Category: Blue Skies

With the passing of Retired Master Sergeant Nicholas Oresko there were a few things that I believe should be brought up. One is about some of the hardest challenges that War Veterans can face is after the war is over. But even with our Nation’s increasing numbers of Combat veterans, there are things that people assume and take for granted that would never happen. For Retired Master Sergeant Nicholas Oresko it was outliving all of his immediate family .

I tried to imagine that I was in his place. Advance age with wife and children no longer living going into a high risk surgery. I mean with all of that retaining the will to live and not just ‘give up” would be extremely hard. It seems that there were others who shared this concern.

“They understood the type of person we were talking about and said, ‘We can’t let him die alone,’” Robitaille said, adding that people have come from as far away as Maine and Maryland to visit Oresko during the week. “He’s loved throughout the Army. He’s an American hero.”

Oresko had no living immediate family, but he was never alone at the hospital after being taken there earlier in the week from a Cresskill assisted living facility, Carbone said. Veterans and young members of various branches of military service were at his side, with more than two dozen at the hospital Friday afternoon before he was taken to have surgery.

“The kids held his hand and prayed with him,” Carbone said.

The support that he received in light of this heart breaking challenge is what makes this a story.

We get the sad news today that Nicholas Oresko who was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on January 23, 1945 in Germany has passed. This is the citation for his Medal from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society;

M/Sgt. Oresko was a platoon leader with Company C, in an attack against strong enemy positions. Deadly automatic fire from the flanks pinned down his unit. Realizing that a machinegun in a nearby bunker must be eliminated, he swiftly worked ahead alone, braving bullets which struck about him, until close enough to throw a grenade into the German position. He rushed the bunker and, with pointblank rifle fire, killed all the hostile occupants who survived the grenade blast. Another machinegun opened up on him, knocking him down and seriously wounding him in the hip. Refusing to withdraw from the battle, he placed himself at the head of his platoon to continue the assault. As withering machinegun and rifle fire swept the area, he struck out alone in advance of his men to a second bunker. With a grenade, he crippled the dug-in machinegun defending this position and then wiped out the troops manning it with his rifle, completing his second self-imposed, 1-man attack. Although weak from loss of blood, he refused to be evacuated until assured the mission was successfully accomplished. Through quick thinking, indomitable courage, and unswerving devotion to the attack in the face of bitter resistance and while wounded, M /Sgt. Oresko killed 12 Germans, prevented a delay in the assault, and made it possible for Company C to obtain its objective with minimum casualties.

Yeah, I could hardly believe it either, but Tom Clancy, 66, the novelist – and I’m sure everyone in this crowd has read at least one of his novels – passed away last night in Baltimore. I’ve read every one of his books at least twice. When an ice storm hit in New York State in January 1998 and we were without electricity for 16 days, wrapped in my Army sleeping bag, I read them all from Red October to Executive Orders.

When I watched on TV the second aircraft crash into the World Trade Center, Tom Clancy came to mind when he warned us that passenger aircraft could be used as weapons against us. In fact, those first few days after 9-11 I felt like I was living in a Tom Clancy novel. After the 2008 elections, every time I read one of his Jack Ryan novels, it was startling to realize after reading them that the polar opposite of Ryan was sitting in the White House.

I met him and his wife a few times in DC.

I guess Command Authority will be his last book. It’s due out December 3rd. But like Robert Ludlum, Clancy will have clone authors trying to recreate his style and continue the series.

My old buddy, 509th Trooper from the old paratrooper.com forums, sends us a link to the Fayetteville Observer which reports that COL Darron Wright was killed ina parachute accident at Fort Bragg the other day;

Fort Bragg officials have not officially identified the 18th Airborne Corps soldier killed. His identity is expected to be formally released today.

“He was an inspirational officer with contagious enthusiasm, motivation and energy,” Col. John Norris, commander at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, wrote on Facebook. “Great soldier, leader, mentor, husband, father and very dear friend.”

Before taking command in Germany last year, Norris was commander of Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division.

[…]

Although Fort Bragg officials have not said whether the parachute was a factor in the soldier’s death, the 18th Airborne Corps is transitioning to a new parachute.

Soldiers have to jump during the day without equipment, jump during the day with equipment and jump at night with equipment to be qualified to jump with the T-11, a square parachute.

By all accounts that I’ve read over the past few days, COL Wright was one of the good ones.

So there’s this fire fighter guy who is lost in a New Mexico wildfire by the name of Token Adams. He is lost, but his mates weren’t worried about him because of his survival skills as a Navy SEAL;

Officials remain confident explaining Adams is well trained. The Coarsegold, CA native a former hotshot firefighter and Navy trained as a Seal [sic].

Well, they should really worry, because according to Don Shipley he was never a SEAL.

More Navy SEAL reportage;

Adams is originally from Coarsegold and graduated from Yosemite High School. He joined the Navy and was trained to be a Navy Seal.

I don’t know where anyone got the idea that he was a SEAL, but more than likely from Adams himself, although there’s nothing on his Facebook page. I intended to wait until Adams was was found so I’d seem like less of an asshole, but my inherent assholness overtook my common decency. Having said all of that, I hope they find him alive and well, but then he can stop the lie.
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UPDATED: Unfortunately, Token Adam was found dead yesterday. We join his family in their grief, as it appears that he was a brave and honorable father and husband as well as a firefighter. Unfortunately, we’ll never know who said that Adam was a SEAL, we can only authoritatively say that he is/was NOT a SEAL – which is pretty much all that we said from the beginning.

I’ve been lucky enough to be included in an email list of several Vietnam veterans. One was Gary Assell who wrote under the name Viper Ash. 1stCavRVN11B forwarded an email from his son today announcing his passing. Welcome home, brother.

The sad news comes today that George Everette “Bud” Day perhaps the best known Medal of Honor recipient died yesterday at Fort Walton Beach, FL. From the local news;

USAF COL (ret.) George E. “Bud” Day, a Medal of Honor winner, a WWII Marine, and Vietnam POW, passed away early Saturday morning in Ft. Walton Beach.

His wife, children and grandchildren were present. They had communion before Bud passed away.

[…]

Day was considered by many to be a true war hero.

He was shot down in his Air Force F-100 in August, 1967 and was captured by the North Vietnamese and imprisoned as a POW at the “Hanoi Hilton”.

He spent 5 years and 7 months imprisoned with Navy Pilot John McCain, who also had shot down.

POW Network, recounts some of his experiences while he was a prisoner of war, including his failed escape.