PFC Emmanuel Mensah honored
Stars & Stripes reports that Private First Class Emmanuel Mensah who perished in an apartment fire while he was home on leave after completing his Advanced Individual Training, was awarded the Soldiers Medal as well as the New York State Medal for Valor for rescuing his neighbors from the conflagration;
He entered the burning building at least four times before being overcome by smoke…Mensah could have remained safely outside after first escaping the fire himself, but “it was not in his nature to stand by without doing whatever he could to help,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Kadavy, director of the Army National Guard, who presented the military medal to Mensah’s father.
Being a soldier was his dream;
The New York Times reported that he had initially tried to join the Marines shortly after immigrating, but his father wanted him to pursue an education instead. Still, the younger Mensah persisted and eventually joined the Army National Guard.
After joining as a permanent legal resident in late 2016, he was sworn in as a U.S. citizen at a military base in Georgia last fall. He was slated to begin drilling with a Brooklyn-based military police unit in January.
Category: We Remember
BZ!
Well done Soldier. Damned well done.
“…be glad that such men lived.”
Thank you, PFC Mensah.
I wish more kids would look at this Soldier and see a hero, instead of some overpaid athlete or celebrity.
+1
F[orget] athletes & celebrities!
PFC Mensah is a real hero worthy of emulation!
Amen to that.
Exactly!
I found my heroes as a kid in my father’s and grandfather’s service and reading history books about battlefield heroics and the space program.
How many kids go to a school named for some hero and never know the story behind it?
I remember reading a few books written for kids that made a huge impact on me. One, I believe was called the History of the USMC, and another was about Frogmen.
In Middle School I discovered those WWII Time-Life books with all the battle photos.
That’s where I found my heroes…in history.
There’s a book by a Scottish dude, can’t remember his name off the top of my head, called “Amazing Stories For Making Men Out of Boys.” It was written for the very reason you cite, and covers accounts of The Alamo, the Siege of Constantinople, Shackleton’s Expedition, Dien Bien Phu, Apollo 13, the Battle of Camarón, and other historical events where men faced impossible odds. It’s an exceptional book, which I will read to my son once he’s old enough to comprehend it.
That others may live. An appropriate and well deserved award.
Four times? Damn… Damn fine AMERICAN. Don’t care where he was born.
I said this in a past post; For a person with no training in Fire fighting to enter an OMD into the fire floor when the integrity of the public hallway and stairwell were compromised due to heavy fire, heat and smoke without a back up line, SCBA and PPE deserves to be honored. BZ, and RIP Soldier.
Had to look that one up- Occupied Multiple Dwelling.
AW1Ed;
Sorry about that. I should have typed it out in full. 30 years as a Volly Fireman, It stays with you.
No harm no foul, we live in a world of acronym soup. After all, I was an instructor at FASOTRAGRULANTDETJAX.
*grin*
You Navy types really need to learn how to do acronyms properly. The idea is to shorten titles, not lengthen them!
Otherwise, pretty soon you’ll have some Naval acronym that’s so damn long you won’t be able to stencil it on the side of a freaking CV. (smile)
Why do you think I have Acronym OCD?
*grin*
(Fleet Aviation Specialized Operational Training Group, Atlantic Fleet, Detachment Jacksonville)
How about someone posting all the known Mil acronyms because I’m lost on these acronyms on the TAH site.
https://www.acronymfinder.com/
Until Valhalla brother
Bravo!
Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
So a young man named “God with Us” died while saving people from a fire…whoever is cutting onions today needs to freaking stop.
Teenagers need to look at this man, yearn to be like him & remember he gave his life for others. RIP.
A well deserved honor for a fine American. What a man. What an American.
So many other accolades need to be said, but I’m too choked up to say them…
“No greater love . . . .”
Good to see Big Army and the NY ARNG doing the right thing here.
Rest in peace, Emmanuel Mensah. I’m proud to call you my countryman.
Much too young to go so soon. May the road rise to meet him and the wind be always at his back.