Category: Real Soldiers

Someone sent us the news that Gary Wetzel, a veterans’ advocate and Medal of Honor recipient, was on his way to the Sturgis motorcycle rally when he was in a serious motorcycle accident.

[Jeffrey Dentice], Wetzel’s long-time friend, told FOX6 News Wetzel was about 30 miles outside La Crosse on Sunday, August 7th when he laid down his motorcycle at 60 miles-per-hour.

“Something happened with his foot getting on the bike, trying to get on the pedal, and either that broke or his foot got caught and down he went on the highway,” Dentice said.

Dentice said Wetzel suffered a broken shoulder and pelvis.

“Serious road rash and just a lot of pain and hurting,” Dentice said.

Of course, Wetzel has been in worse predicaments. This is from his Medal of Honor citation;

Sp4c. Wetzel, 173d Assault Helicopter Company, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life. above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Wetzel was serving as door gunner aboard a helicopter which was part of an insertion force trapped in a landing zone by intense and deadly hostile fire. Sp4c. Wetzel was going to the aid of his aircraft commander when he was blown into a rice paddy and critically wounded by 2 enemy rockets that exploded just inches from his location. Although bleeding profusely due to the loss of his left arm and severe wounds in his right arm, chest, and left leg, Sp4c. Wetzel staggered back to his original position in his gun-well and took the enemy forces under fire. His machinegun was the only weapon placing effective fire on the enemy at that time. Through a resolve that overcame the shock and intolerable pain of his injuries, Sp4c. Wetzel remained at his position until he had eliminated the automatic weapons emplacement that had been inflicting heavy casualties on the American troops and preventing them from moving against this strong enemy force. Refusing to attend his own extensive wounds, he attempted to return to the aid of his aircraft commander but passed out from loss of blood. Regaining consciousness, he persisted in his efforts to drag himself to the aid of his fellow crewman. After an agonizing effort, he came to the side of the crew chief who was attempting to drag the wounded aircraft commander to the safety of a nearby dike. Unswerving in his devotion to his fellow man, Sp4c. Wetzel assisted his crew chief even though he lost consciousness once again during this action. Sp4c. Wetzel displayed extraordinary heroism in his efforts to aid his fellow crewmen.

Chooee sends us a link to the story of Army Special Agent John Zoerhof, instructor at the U.S. Army Military Police School at Fort Leornard Wood, Missouri. He was at Walmart recently when he saw a woman struggling to keep a man upright. Zoerhof offered to help the woman;

“I asked the lady, ‘Ma’am, is he OK?’ and she just looked at me with a glossed looked in her eyes, and I knew right away that she was high on something or just drunk,” Zoerhof said in a press release issued by the military. “When I told her to call 911, she said, ‘No, don’t call 911!’ and I told her, ‘Look lady, he’s going to die. I mean he’s dead right now.’”

Zoerhof said he called the paramedics right away and informed them there was no sign of life and the man’s eyes had rolled back in his head.

Like the rest of us, he was trained to give CPR but he had never had to actually do it on a real person, so he started the procedure until paramedics arrived. The last word was that the old crackhead was released from the hospital that same day.

Mel Gibson has done it again in the telling of the story of Medal of Honor soldier, Desmond Doss, who was awarded the medal for his actions on Okinawa. Private First Class Doss was a conscientious objector who was convinced that his service as an aidman with the 77th Division would save lives. According to his Medal of Honor citation, that’s what he did on Okinawa, 29 April-21 May 1945.

He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 1 by 1 to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in a cave’s mouth, where he dressed his comrades’ wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers’ return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of 1 arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.

The movie “Hacksaw Ridge” is due out November 4th. Sadly, Mr. Doss passed on March 23, 2006, but, obviously, his legend lives on.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the story of Staff Sergeant Bret Perry, an Army recruiter in Urbandale, Iowa who spotted a fire in a house on his way to work last year. His instincts influenced him to drive to the scene where he found that firefighters hadn’t arrived yet. A neighbor told him that there were people still inside, so Perry broke down the door to get inside the inferno;

[H]e had to crawl since the rooms were filled with smoke by then.

“It was completely smoke filled in the living room and the hallway and stuff like that so I was searching for doors and, you know, I would open a door and it would be the pantry or I’d open a door and it would be a bathroom or something,” said Perry. “So I was just checking all the doors.”

In the first room he found a sleeping woman, who woke up when he kicked the bedroom door open, and took her outside to safety. He went back in two more times for two other people, but was unable to go back in a fourth time for the pet that they had in there as the fire had become to dangerous by then.

Perry described the residents as “young adults,” probably in their mid-20s, who appeared to be sharing the house.

After successfully getting the three residents out of the house and when the fire department finally arrived, he left and went back to work, just a few blocks away, without leaving his name or contact information with anybody, which is why it was a surprise to him when news reporters found him later that day.

Staff Sergeant Perry was awarded the Soldier’s Medal for his non-combat heroism a week or so ago.

Someone sent us a link to the story of Private First Class William Peters who was awarded a Purple Heart just 70 years after his wounds;

While on a mission in France in November 1944, his platoon was ambushed by a German army contingent.

He was seriously injured and unable to walk after being hit with shrapnel and being briefly pinned between an armored car and an exploding jeep. His troop retreated under fire and in pain and shock he crawled to sit by a nearby tree.

He observed a German machine gun nest perched on a hill over him in full view. In sporadic periods of consciousness during the remainder of the day he prayed knowing they could kill him at any time.

Eventually, the Germans left without discovering PFC Peters and he regained consciousness strapped to the hood of a jeep on a journey across France that eventually took him home to Indiana and his disability discharge in 1946. He was awarded the Purple Heart by the local VFW post commander in Greensburg, Indiana a few days ago.

Last year, we wrote about “Sergeant Anders N. Olafson saving the world“. He charged repeatedly into a burning apartment complex and is credited with rescuing eight other tenants in the Black River, New York building near Fort Drum, moments before the roof collapsed. Sergeant Olafson sends us his Soldiers Medal citation as well as his thanks to TAH members for your support;

Hey sir, you Guys did a write up about a house fire I was in a long time ago. Just want to say thank you, as all the attention helped me get back on my feet. Also want to let you know soldiers medal came through, just got it last night. Want to say thanks again

Congratulations, Sergeant Olafson, and it’s really us who should be thanking you.