Modern War Heroes

Fighter pilot who fought in three wars died this past June at the age of 89. Our pilots certainly are extraordinary people!

Retired Marine Corps Col. Kenneth L. Reusser, 89, a highly decorated aviator who was shot down in three wars, died June 20. He lived in the Portland, Ore., suburb of Milwaukie.Col. Reusser flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He was shot down in all three, five times in all.

His 59 medals included two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts, and two Legions of Merit.

In 1945, while based in Okinawa, he stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at high altitude. When his guns froze, he flew his fighter into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.

In 1950, he led an attack on a North Korean tank-repair facility at Inchon, then destroyed an oil tanker, almost blowing himself out of the sky.

In Vietnam, he flew helicopters and was leading a rescue mission when his Huey was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his badly burned body. (source)

Being a hero means a person does what they think is right, regardless of possible consequences. In wartime, doing the right thing becomes even harder. Often a person’s life is endangered if they were to step up to the proverbial plate. Or maybe they risk punishment at the hands of their superiors is they were to disobey an order – even if that order is wrong to carry out. German fighter pilot Franz Stigler was one of these people. When ordered to shoot down a heavily damaged, and disoriented, B-17 Flying Fortress, Franz found he didn’t have the heart to pull the trigger. Instead he helped young Charlie Brown, only 21 years old, get his bearings and escorted him until they were over the North Sea. Because of his merciful actions, Brown was able to get his damaged plane and injured crew safely back home.

Now you know the bare facts of this incredible story, click here to read the entire account.

Understandably, the technology to produce color photography was still quite rare during the time of World War I. This website has a fairly large collection of color photographs. Very interesting, and certainly not something you see every day. I think it is important to see these reminders of our past. Check it out.

I ran across this story that was posted on July 4th of this year. As I understand it, this is a true story, but it almost seems  too good to be true. It tells of a former Army member who gives people in an airport an example of how to show their appreciation for a fallen Marine. It shows that the American people still remember their troops and do want to honor them whenever possible. Very touching and I highly recommend reading it.

Click here to read this story. It can really be amazing how people can band together for a cause – even if is as simple as welcoming a fallen soldier home for the last time.

The situation has gotten deadlier this month for our troops stationed in Afghanistan. Total numbers of men killed in action for this year have already nearly reached the total for 2008. And the year just half over.

This news clip shows  a young woman who lost her husband this month while serving in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to her and the soldier’s young son.

After jumping out of helicopters at daybreak onto jagged, ice-covered rocks and into water at an altitude of 10,000 feet, the 12-man Special Forces team scrambled up the steep mountainside toward its target — an insurgent stronghold in northeast Afghanistan.

“Our plan,” Capt. Kyle M. Walton recalled in an interview, “was to fight downhill.”

But as the soldiers maneuvered toward a cluster of thick-walled mud buildings constructed layer upon layer about 1,000 feet farther up the mountain, insurgents quickly manned fighting positions, readying a barrage of fire for the exposed Green Berets.

A harrowing, nearly seven-hour battle unfolded on that mountainside in Afghanistan’s Nuristan province on April 6, as Walton, his team and a few dozen Afghan commandos they had trained took fire from all directions. Outnumbered, the Green Berets fought on even after half of them were wounded — four critically — and managed to subdue an estimated 150 to 200 insurgents, according to interviews with several team members and official citations.

Today, Walton and nine of his teammates from Operational Detachment Alpha 3336 of the 3rd Special Forces Group will receive the Silver Star for their heroism in that battle — the highest number of such awards given to the elite troops for a single engagement since the Vietnam War.

This account of these men is astronomically amazing. One soldier is quoted as saying that they shouldn’t be alive – they should have been killed in this mission. But they sure proved their mettle. Through some seriously gutsy moves, the combat team managed to take out almost 200 Afghani insurgents and get the entire team out alive. Dang. Granted, 15 were injured, some critically, and 2 Afghani interpreters were killed. When they all reached the helicopter, they only had a couple magazines of ammunition apiece left.

Read the rest of the article. These men really take it to the next level. Those men really earned those Stars.

