:13:12 AM »
James Lovell...

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #104 on: March 10, 2012, 11:30:19 AM »
Another American hero.  The Wolfhounds have lost a number of Soldiers.  Glad he made it home.  

Shelbyville native awarded with Silver Star
Friday, March 9, 2012
By MITCHELL PETTY ~ mpetty@t-g.com

Shelbyville native, Sgt. Michael Moynihan is presented with the Silver Star by Maj. Gen. Daniel Allyn.

(U.S. Army photo)

"FOR GALLANTRY IN ACTION" is engraved on the back of the Silver Star.
Those words now rest atop of Shelbyville native Sgt. Michael Moynihan's heart.

On Monday, March 5, Sgt. Moynihan was awarded the nation's third-highest award for combat bravery at Combat Outpost Monti in the Kunar province of Afghanistan.

The army's narrative accompanying his award says that Sgt. Moynihan took the lead in repelling an intense enemy attack, risking his life repeatedly from Oct. 11 to 13 while he and other troops faced sustained fire.

On Oct. 13, he exposed himself to enemy fire during the heaviest and most coordinated attack. Lives were lost on both sides.

"He called the Saturday before he received the Silver Star to tell his Dad that he was receiving the honor," said Sgt. Moynihan's mother, Kim. "He told his Dad something along the lines that being successful and coming back from the mission were slim to none."

Bravery and a sense of service are traits that run common in the Moynihan family. Sgt. Moynihan is the third brother to serve tours of duty in the Middle East. His brothers Andrew and Timothy have both preceeded him in the Army and Air Force, respectively.

"I'm very proud of my son Michael, the qualities that he exercises in carrying out his duties to the United States Army, comes from the solid foundation in which his father and I have endeavored to give him and his siblings in their upbringing through the Catholic Faith. St. Michael pray for us," Kim said.

One of 10 children, Moynihan is nearing the completion of his second tour of duty in the Middle East. In a few weeks, he will return to his home base in Hawaii.

He is assigned to Company B., 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, "The Wolfhounds."

http://www.t-g.com/story/1824167.html

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #105 on: March 24, 2012, 06:59:45 PM »
Powerful story.  One of the better articles I've read in a while.

A war hero returns home, 40 years later
By John Blake, CNN
updated 4:08 PM EDT, Sat March 24, 2012


(CNN) -- Karl Marlantes stared at the young man through the sights of an M-16 rifle and slid his muddy finger over the curve of the trigger.

Turning toward him, the man locked eyes with Marlantes and froze.

"Don't throw it. Don't throw it," Marlantes whispered, hoping the man would surrender.

Moments earlier, the North Vietnamese soldier had been hurling grenades at a group of U.S. Marines. He was cornered near the top of a hill. Blood streamed down his face from a head wound; the crumpled body of a friend lay at his feet.

Marlantes had slithered undetected to a spot just below the soldier's foxhole. When the soldier popped up, arm cocked to throw another grenade, he spotted Marlantes.

The soldier's dark eyes widened in fear; he looked around for a way out, but there was none; and then he snarled, showing his teeth.

Marlantes watched as the grenade left the soldier's hand and tumbled straight toward him.

'How can you return home?'

He had a family, a big income, and stayed in first-class hotels while jetting off to Europe and the Far East. When companies faced a crisis, they called Marlantes. He was the Ivy-League educated business consultant, the ex-Marine with the medals.

Yet few knew that Marlantes was facing his own crisis. Something was happening to him that neither he, nor his wife or five kids, could understand: There was hardly a day when he wasn't thinking about the secrets he left in Vietnam.

"How can you return home if you've never left?" he once wrote.

Marlantes is 67 now, with thick salt-and-pepper hair, a scruffy goatee and a calm, measured way of talking, but the fatigue can be seen in the lines under his eyes. He's been sorting through his war memories for over 40 years.

He first tried to purge them. He took 33 years to write "Matterhorn," his 2010 debut novel about a Marine unit in Vietnam. He released his combat memoir, "What It is Like to Go to War," last year.

What do you do when you take a young man who had just earned his doctorate in philosophy and place him on the battlefields of Europe during World War II? You get a classic. Gray, who served in a counterintelligence unit during the war, marshals his philosophical training to examine why men are drawn to battle, how they deal with guilt and how war changed him. The book is deeply philosophical and personal. Its influence can clearly be seen in Karl Marlantes' contemporary classic war memoir, "What It Is Like to Go to War."

