Historical
Valor Friday
Longtime readers will know I have a penchant for those with interesting names (Galusha Pennypacker for example) and chaplains. Some of those chaplains I’ve highlighted are; Emil Kapaun, MoH John Whitehead, James Hill, and Milton Haney, Civil War Medals of Honor Francis Hall, Civil War MoH, and Joseph O’Callahan, WWII MoH George Rentz, WWII Navy […]
Valor Friday
A few months back I highlighted the valor of US Army Captain Willibald Bianchi. At the time it was announced he was returning home after 80 years of being missing after being killed in World War II. He’s finally being laid to rest in his home state of Minnesota tomorrow, if you’re near New Ulm. […]
Valor Friday
Of the POWs held by the North Vietnamese during the Vietnam War, there are many recognizable names among the 591 men who survived prolonged captivity to return home. Virtually all of them returned home to promotions (sometimes multiple grades) and received medals (most of them several). Among the survivors, Jeremiah Denton and John McCain became […]
Valor Friday
After yesterday’s noting the passing of Tommy Gwynn, one of the oldest men in Tennessee, I’ve got another legend of the Volunteer State. A good while back Poetrooper (we miss you, brother) crossed paths with a Medal of Honor recipient. Poe was a young Rakkasan in the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. He’d sent me […]
Valor Friday
Guy Bordelon is a unique man. He was a naval aviator, and a fighter ace, but it took him a roundabout way to get there. Along the way he claimed more than one “only” title. Bordelon, hailing from Louisiana, first took pre-law classes at Louisiana Polytechnic Institute, before attending Louisiana State College. In 1942, with […]
Valor Friday
The handsome young officer pictured here is Robert Lewis Simpson. I happened across his story this week and found it interesting. Simpson was the pilot of the first American aircraft lost to enemy action in the skies of Vietnam. It was early in American involvement, 28 August 1962. Simpson had just had his 35th birthday […]
Saturday Shorts
Apparently some form of sanity is infecting the International Olympic Committee. Its President, two-time swimming gold medalist Kirsty Coventry said: “At the Olympic Games, even the smallest margins can be the difference between victory and defeat,” Coventry, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, said in a statement. “So, it is absolutely clear that it […]
Valor Friday
Lars sends us this really cool story about brotherhood within the notoriously bad Nazi prisoner of war camps. The conditions were spartan to say the least for the Western Allies contained within the German stalags. Despite overcrowding (especially late in the war), a lack of medical supplies, and dwindling food, Red Cross packages were still […]
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