Category: Real Soldiers

Medic09 sends us a link to an article in the Albuquerque Journal about our friend, Bill Albracht, who will, during his book signing tour reunite with one of the men he led off of Firebase Kate;

“Capt. Albracht told us he was going to get as many of us off that hill as he could, even if he died trying,” said Nelson Koon, 64, an artilleryman on Kate who now lives in Moriarty. “He kept his word.”

[…]

“If Capt. Albracht hadn’t been there, I don’t think any of us would have made it out,” Koon said in a recent interview at his home.

“I was just shy of my 19th birthday when we were about to get overrun. Albracht was 21, but represented to me what a Green Beret is supposed to be. He could walk on water, as far as I was concerned, and I would have followed him to the gates of hell.”

ABJ says that Bill will be signing books from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at Hastings Entertainment, 6051 Winter Haven Road Northwest if you’re in the neighborhood.

Chief Tango sends us a link to the Washington Post which discusses the efforts of Texas Congressman Roger Williams who is spearheading the effort to clear the way for President Obama to award the Medal of Honor to late “American Sniper” Chris Kyle. I know this post is going to get some of you pissed off.

There is no one who is more defensive of Chris Kyle’s legacy than me. I read his book in one sitting the day that it hit my Kindle – the day it was released. I’ve read it twice since then. I was probably the first blogger who knew about his death, but since I couldn’t get get confirmation I held off, if nothing else, out of respect for his family.

Chris Kyle certainly accomplished much more during his career in the military than I did, by comparison, he certainly deserves the Medal of Honor. But, the thing is that he was never considered for the award while he was in the Navy.

Kyle already is highly decorated for his heroism in combat. He received two prestigious Silver Stars, which are two levels below the Medal of Honor, and five Bronze Stars with V device for valor.

There are hundreds of members of the military whose martial biographies are similar, but they don’t have a best selling book and a blockbuster movie, and I get the feeling that is the only reason that Williams is going through all of this because of Kyle’s name recognition. The Routh trial and the success of the movie about Kyle are intersecting at the Medal of Honor.

It seems to me to be a political stunt. There was no effort to get him the award while he was alive, before there was a book, before there was a movie. I’m not saying that he doesn’t deserve the award, but I’m thinking that he would be the first to disabuse folks of the notion.

According to BBC, Lance Corporal Joshua Leakey of the 1st Paras was awarded the Victoria Cross for rescuing an American officer under heavy fire in Helmand Province of Afghanistan;

L/Cpl Leakey is the only living British soldier to receive a VC during the Afghan campaign. Two others have been awarded posthumously.

There have been 15 Victoria Crosses awarded since the end of World War Two.

L/Cpl Leakey is among 139 military personnel recognised in the latest Operational Honours List.

Lance Corporal Leakey tells the story in the 3 1/2 minute video at the link.

Thanks to Andy11M and Art for the link.

If you haven’t bought the book yet, shame on you. But the author of Abandoned in Hell; The Fight for Vietnam’s Firebase Kate, Bill Albracht did a really excellent interview that’s more like an eight-minute documentary than an interview, with Chicago-area’s KWQC about the action that led to the book and Bill’s third Silver Star;

The 1st Special Service Force was formed and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in 1942. Their nickname was The Devil’s Brigade and consisted of volunteers from the US and Canada and modern special forces of both countries trace their lineages to the unit despite the fact that it was disbanded in 1945. Their training focused on fighting in alpine terrain in Europe.

According to legend, they got their name from a journal that they found at the Anzio beach landing written by a Lieutenant in the Herman Goering Division. The entry read; “The Black Devils are all around us every time we come into the line. We never hear them come.”

Last year Congress honored the unit by awarding them the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest US civilian medal, and that ceremony happened this past week. We had a correspondent on the scene who took these pictures;

About 40 of the surviving members were able to make the trip to DC;

From the Associated Press;

By the time the war ended, the brigade had captured more than 30,000 prisoners, won five U.S. campaign stars and eight Canadian battle honors — and played a key role in the 1944 liberation of Rome from German forces.

“These men saved the free world,” said a tearful House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Thanks to Green Thumb for our exclusive pictures.

Nearly two years ago, Charles Richard Jennings, Jr shot his father-in-law, James Evans, in church at their Father’s Day Mass. When the shooting ended, Jennings lit out, but he didn’t know that there were two military careerists in hot pursuit. Marine Master Gunnery Sergeant Alain Reyes and Air Force Master Sergeant Greg Bartel were both unarmed and the made the conscious decision to chase the gunman from the church. Gunny Reyes led police to Jennings. According to iCatholic;

For their actions, Reyes and Bartel are being commended by the United States armed forces. Reyes, a Marine Corps master gunnery sergeant who was stationed in Utah as a recruiter and now is at the Marine Corps Recruiting Depot in San Diego, received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal on Dec. 5. The medal is the Navy’s second highest non-combat decoration awarded for heroism.

Bartel, a master sergeant in the Air Force Reserve, will be presented with the Airman’s Medal on Jan. 11. The award is given to those who have distinguished themselves by a heroic act, usually at the voluntary risk of his or her life, but not involving actual combat.

Both men shy from being called a hero, even though they chased an armed man when they themselves had no weapon or protective clothing.

“It had to come to a stop; there were a lot more lives at stake than just mine,” said Bartel, whose career field is aircraft maintenance. “It has nothing to do with training … you just have to be willing.”

Reyes, who received the Marine Corps’ basic rifleman training but worked in transportation before becoming a recruiter, agreed that he acted on instinct rather than from training.

Jennings’ father-in-law survived his wounds and Jennings is currently doing five-to-life.

Thanks to Chief Tango for the link.

On Aug. 28, 2013, Army Staff Sergeant Michael Ollis sacrificed his own life for that of Polish Lieutenant Karol Cierpica when he shielded the Pole from a suicide bomber’s blast. Eighteen months later, the lieutenant repaid the gesture to the young hero;

Earlier this month, the Polish soldier became the proud father of a baby boy he named in honor of Ollis.

Robert Ollis and his wife, Linda, called the tribute to their son “unexpected” and “wonderful.”

“I thought of the baby as a grandson,” Ollis Sr. said “We are very happy and honored.”

To thank Cierpica and his wife, the Ollis family sent the couple a teddy bear they had specially made out of their son’s Army fatigues.

More on SSG Ollis’ actions that day;

According to Combined Joint Task Force-101, Ollis charged toward attackers that had breached the base in a “three-pronged attack.” He stepped between a Polish officer and a suicide bomber who was part of a “three-pronged attack” that breached the base. When the insurgent detonated his vest, the officer was shielded from harm. Ollis, however, was killed. He was 24.

Poland is scheduled to honor Ollis with the Polish Armed Forces Gold Medal on Nov. 8 in New York.

SSG Ollis, a member of the 2/22 Infantry (the Triple Deuce) of the 10th Mountain Division, was on his third deployment to the war against terror, his second to Afghanistan, when he was killed.

SSG Ollis’ sacrifice has already earned him a Silver Star Medal to accompany the Polish honor and now his story will be told by the next generation and he’ll live on in the memory of a Polish child.