Few contemporary writers describe the fierce bond that unites men in danger better than Junger. Whether it's the doomed fishermen in "A Perfect Storm," or his inspiring portrait of the late Afghan resistance leader, Ahmad Shah Massoud in "Fire," Junger's stories are rich in detail and testosterone-fueled banter. In "War," Junger follows American soldiers as they try to survive a 15-month deployment at a remote outpost in Afghanistan ringed by the Taliban.

There's a well-known picture of a tanned and shirtless E.B. Sledge, staring vacantly after battle in World War II. The photo, reprinted in Sledge's searing memoir, seemed to say it all. Sledge had seen so much brutality that he would never be the same. Sledge's gripping account of U.S. Marines fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific is harrowing. His description of Marines casually using knives to dig out gold crowns from the mouths of dead Japanese soldiers after battle is unforgettable. Sledge's memoir was part of the inspiration for the HBO miniseries, "The Pacific."

When a U.S. Navy Seal team tracked down and killed Osama bin Laden, America cheered. It's not unusual today to hear of crack American military units tracking down bad guys in remote places to bring them to justice. Bowden's "Black Hawk Down," reminds readers, though, of another time when some of America's finest soldiers were cut to pieces in the winding streets of Somalia when they went after a bad guy. The book is a graphic reminder that no matter how good soldiers are, awful things can still happen when plans go wrong. The book was later made into a hit movie.

Ambrose, the gravel-voiced historian, once said that a relative had accused him of writing books that celebrated American triumphalism. He never denied the charge, and "Band of Brothers" is a superb example. It's a rousing look at an American paratrooper unit that participated in some of the biggest battles in World War II. Their commander came out of central casting: handsome, brave and a natural leader. None of his paratroopers had any moral qualms about the war. There were no racial tensions in the unit. Ambrose' book evoked what seemed to be a simpler time when America was emerging as the world's strongest nation. It still works today, though, because it also captures the brotherhood that all soldiers, not just Americans, share.

Caputo's novel is the polar opposite of "Band of Brothers." It is considered the definitive Vietnam novel. His autographical account of his stint as a Marine combat officer in the early years of Vietnam is considered by many the best book on Vietnam. Perhaps only two other Vietnam books -- "Dispatches" and "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young," are as popular.

During the last days of World War II, German soldiers desperately sought out American and British units in order to surrender. There was a reason that they were afraid of surrendering to advancing Russian soldiers -- they might not survive. The war on the Eastern front was waged without pity. Some have called it the clash of titans because the huge number of soldiers and tanks involved. Biderman's account is considered one of the finest descriptions of that clash from the ground level. He survived five years of combat on arguably the cruelest terrain in World War II.

Both books have been hailed as war classics. "Matterhorn" became a New York Times bestseller. Critics described his memoir as "spellbinding" and "staggeringly beautiful." Marlantes was invited to speak at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy.

Marlantes accepted so many speaking requests that a three-week stretch is the longest he's spent at home during the last two years. But Marlantes' books aren't just memoirs. They're warnings.
What Marlantes faced may soon afflict the families and friends of thousands of American soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. The nation is facing a post-traumatic stress disorder "epidemic," a recent U.S. Army study concluded.

The study says that about 472,000 Afghan and Iraq veterans are suffering from PTSD, which includes symptoms such as inexplicable bursts of anger, depression, and memory loss. The U.S. Army sergeant recently arrested for allegedly gunning down 16 Afghan villagers, including women and babies, had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and PTSD. He was on his fourth deployment. Veterans carry invisible wounds, Marlantes says, but so do their loved ones.

"For every veteran who goes through a divorce, a wife goes through one, too," he writes near the beginning of his memoir. "For every veteran alone in the basement, there is a wife upstairs, bewildered, isolated and in despair from the dark clouds of war that hangs over family life."

Those clouds of war can take a decade to engulf a veteran. Marlantes didn't have his first flashback until about 15 years after he left Vietnam, when he walked into a business meeting one day and saw a pile of mangled bodies on the conference table.

"When the peace treaty is signed, the war isn't over for the veterans, or the family," he says. "It's just starting."

Families can prepare for that burden, he says, but they must first understand some uncomfortable truths: War isn't just hell. It can also be exhilarating.

. . . .

more . . . .

