Let us know who your Hero is!

[Cruelbreed]

We at Apacheclips.com are adamant about honoring our military hero's. Whether you are military or not we believe that it is of utmost importance to stop and recognize those who have put their lives on the line for our countries.

We intend to honor those men who have placed their lives on the line to protect our freedoms and the freedoms of our loved ones. We choose not to forget their names, and not to forget their sacrifices like our main stream media has. On Apacheclips.com we do not place all of our attention on the lives of celebrities but honor the lives of our brave men and women. We hope that the world will hear their stories and will never forget them.

We will NEVER forget.


If you have someone that you believe should be submitted here, please contact Bobdina. I want to thank Bob for taking the initiative to make sure our Heroes are honored. For those who frequented his previous Heroes Thread (http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/showthread.php?t=2357) please do not be alarmed if some of the very same names are honored once again. We feel this change to be much more effective in honoring all of our Hero's not only together as a warrior unit but independently as strong men and women. Thank you.

To the new subforums.. (http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/forumdisplay.php?f=127)

[ghost]

Marcus Luttrell - Sole survivor of the failed Operation Redwing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Luttrell

Randy Shughart & Gary Gordon - Two Delta operators who gave their lives in an attempt to defend Mike Durant's downed helicopter from scores of Somali militiamen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Shughart#Combat_and_death_in_Somalia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gordon#Combat_and_death_in_Somalia

:USA:

[bobdina]

New rules in affect for the Hero board, please read


When you want me to honor someone in the other section, not this thread but where the hero's are listed please put Country, name, award (if you know it) and for what theater of operations (if known)I.E. Germany Nico Greenmamba, courage award, Apache nation. Mil badge holders can put their submission right into the other section but please use the above format. It makes it much easier for me when trying to see if someone has already been honored, for non badge holder's if you don't post it here it will go into a cue to make sure no one tries to slip by someone not deserving. We have had to install this because of 1 members actions. Non badge holders I would rather you post here first to save me a little time as I am very busy to keep checking the cue. As you guy's can see when I have enough info I have posted everyone's request . If you have no info but wish to honor friends, family whatever do it here and when I have time I will do research to see what I can dig up. Thanks guy's for making this section a success.

[nastyleg]

Sgt York

[nastyleg]

Robert L Howard vietnam

[nastyleg]

William baker cananda ww1

[nastyleg]

Noel Chavasse UK ww1

[nastyleg]

Matt Louis Urban ww2

[nastyleg]

Raoul Salan france ww1,ww2,french indochina war, algerian rebellion

[s.sack]

Michael Witmann Hauptsturmführer SS ,Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern, Battle of Villers-Bocage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Wittmann

[Toki]

My grandfather.



Flew Cobra gunships in Vietnam. After Vietnam he was stationed in Korea where he found a restaurant called the "57". The restaurant was a burger joint that stole Army hamburger meat. It was never closed down because the MPs ate there. He said he loved kimche on his burger. He was then stationed in Germany where he got his German hunting license and made a cool poster collection of all the coasters he got from the various beer halls. He went went on to infantry school and become a Ranger. He tells me after Ranger school he ate 3 carrot cakes and a jar of peanut butter. I guess after weeks of being in a swamp, freezing you get hungry. He also told me during Ranger training a guy found a chicken out in the middle of a swamp and bit its head off. In 1990 he retired as a LTC.

[bobdina]

S.sack thanks for the info, I had seen some stories on him but none as in depth as that this I find hard to believe though
Indeed, everyone involved on the Allied side was completely unaware of Wittmann's famous reputation in wartime Germany.
I'm sure they just kept it secret for morale reasons. It's funny you posted this today as I was taking to Stark(owner of the page) today about how there are no German war hero's , even now because of one madman actions so long ago. At least 4 German soldiers received medals for what they did in Afghanistan.

[bobdina]

Tokenvi- if he was awarded any medals for bravery maybe we can find them and put them him in the thread. If you want send me his info and I will try to do research on him. Either way thanks for sharing sounds like a great man.

[s.sack]

S.sack thanks for the info, I had seen some stories on him but none as in depth as that this I find hard to believe though
I'm sure they just kept it secret for morale reasons. It's funny you posted this today as I was taking to Stark(owner of the page) today about how there are no German war hero's , even now because of one madman actions so long ago. At least 4 German soldiers received medals for what they did in Afghanistan.


The German public has an unfortunate ambivalent self image of their history and the conflicts today( like Afghanistan).Certainly it is maybe a problem for many(German) people , to call an Waffen SS officer who was direct or indirect responsible for one of the world history greatest crimes (WW2) an hero.
I put this man into this thread, because of his achievemnts in duty , and not for his questionable conviction!!

Sorry for the bad English

[bobdina]

I agree with you and him being in here. Thats what Stark said about the German public too and I think it's sad. You guy's have some hard core guy's in harms way now and they should be recognized.

