Medal of Honor
Valor Friday
Harold “Hal” Fritz of Wisconsin was a 25-year old Army armor officer when he earned the Medal of Honor for actions in Vietnam in 1969. He was days away from finishing his tour when he refused to stop leading his men. Not in the face of overwhelming enemy odds, not after he was seriously wounded, […]
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
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
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 […]
Valor Friday
Continuing last week’s theme on exceptionally long service… As I’ve said previously, really, really long service was more common in the 19th Century (in America at least). In the 20th Century, mandatory retirement ages meant that it’s very difficult to spend more than four decades in uniform, but I have noted previous exceptions. My first […]
Valor Friday
In honor of the holiday today, let us take a moment to look at some valor awards earned for actions on America’s Independence Day. Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Charles Capehart earned the Medal of Honor on 4 July 1863 at a little place you might have heard of; Gettysburg. Technically, part of the retreat from […]
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