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/24/living/karl-marlantes-war-books/index.html?hpt=hp_c2


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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #106 on: May 08, 2012, 09:39:05 AM »
Governor orders flags at half-staff Thursday for Army pilot
By Star-Advertiser staff
POSTED: 04:30 p.m. HST, May 07, 2012
LAST UPDATED: 09:57 p.m. HST, May 07, 2012

Gov. Neil Abercrombie ordered that all national and Hawaii flags at state offices and agencies and the Hawaii National Guard are to be flown at half-staff on Thursday in memory of Chief Warrant Officer 2 Don C. Viray, an Army helicopter pilot killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on April 19.

Viray, 25, was a native of Waipahu and a graduate of Roosevelt High School.

A memorial service will be held Thursday at Borthwick Mortuary. Visitation is at 9 a.m. and a service is at 10 a.m. Viray will be laid to rest at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

"We honor Chief Warrant Officer 2 Viray and all of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice as a result of their duty to the nation and fellow soldiers," Abercrombie said in a news release Monday. "My deepest sympathies go out to CW2 Viray's family and friends."

Also killed in the helicopter crash were Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nicholas S. Johnson, 27, of San Diego; Spc. Dean R. Shaffer, 23, of Pekin, Ill.; and Spc. Chris J. Workman, 33, of Boise, Idaho. The soldiers were with A Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, out of Wheeler Army Airfield.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/150532945.html?id=150532945

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #107 on: May 09, 2012, 03:40:16 AM »
This Army Helicopter Medic Rescued More Than A Dozen Soldiers During A Deadly 60 Hour Mission
Robert Johnson    | 13 minutes ago | 8 |

inShare

 
 
A A A

Jay Sauceda for The Daily
When Army Sgt. Julia Bringloe received the Distinguished Flying Cross during a Manhattan ceremony last week it wasn't really for any one particular thing that she did.
Bringloe, 39, received the honor for dozens of courageous acts performed during a 60-hour mission where she and her medevac crew rescued 14 wounded soldiers. The Flying Cross recognizes "extraordinary achievement for an aerial flight."
Erik German from The Daily talked to Bringloe and her helicopter crew about Operation Hammerdown and

Jay Sauceda for The Daily
Army Sgt. Julia Bringloe
the nearly three days they spent flying into, hovering above, and dropping in, to extreme danger and live combat. 
Operation Hammerdown launched as an effort to wipe out insurgent training camps near the Pech River Valley in Afghanistan. It turned into one big, long firefight that absorbed all the lifesaving resources the Army could provide.
Almost immediately U.S. troops began suffering casualties and Bringloe's UH-60 Black Hawk was called in to rescue downed troops. With her crew's sister ship taken out of action early, Bringloe and three person crew became the only medevac chopper in the area — responsible for rescuing every badly wounded soldier — and there were a lot of them.
On the first day while flying in the thin, sparing air at 10,000 feet, her chopper's blades desperate to find purchase and provide lift, Bringloe was lowered more than 15-stories to the ground.
On the rocky soil, she hauled a wounded soldier from his stretcher and hooked him to her cable for the ride 150 feet back up into the chopper, which was still desperately clawing for purchase in the rarefied air.
As the hoist pulled them up, the cable swung Bringloe and her patient straight into a nearby tree where she swung her body around to protect his, breaking her leg.
“In some of the write-ups I’ve seen you would think my leg was dangling off of (my torso),” Bringloe told Paul Ghiringhelli at the Fort Drum paper. “But really it was just a small fracture.”
Back at base when Bringloe brought the wounded to the infirmary, one of her pilots, Chief Warrant Officer Erik Sabiston noticed her leg, and asked her if she needed to quit.
Bringloe said it wasn't an option. “I was the only medic in the valley and it was a huge mission,” she told The Daily.
And a very different mission than she faced just four years before when she was still a Hawaiian carpenter doing her best to raise her son and get along with her ex. But that life was likely far from her mind on June 25, 2011 when she clambered back into the Black Hawk and flew straight back into the fray.
Back where she'd broken her leg, Bringloe was dropped down again to rescue a fallen Afghan translator who needed to be lifted out before troops in the structure below could move on.
Pilot Sabiston slipped the Black Hack into a hover that locked him eye-to-eye with enemy insurgents on a ridgeline about 70 feet from the house below. The site was a frenzy of gunfire.
“As soon as she hit the ground she was in a no-lie, real-deal firefight,” Sabiston said.
A nearby Apache gunship pilot radioed Bringloe's crew,  “Medevac, you guys are crazy.”
Helping her strap the dead translator to the line while she stayed behind, soldiers on the ground had to remind Bringloe to duck. “Somehow I think I’m impervious to bullets or something,” she said.
With the translator's body safely aboard the Black Hawk above, Bringloe latched herself to the now vacant cable. The insurgents on the ridgeline promptly concentrated their fire on her dangling form.
The high velocity rounds streamed past her as she rose, and sounded like "a kind of whistling" she later explained. Troops below radioed to Sabiston above, “They’re shooting at your medic! Get out of here!”
Unable to alter his position or risk dragging Bringloe into another tree, Sabiston had to remain hovering for a full 15 seconds while half-a-dozen insurgents pounded round after round at Bringloe on the rising cable.
Breaking out the only weapon available, co-pilot CWO Ken Brodhead chambered a round in a nearby M4 and began firing from his window.

