Category: Real Soldiers

At about 3:10 today, the President will award Staff Sergeant Ryan Pitts the Medal of Honor. TSO and ParachuteCutie will be representing TAH in the audience. I met Ryan at Kyle White’s Medal of Honor ceremony and he’s a very humble and unassuming fellow. You’d never know that he did this on July 13th, 2008;

Pitts was manning Observation Post Topside, which was positioned east of the main base, and east of a bazaar and hotel complex in Wanat.

Shortly after, Soldiers conducting surveillance identified potential insurgents. They put together a request for fire. But before that could happen, at about 4:20 a.m, Soldiers heard machine-gun fire from the north. After that, the valley erupted in enemy fire.

Soldiers at OP Topside were hit with small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades. Pitts and six other paratroopers at OP Topside were injured in the initial volley of enemy fire. Two paratroopers were killed. Pitts took grenade shrapnel in both legs and his left arm.

For more than an hour after, Pitts continued to fight and defend his position and his teammates, despite his injuries.

Throughout the battle, despite the loss of blood and severity of his wounds, Pitts’ incredible toughness, determination, and ability to communicate with leadership while under fire allowed U.S. forces to hold the observation post and turn the tide of the battle.

Without his ability to stay alert and fight while critically wounded, the enemy would have gained a foothold on high ground and inflicted significantly greater causalities onto the vehicle patrol base, and the enemy could have been in possession of the fallen Soldiers at the observation post.

You can watch the ceremony here;

From the Military Times come the story of Sergeant First Class David Ortiz a full-time guardsman in the California National Guard and veteran of the Iraq War who was waiting for his daughter to get off of work in downtown San Francisco, when a fellow ran past him with a young girl following yelling for someone to stop him. Ortiz leaped into action;

Ortiz told Army Times in a Tuesday-morning telephone interview. “I jumped out of my vehicle. I was giving chase.”

The man veered across Market Street, likely trying to avoid two uniformed police officers who were further along his path. Ortiz, 46, took advantage.

“I came up from beside of him, and I just tackled his ass,” he said.

Ortiz pinned the man against a wall while the officers ran to assist. They made the arrest and thanked the soldier, who also received a hug from the woman as she began to calm down from the incident.

The thief had stolen her iPhone;

Your Independence Day message comes from Retired Air Force Colonel Leon F. “Lee” Ellis who spent nearly six years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam from November 7, 1967 until March 14, 1973. His book is entitled “Leading with Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton” and the gist of that book is in his editorial today in U-T San Diego;

At this point in history, the greatest threat to our country and our way of life is the breakdown of truth: people seem to value truth until it becomes inconvenient or embarrassing. Then, all too often, the ends justify the means and the truth is shaded, hidden, or completely ignored. There’s an epidemic of truth slippage in our culture today, and it’s steadily chipping away at our freedom more than we realize.

[…]

So if truth is the cornerstone of freedom and we see it under assault at every turn, how can we preserve the foundation of our nation? I know from personal experience that to speak and live the truth requires a great deal of courage. When things get hard, when mistakes are made, when the road ahead is risky, it’s not easy to tell the truth when you’re concerned about your image or power. But that’s exactly when the test of our character comes. Likewise, when we encounter those who are afraid to walk the path of courage, we must have the courage to call them out and hold them accountable for telling the truth.

History also tells us that leadership always makes a difference. Who will lead us toward more truth by example and by shedding the light of day into the darkness of lies? Decide now whether you have the personal courage to stand for truth. Our freedom is at stake.

But you should read the whole thing. Thanks to Mary for the link.

Rodolfo Hernandez earned the Medal of Honor in Korea on May 31st, 1951. His citation reads;

Cpl. Hernandez, a member of Company G, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action against the enemy. His platoon, in defensive positions on Hill 420, came under ruthless attack by a numerically superior and fanatical hostile force, accompanied by heavy artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire which inflicted numerous casualties on the platoon. His comrades were forced to withdraw due to lack of ammunition but Cpl. Hernandez, although wounded in an exchange of grenades, continued to deliver deadly fire into the ranks of the onrushing assailants until a ruptured cartridge rendered his rifle inoperative. Immediately leaving his position, Cpl. Hernandez rushed the enemy armed only with rifle and bayonet. Fearlessly engaging the foe, he killed 6 of the enemy before falling unconscious from grenade, bayonet, and bullet wounds but his heroic action momentarily halted the enemy advance and enabled his unit to counterattack and retake the lost ground.

Hernandez survived his wounds that day until last December, when he passed at the age of 82. Now the Airborne & Special Operations Museum in Fayetteville, NC will have a display commemorating that night, according to the Army Times;

The museum’s diorama shows him shoving a bayonet into an enemy soldier’s chest while the other five enemy troops he killed lie crumpled at his feet. It’s a detailed display, but no one has objected to the level of violence it exhibits, said the museum’s director, Jim Bartlinski.

[…]

Before he died, Hernandez made several suggestions about how much gore to show, Bartlinski said.

“He said ‘we need more blood,’ so we were making little notes: ‘Okay, we’re going to put more blood here’ ” Bartlinski said. “He was bayoneted through the arm; he was shot in the hip and the leg and so we so also indicated those wounds on the mannequin. We wanted to be true to his wishes and to make it as accurate as we could but, then again, we don’t want to make it too graphic.”