I had read of this before, and reading it again made my day.
There is good in the world, and I’m beginning to believe that there’s a heck of a lot more good in military folks on both sides than there is in our government.
(Note: Islam excepted, of course. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.)
I’ve always been disgusted by chests full of medals — none of them for valor. I’d like to see more distinction made between the BS medals and the Valor medals. Commanding officers would never qualify for a medal awarded for the valor of those under him.
My father got three valor medals in WWII, and a couple rows of tourist medals.
I feel awkward saying this, but failing to shoot down a bomber that is bombing your cities is not chivalry. It is dereliction of duty and treason.
“...losing your humanity...”?
It’s only a problem if you HAVE any humanity to begin with. Some foes of the US have none and never did have any!
Much has been written about the Japanese that the US Army, US Navy and US Marine Corps fought against in the Pacific during WWII.
The code of "Never live to experience shame as a prisoner" by the Japanese fighting man cost many lives on both sides.
In his book Saburo Sakai said that he followed a disabled American fighter at Guadalcanal. He said he flew near it and put a single cannon round into it’s engine.
The pilot bailed out.
I have no way of knowing if he was telling the truth or not.
Ping to an important insight on the warriors’ code.
The next afternoon the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Ikazuchi, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Kudo, spotted the survivors and closed in on them. Despite the very real risk of being torpedoed by one of the many Allied submarines lurking in the area, Kudo ordered his ship to come to a halt and for his crew to begin pulling the dazed Allied sailors from the water. By the time they were finished, Ikazuchi was laden with 442 Allied survivors, more than double the ship's 219-man crew. Although they had to endure the horrors of the Japanese POW camps for almost three-and-a-half years, the men of the Encounter and Pope considered themselves fortunate because there were a number of Allied ships sunk during the Battle of the Java Sea whose survivors were abandoned or machine gunned by the Japanese.
Today in Japan, Commander Kudo is considered by many to be the last samurai.
“the tail gunner was dead”
If I remember correctly, the B-17 did not have a tail gun until much later in the war.
May they both RIP. I salute you both.
Answer: Who gives a dam.
Thank you for posting this story.
Thank God for men like Stigler and Brown.
Excellent article. Thanks for posting it.
“In many ways, a soldier feels more of a bond with the enemy they’re fighting than with the countrymen back home,” Amen Bro
During or maybe after the battle of Fredricksburg, many thousand Union dead and wounded were lying on the battlefield near Marye’s Heights.
A Confederate soldier named Kirkland gathered as many canteens, blankets etc. as he could and during the night went around doing what he could for them.
At first the Union soldiers thought he was stealing but quickly realized what he was doing and quit firing. Kirkland was later killed at Chickamauga.
The medal can be a model of Donkey-Kong throwing a barrel! PERFECT!
I read where, near the end of the war in Europe, an American ambulance full of wounded, strayed into German territory and ran into a roadblock.
The Germans stopped the truck, checked out the inside, and told the terrified driver to turn around and go back. About a hour later another truck headed towards the roadblock and the Germans get ready to open up, but the truck stops short, throws out a couple of boxes and takes off.
The Germans watch the boxes for a half hour suspecting a bomb or a trick. The Sgt sends out a couple of men to check ‘em out and they bring back two boxes filled with cartons of American cigarettes.
I never read of anything along that line in the Pacific campaigns.