Though she doesn't know how much it helped, Bringloe said “I thought it was pretty funny though. I love that guy.”

Sgt. Julia Bringloe joins only six other women to have received the Distinguished Flying Cross, including Amelia Earhart.

The award was struck in 1927 and has since been bestowed upon Charles Lindbergh, George H.W. Bush, and Admiral Richard Byrd among others.

Dos Equis

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #108 on: May 15, 2012, 08:09:21 AM »
Marine's final act of valor saved friend from plane wreck
Published May 14, 2012
FoxNews.com

Marine Austin Anderson during a 2010 interview for a student-produced documentary at Oral Roberts University (Vimeo/Brooke Ninowski)

An Oklahoma Marine made the ultimate sacrifice when he pulled a friend out of a fiery plane wreck, saving her life but suffering fatal burns over 90 percent of his body.

Friends of Hannah Luce, the lone survivor of Friday's crash of a twin-engine Cessna 401 just northwest of Chanute, Kan., hailed Austin Anderson as a hero who gave his life without a second thought. The pair was among five young adults bound from Tulsa for a Christian youth group conference in Iowa.

“He is a very tough guy, but once you got to know he was such much of a teddy bear,” Lauren Rockett said of the man she got to know at Oral Roberts University. “It would be totally like Austin's character.”

“It would be totally like Austin's character.”

- Lauren Rockett, friend of hero Austin Anderson

Three companions aboard the flight, Stephen Luth, Luke Sheets and Garrett Coble, died instantly, but Anderson, 27, and Luce, 22, survived the crash. Luce was trapped inside the burning fuselage, but Anderson managed to pull her out and guide her to a nearby road. Luce had a passerby call her father while they waited for an ambulance, which then took them to a Wichita hospital. Anderson died there early Saturday morning.

Hannah is being treated for severe burns over 28 percent of her body. She was scheduled to undergo skin graft surgery on Monday.

"The way I discovered about my daughter and the plane accident was probably the most unscripted way you could imagine," Ron Luce said Sunday during a news conference at University of Kansas Hospital. "I asked [the woman], where's the plane? She said it's off in the distance, and there are flames, there's smoke."

Luce said he asked his daughter about reports that Anderson had pulled her from the wreckage, but "she just began to tear up" and didn't respond.

"I know Austin, he's that kind of guy," Ron Luce said. "He served two tours in Iraq, and he was willing to give his life for his country. He was willing to give his life for a friend. He was always willing to go that extra mile."

Anderson had just being hired for a Christian group called Teen Mania. Rockett said she wasn't surprised when she heard Anderson had saved a life with little regard for his own. Rockett’s classmate, Brooke Ninowski, created a documentary more than a year ago about Anderson’s life for a class assignment. In the film, Anderson spoke of feeling "fearless" because he has God’s help. 

“That's one of the only comforting thoughts that he knew before he died, that he had a relationship with God," said Rockett. 

Anderson served in Iraq before attending Oral Roberts University, where Luce also attended and graduated from last year with a degree in theology.

The five were flying to an "Acquire the Fire" Christian rally in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was the last of 33 such events this year held across the U.S. by Teen Mania Ministries, which was founded 25 years ago by Ron Luce, with the goal of reaching out to troubled youths. The ministry is based in Garden Valley, Texas, where the Luce family lives.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/14/marine-commits-final-act-valor-saving-friend-from-plane-wreck/

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #109 on: May 15, 2012, 08:28:00 PM »
Four decades later, Medal of Honor for newlywed hero's sacrifice
By Larry Shaughnessy, CNN Pentagon Producer
updated 11:03 PM EDT, Tue May 15, 2012

Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr. and Rose Mary on their wedding day in 1969. He died heroically in Cambodia a few months later.

