Valor
Valor Friday
It’s June 1987. An American Air Force SR-71 Blackbird is flying a routine Cold War surveillance mission near Soviet airspace in the Baltic. Just a few seconds away from their turnaround point, while flying at 75,000 feet and about Mach 3, the right engine suddenly explodes. While the aircrew manages the emergency, they are now […]
Valor Friday
The earthly remains of US Army Captain Willibald Bianchi have been identified more than 80 years after he died. Bianchi is notable for having received the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Bataan in 1942. Bianchi died three years later, after surviving unimaginable horrors before he was able to receive the […]
Valor Friday
The above is an artist’s rendering of what a lone survivor looks like. The plane is “Squawkin’ Chicken”, a Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, and on one April day in 1944 it was the only plane from its squadron to return. They set out on a mission with hundreds of other bombers. The mission was especially […]
Valor Friday
After Charlie Kirk’s assassination this week, President Trump announced that he will be posthumously awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I’ve briefly talked about this award in the past, but wanted to delve a bit deeper in this week’s piece. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is one of the highest honors of the American […]
Valor Friday
I wrote about Philip Conran a while back. He’s a personal hero of mine, and the efforts to get his Air Force Cross upgraded to a Medal of Honor continues. News broke a month or so ago that legislation was (again) introduced in Congress to that effect. Closer to home, Conran’s home county of Santa […]
Valor Friday
I talked a while back about one of Norway’s greatest heroes, Captain Gunnar Sønsteby. During World War II, as a member of the Norwegian Resistance, he thrice earned that nation’s highest honor of the War Cross with Swords, among many other awards. The War Cross with Swords is analogous to an American Medal of Honor […]
Valor Friday
For the several thousand men who landed at Normandy on 6 June 1944, many wouldn’t make it to VE Day just shy of one year later. As with the men that fought, the equipment was even more disposable. So it’s unusual that a tank like the M4 Sherman pictured above, named “Bomb”, would make it […]
Valor Friday
If there’s a more Civil War-era name than Galusha Pennypacker, it’s his given name of Uriah Galusha Pennypacker. He was born somewhere in the vicinity of 1840-1844, the dates are uncertain. His gravestone lists 1 June 1842 as a birth year. His family had deep roots in his native Pennsylvania. His great-great-grandfather had immigrated from […]
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