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Posted on 02/10/2004 11:59:59 PM PST by SAMWolf
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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| Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.
Where the Freeper Foxhole introduces a different veteran each Wednesday. The "ordinary" Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine who participated in the events in our Country's history. We hope to present events as seen through their eyes. To give you a glimpse into the life of those who sacrificed for all of us - Our Veterans.
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One of the Most Decorated American Combat Soldiers of World War II DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Aug. 25, 1919, Buffalo, N.Y.  Lt. Col. Matt Louis Urban Five days after D-Day, the 9th Infantry Division came ashore at Utah Beach. At the head of the 60th Infantry Regiment’s Company F was Capt. Matt Urban. A Veteran of the 9th’s campaign in North Africa and Sicily, Urban had repeatedly proven himself to be the epitome of an infantry officer. Just a few days after landing in France, Urban once again proved his mettle. On June 14th, Company F attacked Renouf. Encountering heavy enemy small arms and tank fire, the company’s advance ground to a halt. Realizing his unit stood on the verge of decimation, Urban grabbed a bazooka. He told an ammo carrier to follow him, then worked his way through the hedgerows to a point near two panzers. Brazenly exposing himself to the tank’s fire, he loaded and fired the bazooka. Within minutes he destroyed both armored vehicles. Later that same day Company F led an attack into Orglandes. Urban took shrapnel in his leg from an exploding German 37-mm round. He refused evacuation. At 5:00 A.M. the next morning he led his company in yet another attack. An hour later he was hit again. This time there was no doubt; he’d have to be evacuated. By noon he was in the back of a truck, the first leg in his journey back to England.  9th Infantry Division Patch Urban’s story begins in Buffalo, New York, where he was born on August 25, 1919. Though his family was not poor money was scarce. Urban worked very hard through his high school years to contribute to the family’s coffers. By saving extra money he was able to enter Cornell University in 1937. He earned good grades and excelled in boxing, wining his division in the collegiate championship of 1939. As a member of Cornell’s ROTC program, Urban received the call of duty in June 1941. He attended officer candidate school, then joined the 60th Infantry Regiment at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. By the time the 60th Infantry received orders for overseas shipment in the summer of 1942, Urban held the post of Executive Officer of Company F. In North Africa Urban quickly demonstrated his heroism and exceptional leadership traits. He earned two Silver Stars and the first of seven Purple Hearts. He also assumed command of Company F after its commanding officer became a casualty.  60th Infantry Regiment Unit Crest In mid-July 1944, while still recuperating from his wounds received near Orglandes, Urban was visited in the hospital by a wounded man from his company. Urban learned how the exceedingly brutal fighting in Normandy had reduced Company F from a first class fighting machine to a frightened, frustrated, motionless mass of men. Determined to help his men, Urban deserted his hospital bed that very night. Over the next several days the determined Urban hitched his way back to France. Still wearing his bandages Urban rejoined his demoralized company the morning of July 25th. As a sergeant remembered, “The sight of him limping up the road, all smiles, raring to lead the attack, once more brought the morale of the battle-weary men to the highest peak.” Urban well remembers that day. “I was full of anger, remorse, and despair. I’d seen my men mutilated, chopped up. I was seeking revenge. I was like a tiger. It was all bubbling up inside of me, and it exploded.” Urban began his exploits that very afternoon by rescuing a wounded man from a burning tank. Late that evening his battalion’s attack upon a well-entrenched German position located atop a prominent hill stalled under fierce fire. Two supporting tanks had been destroyed and a third, although intact, did not move. Urban located the lieutenant in charge of the supporting armor and laid out a plan of attack to reduce the hill position.  Near St. Lo, France -- July 15, 1944 The lieutenant and a sergeant were killed by the intense enemy fire as they tried to climb aboard the immobile tank. Urban, though hobbling because of his leg wound, dashed through the unrelenting enemy fire and mounted the tank. As enemy rounds hit all around him, he ordered the tank forward. He armed the .50-caliber machine gun. While the tank fired its cannon into the enemy positions Urban followed up with well-aimed bursts of fire. “I was crying as I went up that hill,” Urban remembered, “I thought I was a goner, that I was headed for certain death.” But he didn’t die. Unscathed, he reached the top of the hill. Alone he had destroyed the enemy positions holding up his battalion. Over the next five weeks Urban repeatedly displayed his fearless heroism. On August 2nd he received his fifth wound. Against the battalion surgeon’s advice Urban stayed with his company. Four days later the battalion commander became a casualty. Over officers more senior in rank and age, Urban was selected to take his place. On August 15th, while at the forefront of his battalion’s attack, Urban was wounded for the sixth time. Urban’s battalion crossed the Meuse River near Heer, Belgium, on September 2nd. The lead elements immediately ran into a fierce barrage of enemy artillery, mortar, and small-arms fire. As was his custom, Urban left his command post to personally lead the GI’s across the river. As he moved across open ground, an exploding mortar shell drove shrapnel deep into his throat. Although unable to speak above a whisper, he refused to leave the battlefield until assured his men had made it across the river. Only then did he agree to let the medics evacuate him. The next day while Urban sailed back to England aboard a hospital ship, the Germans counterattacked his battalion. Those GI’s who weren’t killed were captured. Among them was S. Sgt. Earl G. Evans who had served with Urban since North Africa. After Urban rode the tank into the German position in Normandy, Evans overheard a battalion officer say he was going to recommend Urban for the Medal of Honor. Unfortunately, that man died in the fighting at the Meuse.  