Washington (CNN) -- Rose Mary Sabo Brown spent just 30 days with her new husband, Army Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr., before he shipped out to fight in Vietnam. But from that month together in 1969 grew a lifetime of love.

"We got married in September, he got to come home that weekend, and we spent the night together, and he had to go back to Georgia the next day," Rose told CNN. After that, Sabo was off to training before returning home for 30 days that fall.

"We only had that one month together as a married couple," she told CNN. "He left for Vietnam, and I never saw him again."

About seven months after the wedding, two soldiers knocked on the door of her home in western Pennsylvania to say he was missing in action.

"They came back to me five days later and told me that he was killed in action by enemy fire, and that was it. That's all I knew for 32 years."

There was a lot more to know, and now the nation is honoring what he did those decades ago. On Wednesday President Barack Obama will award Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr. the Medal of Honor.

Brown said her husband was fun-loving. "The Leslie I knew was always goofing around, having fun. We had a ball together, my family adored him. Oh my gosh, my mother keeps saying, 'You couldn't have found anybody better than him to marry my daughter.'"

I've never stopped thinking about him

Rose Mary Sabo Brown, widow of Army Spec. Leslie Sabo Jr.

The people he fought with in the 101st Airborne Division told Rose that he knew when to put aside the goofing and focus on fighting.

"When he was over there, he wore a red bandanna," she said. "And (his fellow soldiers) said when he put that red bandanna around his forehead, he meant business. He was a soldier. And they have a picture of him with that red bandanna on, and the title of it is 'The Soldier.'"

The Soldier's last stand, near the Se San River in Cambodia on May 10, 1970, is documented by the Department of Defense:

"Even though his platoon was ambushed from all sides by a large enemy force, Sabo charged the enemy position, killing several enemy Soldiers. He then assaulted an enemy flanking force, successfully drawing their fire away from friendly Soldiers and ultimately forcing the enemy to retreat. While securing a re-supply of ammunition, an enemy grenade landed nearby. Specialist Sabo picked it up, threw it, and shielded a wounded comrade with his own body -- absorbing the brunt of the blast and saving his comrade's life.

"Although wounded by the grenade blast, Sabo continued to charge the enemy's bunker. After receiving several serious wounds from automatic weapons fire, he crawled toward the enemy emplacement and, when in position, threw a grenade into the bunker. The resulting explosion silenced the enemy fire, but also ended Specialist Sabo's life."

When Obama presents Rose Mary Sabo Brown with the medal on the pale blue ribbon, it will complete a circle that began 42 years ago right after her husband's death. His unit had recommended him for the Medal of Honor, but somehow it didn't happen. A researcher discovered files about Sabo, and now the earlier oversight has been corrected.

For now, Brown is focused on her late husband and the medal he earned more than four decades ago.

"I've never stopped thinking about him," she said. "My heart is filled with pride that you can't even imagine. It will be an honor to share this with anyone who wants to see it."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/15/us/medal-of-honor-sabo/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #110 on: May 16, 2012, 05:23:32 PM »
Vietnam Hero Awarded Posthumous Medal of Honor

In a White House ceremony, President Obama has posthumously awarded the nation’s highest honor to Army Specialist Leslie Sabo, forty-two years after he sacrificed his life for his unit during an ambush in Vietnam.

On that terrible day in 1970, Specialist Sabo charged toward the enemy, drawing fire away from his unit and saving many lives. During the ensuing battle, he shielded a wounded soldier from a grenade blast with his body and finally, wounded, crawled to the enemy bunker and dropped the grenade that would save his unit but end his own life.

Click below to watch Leslie’s wife Rose Mary and brother George accept the Medal of Honor on behalf of a true American hero.

http://isupportourveterans.com/?p=1230

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #111 on: May 27, 2012, 11:04:55 AM »

More than 3,000 Marines and sailors of 3rd Marine Regiment stand in formation at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe Thursday to re-dedicate their regimental battle colors with awards earned in war and peace over the past 96 years, and to officially mark the regiment’s final planned combat deployment to Afghanistan.



These Marines hold the battle color streamers as they bow their heads in prayer.



