Historical
Valor Friday
Jeff LPH sent an article to me about Lloyd Burke. I’ll post that below, but I did very briefly talk about Colonel Burke before. During my series on the “Most Decorated” men for the various wars and branches, he came up by my count as the most decorated Army officer of the Korean War. Starting […]
Valor Friday
Time for a wee bit of good news for Minnesota. It’s been a rough couple of weeks months years for the state. I spoke about Captain Willibald Bianchi a few months back when it was announced that his remains had been identified and were coming back home. Bianchi you might recall received the Medal of […]
Valor Friday
I’ve talked about some missions where the bulk of the men earned a valor award. Usually this is for some particularly daring mission, usually by a small group. For example, George Glober‘s entire 10-man B-17 crew received the Distinguished Service Cross for a daring photo reconnaissance mission over the enemy-held Wake Island in 1942. In […]
Valor Friday
Last week I talked a bit about fighter aces. One category of ace that is confined to the First World War is that of balloon ace (aka balloon buster). These are the pilots who took out enemy observation balloons. As with the other categories of ace, a balloon ace shot down at least five enemy […]
Royce Williams may get MoH
This coming year’s National Defense Authorization Act has an authorization within it to upgrade Royce Williams’ Navy Cross to the MoH for his one-man battle with several Soviet MiGs during the Korean War. I wrote about him, back here. Since that original article, his Silver Star has been upgraded to a Navy Cross. Were Captain […]
Valor Friday
When it comes to those fighting in the skies, no warriors are more celebrated than the ace. An ace is a fighter pilot who shoots down five enemy aircraft. Each plane shot down is counted as a “kill”, though actually killing your foe isn’t a requirement. Crossing the line to become an ace makes one […]
Valor Friday
One of the first things I do when looking at an American military award recipient as I consider whether to write about them is to read the actual award citation. Sometimes this is easy to find, and other times it can be a bit tricky. It’s generally easier with the higher awards. For example, all […]
Valor Friday
In my studies on the topic of military valor, I’ve become acquainted with the various awards issued by our allies, or at least their top-level decorations. I’ve become quite familiar with the British (and by extension Commonwealth) awards and decorations. The British system is complex, with both civil and military medals as well as other […]
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