Posted on 11/09/2007 10:50:58 AM PST by bs9021
A Hero Among US
by: James F. Davis, November 09, 2007
The first Medal of Honor since 9/11 was recently awarded posthumously by the President to Michael Murphy. It saddens me that, of the major media, only one, Fox News, carried the ceremony live. This is the highest award for bravery in defending our country. Our people, especially our youth, need to know about the kind of person who risked his life so that the rest of us could live free.
I discovered I had one such hero in my own family. After taking my uncle, Gerald F. Davis, to lunch recently, his daughter Pam asked me to fill out her 87 year old father’s application for veteran’s benefits. As I was filling out the information I asked her if she had her father’s military discharge papers. I needed them to answer some of the questions on the application.
After she gave them to me, to my surprise, I found that he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with 4 Clusters, and the European-African-Middle Eastern Ribbon with 3 Battle Stars.
Now I knew that he had flown 25 combat missions over Germany during World War II (although his discharge papers indicated 30 missions). On the majority of these combat missions he was the lead navigator of his B-17 squadron of 36 bombers.
The lead navigator was responsible for guiding the entire squadron to the bombing targets. There was no GPS then. During the bombing runs, which began at 3 a.m., he used the stars to navigate, then all his calculations were continually being done by hand using dead reckoning and with luck, they returned about 16 hours later before night fell.
(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net ...
Sorry, you forgot Paul Smith and Jason Dunham; we didn’t.
Thanks to men like Gerald F. Davis, we live free today. What bravery these men exhibited. I believe the information provided reveals that he served on thirty missions when he was able to opt out at twenty-five. That’s amazing.
Heroes ping.
Mike Murphy is beyond a stud in my book......
I agree, and I’m sorry to not have mentioned him as well. Thanks for doing so. I appreciate it.
“The hydraulic system was destroyed. All but one engine was knocked out by German antiaircraft fire.”
“Nonetheless, they decided to risk their lives to get back to England so that they could risk their lives again, to help win the war.”
Don’t mean to rain on the author’s parade but, can a B-17 fly on 1 engine...with or without bombs? No need to sex-up this story. The Navigator is a HERO just by showing up.
But, heh, they are all over the OJ trial.
At least it illustrates their priorities, and sadly those of far too many people.
I would think it could. Without bombs and with not too much fuel, and certainly not very fast. I suspect they were throwning out the .50s and their ammo too, along with whatever else wasn't screwed down.
Maybe, but for someone that is the President of “Accuracy in Academia”, it is inexusable. This ends up as one more example of an academic displaying a lack of knowledge in subject matter that most academics would rather NOT know.
excusable
Thank God for this hero!
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