Cpl. Garrett J. Carnes, in the wheelchair, is escorted by Sgt. Major Andrew Cece.



A marine salutes the colors.



From left to right, Lance Cpl. David Gipp, Sgt. Ricardo Candelario, Cpl. Sam Gonzalez and Lance Cpl. Steven Stuart hold the colors.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #112 on: May 27, 2012, 11:06:33 AM »

Sgt. Maj. Justin Lehew, left, and Col. Nathan Nastase salute the colors.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #113 on: May 28, 2012, 04:39:51 PM »

Solomon Kam, Post Commander of VFW Post 8616, sits next to Francis Chang, also of VFW Post 8616, with caps held over their hearts as chaplain Capt. Anthony Wiggins, USAF, delivered the invocation to the 24th annual Memorial Day commemoration on the lawn fronting the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium. Over a hundred people gathered for the event, whose theme this year was "Malama Na Wahi Kapu Mau Loa" - "Care for Sacred Places Forever."



Solomon Kam, Post Commander of VFW Post 8616, left, and Francis Chang, also of VFW Post 8616, salute as Emma Benjamin sings the National Anthem behind the colors carried by the Hickam Honor Guard. A Remembrance address was delivered by General Gary North, Commander, Pacific Air Forces, and a seven man firing party of the Hickam Honor Guard fired a 3 volley salute followed by the playing of taps by MSgt Brian Hornbuckle, USAF.



A seven man firing party of the Hickam Honor Guard fired a 3 volley salute during the 24th annual Memorial Day commemoration on the lawn fronting the Natatorium.



MSgt Brian Hornbuckle, USAF, plays taps during the 24th annual Memorial Day commemoration on the lawn fronting the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.



Thomas M. Driskill, Jr., greets Francis Chang, of VFW Post 8616, and Carl Reber of VFW Post 1540, following the 24th annual Memorial Day commemoration on the lawn fronting the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.



Members of the Kau-Tom Post Unit 11 of the American Legion gather near the plaque of the Roll of Honor, with its list of those who died in WWI in service to the United States and Great Britain, following the 24th annual Memorial Day commemoration on the lawn fronting the Waikiki War Memorial Natatorium.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #114 on: May 28, 2012, 05:01:09 PM »
Louis Zamparini:  US Olympian (Berlin):

US air officer:
 survived 40+ days (if i remember correclty) in a half deflated life raft the pacific after crashing plane: POW in Japan, survived countless amounts of torture.

All amercian bad ass

still alive at 94 years old

you got a problem with Louie, you got a problem with yourself   

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #115 on: May 28, 2012, 05:24:03 PM »
Louis Zamparini:  US Olympian (Berlin):

US air officer:
 survived 40+ days (if i remember correclty) in a half deflated life raft the pacific after crashing plane: POW in Japan, survived countless amounts of torture.

All amercian bad ass

still alive at 94 years old

you got a problem with Louie, you got a problem with yourself   

Nice.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #116 on: May 28, 2012, 06:17:00 PM »
Remember my buddy Captain Eric Pallaotoa, West Point Class of 97.  died in Iraq during an ied attack. 

RIP buddy! 

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #118 on: May 28, 2012, 06:41:28 PM »
courant.com/news/custom/newsat3/hc-ctwar-casualty-epaliwoda,0,1123851.story

Courant.com

Capt. Eric Paliwoda

Captain 'Big E' Naturally A Leader

The Hartford Courant

January 7, 2004

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Army Capt. Eric Thomas Paliwoda, who grew up in Farmington and West Hartford, died Jan. 2, 2004 in a mortar attack on his base at Balad, Iraq. He commanded Company B of the 4th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. He was 28 years old.




Growing up in Farmington and West Hartford, Eric Thomas Paliwoda distinguished himself as a student, an athlete and a natural leader.

So when colleges came calling for the 6-foot-6 forward on Conard High School's basketball team, it was the U.S. Military Academy at West Point that won his heart. An Army career followed, and that took Paliwoda, 28, to Iraq.

The friendly captain known as ``Big E'' died there Friday of wounds suffered when insurgents fired mortars into his base at Balad, 50 miles northwest of Baghdad.

``He was a truly patriotic, all-American boy, very personable, tall, athletic, well-liked,'' said John Perotti, a Unionville neighbor whose two sons grew up with Paliwoda. ``You thought someday he might be a U.S. senator.''