Yesterday I found another program dedicated to supporting our troops in the field called Operation AC. One of their main focuses is sending care packages to the soldiers. Currently they also have a couple special projects going on. One is a letter project to help support our wounded soldiers in Iraq. Operation AC feels these soldiers need a little morale boost, and what better way than to get thank you letters acknowledging all they’ve done for us?

Operation AC also has a project for Afgani children. They are collecting and sending clothing and money to an orphanage in Afghanistan. Check out this link for more details on these programs.

A day before New York Rep. Peter King called Michael Jackson a “pervert” unworthy of nonstop media coverage, the aunt of a U.S. soldier killed in Afghanistan on the same day Jackson died asked why her nephew’s death went virtually unnoticed while the King of Pop got memorial shrines across the country.

“Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media,” Martha Gillis wrote to the Washington Post. “Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?”

Click here for video on troops getting ready to deploy.

Gillis’ nephew, Lt. Brian Bradshaw, 24, died in Kheyl, Afganistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Bradshaw, of Steilacoom, Wash., was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division in Fort Richardson, Alaska. He was one of at least 13 U.S. soldiers to die in Afghanistan since Jackson’s death on June 25.

Bradshaw’s mother, Mary, said she agreed with Gillis, saying the nonstop coverage of Jackson’s death has become “totally ridiculous” and laughable.

“I can watch the news many nights and there’s no mention of what’s going on in Afghanistan or Iraq and there’s boys dying over there,” Bradshaw told FOXNews.com. “Oh God, I can’t talk.” Read on…

I have to agree with these families. While Michael Jackson may have revolutionized the music scene, did he risk his life every day he was overseas like these young men and women? No. And yet he, and other celebrities, get constant media coverage. That’s just out of balance. Our soldiers deserve our regard. They’ve done so much for us, and in some cases, given all they had.

Ed “Too Tall” Freeman was a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War. He had always wanted to fly, but standing at an impressive 6′4″, he was denied training since he was “too tall”.  However, in 1955 the army changed its height regulations and he was allowed to fly. Thank goodness he was. This man proved himself to be a hero and many people owe their lives to his unselfishness. If he had not been allowed to be a pilot, what would have happened to them?

This account later earned him the Medal of Honor.

Captain Ed W. Freeman, United States Army, distinguished himself by numerous acts of conspicuous gallantry and extraordinary intrepidity on 14 November 1965 while serving with Company A, 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile). As a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit, he supported a heavily engaged American infantry battalion at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley, Republic of Vietnam. The unit was almost out of ammunition after taking some of the heaviest casualties of the war, fighting off a relentless attack from a highly motivated, heavily armed enemy force. When the infantry commander closed the helicopter landing zone due to intense direct enemy fire, Captain Freeman risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire time after time, delivering critically needed ammunition, water and medical supplies to the besieged battalion. His flights had a direct impact on the battle’s outcome by providing the engaged units with timely supplies of ammunition critical to their survival, without which they would almost surely have gone down, with much greater loss of life. After medical evacuation helicopters refused to fly into the area due to intense enemy fire, Captain Freeman flew 14 separate rescue missions, providing life-saving evacuation of an estimated 30 seriously wounded soldiers — some of whom would not have survived had he not acted. All flights were made into a small emergency landing zone within 100 to 200 meters of the defensive perimeter where heavily committed units were perilously holding off the attacking elements. Captain Freeman’s selfless acts of great valor, extraordinary perseverance and intrepidity were far above and beyond the call of duty or mission and set a superb example of leadership and courage for all of his peers. Captain Freeman’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army. (Wikipedia)

In Illinois the people are doing a little more to honor their men and women in service. They’ve created an organization called Sgt. Tommy’s Kids, an outreach program designed for the children and families of soldiers and people in the police/fire departments. It is named for a soldier named Thomas Gilbert, a young man who didn’t have children of his own, but wherever he went the children would flock to him. He was unfortunately killed while serving in Iraq.

Writer Mike Clifford is the one who originally started the project. He wanted to find some way to help out and heal the children who are often left behind by conflict. This article has more detail on Clifford and his plans for Sgt. Tommy’s Kids.