{"id":112351,"date":"2021-04-09T07:00:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=112351"},"modified":"2021-04-08T21:01:14","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T01:01:14","slug":"oldest-moh-recipient-charles-coolidge-passes-away-age-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=112351","title":{"rendered":"Oldest MoH recipient, Charles Coolidge passes away; Age 99"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
T\/Sgt Charles Coolidge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Poetrooper sends in the sad news that Charles Coolidge has passed at the age of 99 on 6 April. He was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient and one of only two still alive from WWII. He was the last MoH recipient from the European Theater of the war. As you can see from the picture, Coolidge also earned a Silver Star for gallantry in action. That award was earned in Italy in May 1944. He’d earn the Medal of Honor later that year in France.<\/p>\n

The Daily Caller presents Coolidge’s heroics<\/a>;<\/p>\n

According to the NYT, Coolidge and 30 fellow American GIs held off German tanks and soldiers in the Vosges Mountains of eastern France as the enemy tried to attack the right flank of the division\u2019s Third Battalion, 141st Infantry.<\/p>\n

Wave after wave of German efforts to take Coolidge\u2019s position were held off for days, and there\u2019s one line that specifically stood out in the NYT article.<\/p>\n

During the German assault and facing overwhelming odds, an enemy tank commander shouted in English to Coolidge, \u201cDo you guys wanna give up?\u201d<\/p>\n

Coolidge\u2019s response? With ice in his veins, he told the German tank commander, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, Mac, you\u2019ve gotta come and get me,\u201d and the enemy responded by firing five tank rounds at him.<\/p>\n

Eventually after several days of fighting, Coolidge and his teammates were surrounded by Germans as he ordered the Americans to pull back. Eventually they were broken out by the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.<\/p>\n

His Medal of Honor citation reads in part:<\/p>\n

Securing all the hand grenades he could carry, he crawled forward and inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing enemy. Finally it became apparent that the enemy, in greatly superior force, supported by tanks, would overrun the position. TSgt. Coolidge, displaying great coolness and courage, directed and conducted an orderly withdrawal, being himself the last to leave the position. As a result of TSgt. Coolidge\u2019s heroic and superior leadership, the mission of his combat group was accomplished throughout four days of continuous fighting against numerically superior enemy troops in rain and cold and amid dense woods.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Coolidge went back home to work in the family business Chattanooga Printing & Engraving in Tennessee after the war. He married in 1945 and remained married for 64 (!) years until his wife Frances passed away in 2009. They had three children, all boys. His son Charles Coolidge Jr (b. 1946) followed his father into military service. He used that little known and rarely used free ticket to a military academy for children of a Medal of Honor recipient to attend the US Air Force Academy. Charles Jr. retired after 36 years of service as a lieutenant general.<\/p>\n

Godspeed Tech Sergeant Coolidge. You’ve more than earned your eternal reward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poetrooper sends in the sad news that Charles Coolidge has passed at the age of 99 … Oldest MoH recipient, Charles Coolidge passes away; Age 99<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,232,406,593,130,389,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-army","category-army-news","category-guest-link","category-medal-of-honor","category-real-soldiers","category-valor","category-we-remember"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112353,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112351\/revisions\/112353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}