Paliwoda commanded Company B of the 4th Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. He was due home in April and intended to marry his fiancee, Wendy Rosen, in June. After the wedding, he planned to earn a master's degree and return to West Point to teach.

``He was very excited,'' said his mother, Mary Paliwoda, of Goodyear and Sedona, Ariz. ``He'd be a wonderful teacher; he had a very commanding presence.''

Those leadership qualities showed themselves early. When someone was needed to lead Irving A. Robbins Middle School students in singing ``Happy Birthday,'' Paliwoda was the one who stepped forward, recalled teacher Ted Lindquist.

At Conard, Paliwoda continued to excel. Although captain of the varsity basketball team, he made time for younger teammates, playing one-on-one with freshmen during his senior year.

He was a good athlete, distinguished by his work ethic. ``In the summers, the rest of us would be fooling around and he would be out on the basketball court,'' said teammate and friend Nicholas Sergi. ``He basically carried our team for a couple of years.''

And when the coach needed him to take on a role that removed him from the limelight, Paliwoda did it because it was for the good of the team, recalled Conard basketball coach John Benyei.

``He was one of the hardest working and most dedicated kids we ever had,'' Benyei said. ``He was the sort of kid that coaches talk about years after they leave because you know they are going to be successful.''

Not surprisingly, colleges courted him. ``He was wildly sought after as a basketball player,'' said Mary Hourdequin, his guidance counselor at Conard. ``He was such an outstanding young man.''

Paliwoda chose the U.S. Military Academy because it seemed the best fit for his personality, Hourdequin said. ``It was really what he wanted,'' she said. ``He was the type of student they were looking for. He had tremendous self-discipline.''

In a 1992 interview with The Courant, shortly after making an oral commitment to play basketball at West Point, Paliwoda said basketball played a minimal role in his decision.

``It came down to education,'' he said at the time. ``You can't compete with a West Point education.''

Paliwoda played basketball his first year at West Point, then switched to football and played tight end until he injured his shoulder. During his last two years, he was a hammer thrower on the track team, winning a league championship.

His outgoing personality made him popular with other cadets and faculty at the military academy, said Col. W. Chris King, a West Point professor who was Paliwoda's adviser. After completing his mandatory five-year commitment to serve, Paliwoda chose to stay in the Army.

``Eric really liked being an officer in the U.S. Army,'' King said. ``He loved [his] troops, and loved taking care of the young men and women he was responsible for.''

Paliwoda's West Point roommate, Capt. Jeffrey Csoka, said Paliwoda was with those men and women when mortar rounds began falling on his command post, fatally wounding him.

``He liked working with soldiers,'' said Csoka, who married Paliwoda's sister, Allison. ``He was a great leader.''

In an effort to better understand Iraq and its people, Paliwoda asked his parents to mail him books about Iraqi culture, his mother said. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Paliwoda's unit lifted a curfew and restricted its patrols to major roads as a show of respect.

As a company commander, Paliwoda negotiated with Iraqi tribal leaders. ``At one point he said he felt like the mayor of the town,'' his mother said.

Many of Paliwoda's friends called West Point after learning of his death and have told King they plan to return to the academy for his funeral and burial.

``He's coming back to West Point,'' King said.

- DAVID OWENS And DANIELA ALTIMARI





Remember his funeral at west point like it was yesterday.   RIP Eric. 

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #119 on: May 28, 2012, 07:10:13 PM »
Gone too soon.  RIP.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #120 on: May 28, 2012, 07:16:41 PM »
Louis Zamparini:  US Olympian (Berlin):

US air officer:
 survived 40+ days (if i remember correclty) in a half deflated life raft the pacific after crashing plane: POW in Japan, survived countless amounts of torture.

All amercian bad ass

still alive at 94 years old

you got a problem with Louie, you got a problem with yourself   
Dude.
Anyone that lived through a Jap POW camp is a certifiable badass. Not to mention surviving for 40 days floating in the pacific ocean.

Mad fucking respect.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #121 on: May 28, 2012, 07:17:56 PM »
Gone too soon.  RIP.

http://www.fallenheroesmemorial.com/oif/profiles/paliwodaerict.html



True.   He was a great friend , an awesome person, a leader, gone too soon,and left many tears.   j went to his funeral at west point at remember ot like it was yesterday.    His GF wound up marrying a friend of his and having a family.    Some think it strange, but ot it worked out.    

still never forget that day at west point cemetery in the snow and winter burying Eric.  

