Photos requested from an MOH recipient

I’ve talked before about my great respect and admiration for Medal of Honor Recipient Peter Lemon. In fact, Mr Lemon was once gracious enough to comment here on a thread. Anyway, as I noted in that first post

The reason I became more interested in his story than in others though is that we’ve been running all these stories about American cowards who have been running away from their voluntary commitment to the Armed Forces, and fleeing to Canada. Well, near as I have been able to determine, Mr Lemon represents the sole living Canadian MoH recipient. Or rather, he was a Canadian. Who knows, since he never once seems to mention Canada anywhere on his website, but rather talks about all the things he has done for this, his adopted country. Somehow I actually feel bad for Canada, they send us Hockey Players and heroes, and we send them cowards and polar bear researchers. That’s a pretty serious trade deficit.

Mr Lemon was recently named an “Oustanding American” by President Obama, and is currently working on a book regarding laughter, and he needs your help:

I’m requesting your help with my new book project. It’s a motivational book using laughter pictures. I need your best laughter photos of family and friends: moms, dads, children, grandkids, grandparents, cousins, college & high school buddies, team members, gatherings, sports enthusiasts, etc.

Please make the exception this one time and forward this email to all your contacts, family, friends, associates and face-book partners. With your help today we can reach folks around the world.

Anyway, if you get a chance, can you scour through your old photos and find some of you laughing and send them along to this American treasure? If you don’t, he will get mad, and you wouldn’t like him when he is mad. I would provide here the testimony of various people who saw him mad and regretted it, but (thankfully) they saw him turn green, tear through his clothes, and then open up the world’s largest can of whupass on them:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Lemon (then Sp4c.), Company E, distinguished himself while serving as an assistant machine gunner during the defense of Fire Support Base Illingworth. When the base came under heavy enemy attack, Sgt. Lemon engaged a numerically superior enemy with machine gun and rifle fire from his defensive position until both weapons malfunctioned. He then used hand grenades to fend off the intensified enemy attack launched in his direction. After eliminating all but 1 of the enemy soldiers in the immediate vicinity, he pursued and disposed of the remaining soldier in hand-to-hand combat. Despite fragment wounds from an exploding grenade, Sgt. Lemon regained his position, carried a more seriously wounded comrade to an aid station, and, as he returned, was wounded a second time by enemy fire. Disregarding his personal injuries, he moved to his position through a hail of small arms and grenade fire. Sgt. Lemon immediately realized that the defensive sector was in danger of being overrun by the enemy and unhesitatingly assaulted the enemy soldiers by throwing hand grenades and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. He was wounded yet a third time, but his determined efforts successfully drove the enemy from the position. Securing an operable machine gun, Sgt. Lemon stood atop an embankment fully exposed to enemy fire, and placed effective fire upon the enemy until he collapsed from his multiple wounds and exhaustion. After regaining consciousness at the aid station, he refused medical evacuation until his more seriously wounded comrades had been evacuated. Sgt. Lemon’s gallantry and extraordinary heroism, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

It looks like I may be spending some time with SGT Lemon at the Wounded Warrior Olympics in Colorado Springs next month, and would really love it if some of you helped him with his book.

Category: Politics