Soldiers of 60th Infantry Regiment advance into a Belgian town under the protection of a heavy tank. National Archives Photo When Sgt. Evans was repatriated in July 1945 he wrote a letter to the War Dept. recommending Urban for a Medal of Honor. The War Dept. forwarded it to the commanding General of the 9th Division, on occupation duty in Germany. It never arrived. But a copy of Evan’s letter was placed in Urban’s personal file. In the meantime, Urban had recuperated from his wounds. He received a promotion to LTC in October 1945. Five months later he received a medical discharge. Among his medals were counted 2 Silver Stars, 1 Legion of Merit, 3 Bronze Stars, and 7 Purple Hearts. He knew nothing of Evan’s letter. After Urban requested information and his official file was reviewed by the Army Military Awards Branch, the original recommendation was found and a lengthy process was begun to reconstruct the events described in Evans' recommendation. Since the Medal of Honor is the nation's highest decoration for valor, detailed evidence of the performance of the act or acts is essential. Eyewitness statements or affidavits, as well as other documents from official records, must supply this evidence that the act or acts justify the Medal of Honor. In Urban's case, this task was made considerably more difficult than would ordinarily be the case since the recommendation involved heroism performed more that 35 years before.  As the pieces of the puzzle were assembled by the Army Awards Branch, a most dramatic picture of Urban emerged. He had clearly established himself as an outstanding combat leader who was fearless and highly esteemed by his men. The eyewitness statements, even though they were prepared many years after the fact, show a remarkable consistency in what they describe. In each case, Urban's fearlessness is related in detail, but his concern for the welfare and safety of his men and his ability to inspire them to their best efforts are just as clearly demonstrated. Although Urban received two Silver Stars for actions in Africa, his valorous actions in France and Belgium in 1944 had not been recognized with a military decoration for heroism except for a Bronze Star Medal he received for action on June 14, 1944. From a legal standpoint, the recommendation on Urban meets all requirements of the law. Public Law (Title 10, USC) stipulates that a Medal of Honor may be awarded if a statement setting forth the act to be recognized is made within two years of the act and that records indicate the individual is entitled to the award. This same Public Law permits consideration of a recommendation for award of the Medal of Honor if the secretary of the Army determines that a statement was made within two years of the act to be recognized and no award was made because the statement was lost or through inadvertence, the recommendation was not acted upon.  The postwar years passed peacefully for Urban. On July 19th 1980, 36 years after the fact, President Carter hung the Medal of Honor around Urban’s neck. Befitting the occasion, the presentation was made before veteran’s of the 9th Division at their reunion in Washington DC. President Carter said, “Matt Urban showed that moments of terrible devastation can bring out courage. His actions are a reminder to this nation so many years later of what freedom really means.” The German’s nicknamed Matt Urban “der Geist” meaning “the Ghost” because he always came back after they thought he was gone. Matt Urban died in March 1995 from a collapsed lung that had been injured in one of his numerous combat actions in 1944.
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X-15 and the XB-70 Valkyrie
Ed: That's no way for a man to die.
Frank: No...you're right, Ed. A parachute not opening...that's a way to die. Getting caught in the gears of a combine...having your nuts bit off by a Laplander, that's the way I wanna go.
Wilma: Oh....Frank. This is terrible.
Ed: Don't you worry Wilma. Your husband is going to be alright. Don't you worry about anything. Just think positive. Never let a doubt enter your mind.
Frank: He's right, Wilma. But I wouldn't wait until the last minute to fill out those organ donor cards.
Wilma: (crying again)
Ed: What I'm trying to say is that Wilma, as soon as Nordburg is better, he's welcome back at Police Squad.
Frank: Unless he's a drooling vegetable. But I think that's only common sense.
Polish-born Colonel Ryszard Kuklinski, one of the United States' top Cold War spies, died in a Washington hospital Wednesday at the age of 74, local news agency PAP reported.
As a senior Polish military staff officer, Kuklinski passed some 35,000 top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between 1972 and 1981 before defecting with his family to the West.
"Kuklinski was an officer who devoted all his life to avoid a war in Europe," said former Polish defense minister Jan Parys.
A communist court sentenced Kuklinski to death in 1984 for passing intelligence to the United States which included communist authorities' plans to impose martial law in 1981 to crush Solidarity, the old Soviet bloc's first free trade union.
Poland overthrew communism in 1989, but the sentence on Kuklinski, who lived in Washington, was lifted only in 1995 and he was not fully rehabilitated until September 1997.
He visited Poland in April in 1998 and received a hero's welcome by the then right-wing government, which said that thanks to people like Kuklinski the country had regained independence after five decades of Soviet-imposed regimes.
Kuklinski was survived by his wife. While he lived in hiding under an assumed name for many years in the United States, his two sons died in unexplained circumstances.
According to Polish newspaper reports, one son disappeared from a yacht which was later found by the U.S. coast guard. The other reportedly died in a car crash.
I'm sure you did! You're such a charmer. ;-)
AWWWWWWWWWW!
I hope it's one of the main streets in Cracow.
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