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #122 on: May 28, 2012, 09:21:06 PM »
Dude.
Anyone that lived through a Jap POW camp is a certifiable badass. Not to mention surviving for 40 days floating in the pacific ocean.

Mad fucking respect.

there is a book "unbroken" or "unbreakable" by Laura Hillibran about this. it is incredable, the torture those men withstood is ming boggling.

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #123 on: June 27, 2012, 09:59:49 AM »
World War II vet, 95, finally gets high school diploma
Published June 27, 2012
Associated Press

MUNHALL, Pa. –  A World War II veteran from western Pennsylvania at long last has a high school diploma, earned as a 95th birthday present.

George Hovanec dropped out of school to work, then joined the Marine Corps, serving in a howitzer battalion in Guadalcanal and New Zealand.

Hovanec's family tell WTAE-TV most of his relatives didn't know the family patriarch never graduated. So granddaughter Karen Murray approached Steel Valley High School administrators about a birthday surprise.

Hovanec says he's glad to finally get his diploma 67 years after he came home from World War II.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/27/world-war-ii-vet-5-finally-gets-high-school-diploma/?test=latestnews

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Re: Great Americans
« Reply #124 on: June 27, 2012, 09:03:54 PM »
First black Marines receive nation's highest civilian honor

By Jennifer Griffin
Published June 27, 2012
FoxNews.com

The Army's Buffalo Soldiers and the Air Force's Tuskegee Airmen, or Red Tails, have had their day of recognition. Wednesday the Montford Point Marines had theirs, as the Marine Corps and Congress honored 400 of the first black Marines by giving them the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor.

"This is something we didn't think we'd see in our lifetime," said 1st Sgt. William McDowell, as he received the medals on behalf of the group. He started to cry, remembering those pioneering Marines, who are no longer alive to receive this honor. He then caught himself and laughed, "My commander would have said "suck it up, Marine."

Seventy years ago when these black Marines enlisted, there were still Jim Crow laws in the South. It was 1942 and the height of World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt had ordered the military to enlist blacks the year before. The Marines were the last service to do so.

"When we got off the bus, we had a rude awakening," recalled Montford Point Marine Cpl. James Pack in an interview with Fox News. "I said, "Lord, what did I get myself into?"

The black Marines, many of them arriving from the North, were taken to a segregated -- separate section of Camp LeJeune, N.C., for basic training.

"We knew we were being trained harder," said Lt. Col. Joseph H. Carpenter, in a Marine video made about the surviving Montford Point Marines. "They're going to make us a model to all the other white Marines. Think about it. In fact, we were breaking every record they ever had because they pushed us to the end of endurance where we just couldn't go any further."

The first recruits had to clear five and a half acres of land with their own hands at Montford Point next to the camp where whites were trained on the New River.

"Mosquitoes, rattlesnakes, bears and alligators were at that camp," Robert Hammond, one of the Marines, recalled before receiving his Congressional Gold Medal.

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos, who pushed that these Marines finally be recognized and that Marine histories be rewritten to include their stories, described the discrimination faced by these pioneers.

"Once you crossed the Mason Dixon line," Amos told Fox News, in an exclusive interview. "They were put back, or actually put up, in a coal car, which is right behind the locomotive and that's where they stayed until they arrived in Jacksonville, North Carolina."

At first they were only allowed to provide supplies on the front lines.

"There was a reluctance to put them right in the heat of the battle so for the first little bit they were on the fringes of the battle and they would run ammunition out to the front lines to places like Pelelieu, and eventually Iwo Jima. They would bring back white Marines, who were wounded."

Eventually, they fought side by side with those white Marines when those iconic battles turned tough. Later they broke barriers together back home.

"Only when we left the camp did we feel the sting of discrimination," said former Montford Point Marine Ambassador Theodore Britton Jr. "When the white drivers in Jacksonville refused to take us back to camp, it was white Marines who commandeered the buses [at gunpoint] and drove us back to camp."

One famous former Montford Point Marine became New York City Mayor: David Dinkins.

Many of the 20,000 Montford Point Marines who trained from 1942- 49 have already died. Some are more than 100 years old.

"It's a great honor," said Cpl. Pack, as he started to cry.

For the 400 survivors honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, who were once unequal, today they were beyond equal.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/27/first-black-marines-receive-nation-highest-civilian-honor/?test=latestnews