Medal of Honor
Sergeant Major Canley, MoH recipient, dies aged 84
After battling cancer for 10 years, retired US Marine Corps Sergeant Major John Canley has passed away. Canley received the Medal of Honor in 2018, fifty years after his heroics in 1968 Vietnam, for which he originally received the Navy Cross. Last year, the Navy named a new Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) ship after him. […]
Valor Friday
The Second Battle of Vailele is a largely forgotten battle in the largely forgotten Second Samoan Civil War. The war occurred in 1898-1899 when Great Britain and the US fought Germany over control of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific. The result of the conflict saw the US being given control over the eastern […]
Valor Friday
During the Cold War there were numerous tales of valor and bravery occurring in places the US officially wasn’t. Francis Gary Powers, a former Air Force captain, was a CIA pilot overflying Russia in a U-2 spy plane when he was shot down and created an international incident with the Soviet Union. After the USS […]
Valor Friday
This week’s article subject comes by way of a request from Ex-PH2. He’s a man worth remembering, that’s for sure. Dwight Johnson was born in Detroit in 1947. He never knew his father. His mother raised him and his younger brother in a housing project in the Motor City. Along the way he got the […]
Valor Friday
William Harvey Carney was a black man born into slavery in Norfolk, Virginia in 1840. He learned to read and write, despite laws making such illegal. It’s unclear exactly how Carney came to freedom. Some accounts say his father escaped via the Underground Railroad and bought his son’s freedom. Other accounts say that he escaped […]
Valor Friday
This week I’ve got another legend of the US Army Dustoff community. Patrick Henry Brady was born in 1936 in South Dakota and grew up in the Washington State area. Brady’s father, during World War II, had served with the famed Darby’s Rangers. During the war his parents became estranged though, and Brady was raised […]
Valor Friday
Born to Croatia immigrants in 1922, Michael Novosel’s life is an incredible story several times over. His mother spoke only Croatian and his father Croatian, German, and English. Croatian was thus the family language, with Michael not learning English until he started primary school. As a boy, one of the few joys or luxuries he […]
Valor Friday
As I’ve discussed before, the Medal of Honor was not limited strictly to combat actions for much of its history. From 1861, the Medal of Honor was the only gallantry decoration for members of the US military, though for officers, they could receive brevet promotions. It wasn’t until 1876 that the US Army created (or […]
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