Distinguished Service Cross
Valor Friday
Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis of Staten Island, NY was on his last day in Afghanistan. It was his third combat deployment, and he was only 24 years old. He’d enlisted seven years prior in the Army infantry, getting his parents’ permission to enlist at 17. Soon after he saw Iraq and then Afghanistan, with this […]
D-Day hero to receive posthumous DSC
We’ve talked about Staff Sergeant Waverly Woodson Jr before. I wrote about him last year for a Valor Friday piece. Click the link to refresh your memory. Ex-PH2 posted about him a few years previous. [Editor’s note: I don’t realize how much I miss some people like Ex until I’m going through old posts and […]
Valor Friday
I briefly mentioned today’s subject when I was talking in detail about another man. Staff Sergeant Rodney Yano earned the Medal of Honor (posthumously) for valor in action while a helicopter crewman over Vietnam. The pilot of the chopper that day was John Bahnsen. Bahnsen was suggested as a Valor Friday candidate in his own […]
Valor Friday
I’ve talked several times about multi-war veterans. Some of those have earned valor awards for gallantry in action in service spanning several decades. Pascal Poolaw was one such man. You’ll recall he earned four Silver Stars and three Purple Hearts. He did so across three different wars, earned a Silver Star and Purple Heart in […]
Valor Friday
Brendan O’Connor’s military service is a tad unorthodox. He started as an officer, but became an enlisted man. Reminds me a bit of Michael Novosel. Born in 1960, he came from a line of military men. His father was Mortimer O’Connor, a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point in, Class of 1953. […]
Valor Friday
A few weeks back, I re-highlighted the bravery of William Othello Wilson. I noted in those articles how Wilson’s heroism surrounding actions at the Battle of Wounded Knee was followed soon after by desertion. He’d ultimately desert twice, but is not the only Medal of Honor recipient to have faced such charges. James Ira Spurrier […]
Valor Friday
Charles Kegelman is one of the “forgotten firsts” of the Second World War. After America entered the war in December 1941, Americans were first pressed into combat in the Pacific Theater immediately. American troops in the Philippines, Hawaii, and Wake Island were embroiled in fighting for their lives before the official declaration of war. In […]
Valor Friday
This week I want to highlight the nine US Army installations that are being renamed this year. The latest was renamed just this week for the above pictured man. Fort Polk, Louisiana is now henceforth known as Fort Johnson, after Medal of Honor recipient William Henry “Black Death” Johnson of the legendary Harlem Hellfighters. We […]
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