Category: Real Soldiers

I was honored that I served in the 15th Infantry Regiment which claims Audie Murphy who was born 88 years ago today and went on to be the most decorated soldier of the Second World War before he reached the age of twenty. He was also awarded every medal for valor with the exception of an Army Commendation Medal with a Valor device. After World War Two he joined the Texas National Guard in the hope that he would go to the Korean War, but his unit didn’t deploy, but he was promoted to the rank of major while serving in the Guard.

During the Vietnam War, he lobbied for more support for victims of Post Traumatic Stress, something he himself had dealt with while trying to be a civilian. He became addicted to sleeping pills in the mid-60s and then beat the addiction by locking himself in a hotel room for a week.

Thanks to Brian and ROS for reminding us of the man who was a hero in so many ways and still lives in our hearts.

In 2009, Marine Alex Minsky lost his leg to roadside bomb in Afghanistan. He was in a coma for nearly two months and fought his way back upright. Then understandably, turned to alcohol and fought his way back from that, too. From ABC News;

“I was down,” the Calif.-based Minsky told ABC News. “I was numb and I was running away from everything…especially myself, my own head.”

Minsky suffered from depression and turned to alcohol to cope until he decided to fight back by stopping drinking and starting to work out.

“I didn’t want to run anymore,” he said. “I wanted to face my problems instead.”

It was at the gym that Minsky got his big break when he was spotted by a photographer.

“He approached me and said, ‘Have you ever modeled? Like what are you? What are you doing?’” Minsky recalled.

So now he’s an underwear model and he wants to be a role model for other victims of trauma. Thanks to Andy and Ex-PH2 for the links.

Nucsnipe sends us a link to what he spent Fathers’ Day doing – cleaning up after vandals at a war memorial in Port Orchard, WA;

“If the people that desecrated this had seen what was going on in combat they’d probably have a different perspective,” said veteran Don Winslow Sr, 81.

“This crosses the line. This will be the last time,” said Mark Traylor, an Iraq War veteran.

Traylor and other volunteers, including his 17-year-old son Aaron, started cleaning up the memorial Sunday morning.

“Not how I wanted to spend Father’s Day but you know what, that’s worth it,” said Traylor.

“These people on the wall are fathers or have fathers or sons. They don’t deserve to have their names defaced,” said Aaron.

We lost a fine soldier last Thursday.

PFC Christopher P. Dona, 1st Bn, 75th Ranger Regiment, was killed Thursday. He died in a training parachute jump.

In one of life’s cruel ironies, PFC Dona had returned from his first combat deployment to Afghanistan last month.

The incident is under investigation. Initial reports were that PFC Dona’s parachute appeared to work normally during the jump. However, he was also reportedly dragged for a considerable distance (approx 100m) on the ground post-landing, and was also reportedly found entangled in his chute’s static suspension lines and straps from a “harness” used during the jump.

Military training is often high-risk, with little margin between safety and injury. This is another reminder that when things go wrong, even routine training can be deadly.

RIP, my brother-in-arms. May God comfort your surviving family and friends.

The Army Times reports that California Republican Congressman Duncan Hunter, Jr. has acknowledged that the Pentagon’s IG has reopened the nomination of Army Captain Will Swenson for the Medal of Honor.

It’s the latest twist in a case that began on Sept. 8, 2009, when the Army captain and other U.S. forces were ambushed in Kunar province, Afghanistan, while serving as advisers to Afghan forces there. The six-hour battle in the village of Ganjgal killed five U.S. troops, and launched a national outcry about why they were repeatedly denied air and artillery support by Army officers on a nearby base.

Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s top combat valor award, in September 2011 for repeatedly braving enemy fire in the battle to recover four of the casualties, who had gone missing on the battlefield. Two other Marines received the Navy Cross — second only to the Medal of Honor — in 2011, and a fallen soldier received the Silver Star posthumously in April for heroism that day.

If you read Meyer’s book, Into the Fire, you know that Meyers credits much of what he did that day to earn the Medal of Honor was due to Swenson’s own heroism under withering gunfire from three sides of a gully in which were trapped scores of allies who lived to see the end of the day only because of Swenson’s and Meyer’s actions.

According to the Army Times, Swenson’s nomination is stalled at the White House and we are left to assume that it was Swenson’s attack on the rules of engagement which prevented the operation from getting any supporting fires to extract the element that was trapped under enemy fire. That is the only logical conclusion at which a rational person can arrive – his nomination has stagnated because of political vindictiveness.

The picture above is one in a series of photos in the Washington Post as a tribute to Jewish veterans who mostly fought against the Nazis for the Soviet Union. The caption for this photo reads;

Matvey Gershman, 90, of Ashkelon, Israel, joined the Red Army’s air force in 1941. He was later transferred to the 5th Shock Army and fought mostly in Ukraine, after which he joined the 8th Guard Army and took part in the Battle of Berlin, including the famous fight for the Reichstag.

Oded Balilty / AP

The Soviets weren’t shy handing out bling, and these guys have it.