Posted on 04/08/2009 4:01:21 PM PDT by HighWheeler
Russell Dunham, a World War II Army veteran who received the Medal of Honor, the military's highest decoration for valor, after he assaulted three German machine gun emplacements, killed nine German soldiers and took two prisoners on a snowy morning in 1945, died Monday at his home in Godfrey, Ill., of congestive heart failure. He was 89.
On Jan. 8, 1945, Tech. Sgt. Dunham's company, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, was facing a formidable German force at the small town of Kayserberg, France, on the Franco-German border. The men were issued white mattress covers as camouflage in the deep snow.
Heavily armed, Dunham scrambled 75 yards up a snow-covered hill toward three German machine gun emplacements. He took out the first bunker with a grenade.
(continued at link)
The USA is down to 89 living Medal of Honor recipients.
Sorry, I inverted the number, it’s 98 living MOH recipients.
Brings tears to my eyes God bless them My Dad included
Goodbye old warrior. I salute you.
and Obama will send a personal representative to his funeral to rain on his parade.
Kim Martin of Seattle, Dunham’s granddaughter, accompanied him on the trip and said it was a special journey.
“This was the best trip that I have ever been on,” the 37-year-old Martin said. “It was great to be able to go with my grandfather.”
Out of the 111 CMH recipients still living, only 68 of them were able to attend the event. “We lost 10 men since last year,” Dunham said. “And the year before that we lost 11.
Every year the turnout at the reunion gets less and less, but that’s just the way it is.” While in Boston, the pair, along with the other honorees and their families, attended a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House, took a cruise on the USS Constitution where Dunham was presented with a CMH flag, and spent a day at Fenway Park. The trip was capped off with a formal ceremonial dinner.
“It was an honor and we had a great time, but the best part for me was that I got to get dressed up with my Papa for my birthday,” Martin said. “And I have to say that it was the best birthday ever.”
Dunham, then a farm boy, joined the Army in 1940. In 1944, his unit, the Third Infantry Division, ended up in the south of France. Five months later, Dunham’s unit was facing a significant German force and they were directed to take a hill before their own artillery was slated to strike.
“The snow was knee deep when we started up that big hill,” Dunham said. “It was on that hill that I got hit by enemy fire across the back as I raised up to motion for my men to keep coming forward after I had thrown a grenade into a foxhole and killed two of the enemies and grabbed the third one as a prisoner.”
Dunham said that after he was hit, that’s when he got mad and jumped up and resumed fighting. He advanced further ahead of his platoon through a storm of automatic and rifle fire and single handedly destroyed two more enemy placements and drove the Germans from their foxholes thereby leading a spectacular diversionary attack.
Dunham was credited with saving 123 men and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on Jan. 8, 1945.
What a great story. Where do guys like this get the courage?
Tech. Sgt. Russell Dunham, a true hero and patriot. RIP
Thanks for posting this, HighWheeler.
“Later in the day, his two captors transported him toward German lines. The driver stopped at a bar, the second soldier’s attention wandered and Dunham shot him in the head. He set off toward American lines in sub-zero temperatures.
By the time he encountered U.S. engineers working on a bridge over the Ill River, his feet and ears were frostbitten. A medic working to save his feet from amputation told him that the commanding officer had intended to recommend him for the Distinguished Service Cross but had changed his mind. The young man from Illinois, the officer had decided, deserved the Medal of Honor.”
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He was one tough guy.
Rest well our Great American Hero!
I also wish that the story of our double CMOH recipient (first as a Private and 15 years later as a Gunnery Sergeant), Sergeant Major Dan Daly, were not so politically incorrect that his story could be told in film.
Rank and organization: Technical Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company I, 30th Infantry, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Kayserberg, France, 8 January 1945. Entered service at: Brighton Ill. Born: 23 February 1920, East Carondelet, Ill. G.O. No.: 37, 11 May 1945. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. At about 1430 hours on 8 January 1945, during an attack on Hill 616, near Kayserberg, France, T/Sgt. Dunham single-handedly assaulted 3 enemy machineguns. Wearing a white robe made of a mattress cover, carrying 12 carbine magazines and with a dozen hand grenades snagged in his belt, suspenders, and buttonholes, T/Sgt. Dunham advanced in the attack up a snow-covered hill under fire from 2 machineguns and supporting riflemen. His platoon 35 yards behind him, T/Sgt. Dunham crawled 75 yards under heavy direct fire toward the timbered emplacement shielding the left machinegun. As he jumped to his feet 10 yards from the gun and charged forward, machinegun fire tore through his camouflage robe and a rifle bullet seared a 10-inch gash across his back sending him spinning 15 yards down hill into the snow. When the indomitable sergeant sprang to his feet to renew his 1-man assault, a German egg grenade landed beside him. He kicked it aside, and as it exploded 5 yards away, shot and killed the German machinegunner and assistant gunner. His carbine empty, he jumped into the emplacement and hauled out the third member of the gun crew by the collar. Although his back wound was causing him excruciating pain and blood was seeping through his white coat, T/Sgt. Dunham proceeded 50 yards through a storm of automatic and rifle fire to attack the second machinegun. Twenty-five yards from the emplacement he hurled 2 grenades, destroying the gun and its crew; then fired down into the supporting foxholes with his carbine dispatching and dispersing the enemy riflemen. Although his coat was so thoroughly blood-soaked that he was a conspicuous target against the white landscape, T/Sgt. Dunham again advanced ahead of his platoon in an assault on enemy positions farther up the hill. Coming under machinegun fire from 65 yards to his front, while rifle grenades exploded 10 yards from his position, he hit the ground and crawled forward. At 15 yards range, he jumped to his feet, staggered a few paces toward the timbered machinegun emplacement and killed the crew with hand grenades. An enemy rifleman fired at pointblank range, but missed him. After killing the rifleman, T/Sgt. Dunham drove others from their foxholes with grenades and carbine fire. Killing 9 Germans--wounding 7 and capturing 2--firing about 175 rounds of carbine ammunition, and expending 11 grenades, T/Sgt. Dunham, despite a painful wound, spearheaded a spectacular and successful diversionary attack.
A relative of Obama’s mother, Anne Dunham?
Could be...but I'd bet he's more likely related to this hero...
DUNHAM, JASON L. Rank and Organization: Corporal, United States Marine Corps For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham's squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west. Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander's convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.
*Salute*
RIP.
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RIP Sgt. Russell Dunham. America will miss you.
Thank you for your service to our country Russell Dunham,Rest in peace Beautiful.
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