Today in U.S. military history: holocaust survivor earns the Medal of Honor

Unto the Breach ^ | 23 July 2019 | Chris Carter

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On this day in 1950, the 8th Cavalry Regiment is falling back to the Pusan Perimeter during the opening days of America’s involvement in the Korean War. The job of holding up the North Koreans goes to Cpl. Tibor Rubin, who over the next 24 hours, single-handedly fights-off overwhelming numbers of enemy, inflicting “staggering” casualties while his fellow troopers withdraw.

In October, Chinese forces hammer his unit and Rubin is captured. Almost every night during his captivity, Rubin sneaks out to gather food and supplies from enemy depots and gardens to assist his fellow captives. When offered the chance to be sent to his native Hungary, he refuses and will spend nearly three years as a prisoner of war. Dozens of American lives were saved due to Rubin, and in 2005 he is finally awarded the Medal of Honor.

75 years ago today on Dutch New Guinea’s Noemfoor Island, Sgt. Ray E. Eubanks leads a squad against an enemy position that is devastating his company with machinegun, rifle, and mortar fire. Once the soldiers reach a spot 30 yards away from the enemy, Eubanks orders his men to keep firing at the position while he moves forward alone through the intensely fire-swept terrain. When he reaches a spot just 15 yards away, he opens fire with his automatic rifle, inflicting serious casualties on the Japanese defenders, but rendering his firearm useless in the process. Ignoring his wounds, he rushes forward and uses his broken gun as a club to kill four enemy soldiers before Eubanks is himself killed. For his actions, Sgt. Eubanks is awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

And on this day in 1970, the U.S. military decides to abandon Fire Support Base Ripcord after a brutal 23-day siege by the North Vietnamese

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The Nazis sent Rubin and his family to Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. Tibor survived, but his parents and two sisters perished. Following his liberation by American soldiers, he wanted to join the U.S. Army.

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[Jacquerie]

Incredible.