[Woodbutcher824]

My grandfather, Navy during WW 2. He was aboard LST 346 in the Med and European theater. After D day, went to the Pacific theater and I do not know what he did in the Pacific theater, been having a heck of a time getting his service records.

My wife's grandfather (Navy retired Master Chief) Served in the Pacific during WW 2, then after the war became a sonar man on many different destroyers. Taught sonar school Newport RI before retiring.

[nastyleg]

Tought you had mentioned the 4 german soldiers on this thread before. If not then you need to add Manfred Albrecht von Richthofen even after he was shot down he was buried with full military honors by Major Blake of No. 3 Squadron AFC.

[greenmamba]

So there´s another german WWII hero which I like to mention:

Lt. Friedrich Lengfeld,

which was deadly wounded during an attempt to
recover and aid a severly wounded U.S. Soldier in a german minefield
during the battle of Hürtgen forest.


As well as a not so well known seargent of the Bundeswehr :

Erich Boldt ,

who died during a training exercise with explosives in 1961.
An armed 200 gramm charge rolled back into the ditch,
where he and two of his subordinated soldiers took cover.
He threw himself on the charge to protect the two which
have stayed unharmed apart from minor burnings.

[Yono]

Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, Commader of the Sayeret Matkal during the Entebbe raid. He, the commander of the force that stormed the airport in Ettebbe, put himself on the line, and died. He was the only soldier that died in that operation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe

[blacksheep-23]

"Pvt. Abel F. Ortega was was born on August 22, 1919, in El Paso, Texas. He was one of six sons born to Ruben C. and Deborah F. Ortega. As a child, he lived at 505 East 9th Street in Austin, Texas. While young, Abel had two things he loved, one was his ability to draw and the other was history. It would be this love of history that would result in his becoming a member of the 192nd Tank Battalion.
In October, 1940, Abel received his draft notice and was inducted into the army in March of 1941. He was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky for basic training and became a member of the 753rd Tank Battalion. He was then sent to Camp Polk, Louisiana. One day, the commanding officer of the 753rd asked his men if any of them would be interested in going overseas on a tour of duty to the Philippine Islands. Abel's love of history and desire to visit the Orient resulted in him being the first man to volunteer.

Abel was quickly reassigned to Company A of the 192nd Tank Battalion at Camp Polk, Louisiana. The battalion was receiving new equipment as it prepared for duty in the Philippines. With his new battalion, Abel was sent to Angel Island off the coast of San Francisco to prepare for overseas duty. Leaving by ship, the battalion stopped in Hawaii and Guam before arriving in Manila on Thanksgiving Day. Upon arrival, they were rushed to Fort Stotsenburg. For the men of the 192nd, Thanksgiving Dinner was the leftovers of the 194th Tank Battalion. Abel's meal was a slice of bread with gravy on it.

On December 8, 1941, December 7th in the United States, Abel and the other members of his battalion were in the process of preparing their equipment for use when they received the news about Pearl Harbor. With this news, the battalion was ordered to scatter its tanks and half-tracks around the perimeter of Clark Field.

When lunch time came, the "replacements" were ordered to stay with the equipment while the original members of the battalion went to eat. While guarding his half-track, Abel heard the sound of planes approaching Clark Field. As he and the other men watched the sky, they felt good about the planes in the sky and the protection they were providing them. It was only when they heard the sound of bombs falling did he and the other men realize that the planes were Japanese. Abel recalled being on top of his half-track and firing his 50 caliber machine gun at the Japanese planes as they bombed Clark Field. The members of the battalion who had gone to dinner came running out of the mess hall and dove under their tanks and half-tracks for protection against the bombs. He and the other members of Company A were now in a battle to buy time for the United States and its allies so that they could reinforce Australia.

During the battle for the Philippine Islands, Abel was the half-track driver for the communications command half-track of Company A. As a member of this crew, he worked with Pvt. Joseph McCrea, Capt. Walter Write, 2nd Lt. Henry Knox and Sgt. Dale Lawton. While doing this job, Abel took part in the engagement with the Japanese at "The Battle of the Points." It was for their performance during this battle that the 192nd Tank Battalion would receive its Distinguished Unit Citation.

On April 8, 1942, Abel and the other members of the 192nd Tank Battalion were given the word by an officer that the Filipino and American Forces on Bataan were about to be surrendered to the Japanese. Abel destroyed his half-track and its equipment so that it could not be used by the Japanese. As he did this, he felt sad because they had fought so hard and lost so many men. When he was finished destroying the equipment, Abel knelt down and prayed to God to keep him alive. He also promised that if God kept him alive, he would help his fellow soldiers in what lay ahead. What lay ahead would become known as "The Bataan Death March."

Abel was initially shocked by the way the Japanese treated the Filipino and American prisoners on the march. They were marched with no sense of direction, without any food, and without any water. Prisoners who tried to get food or water were shot, bayoneted or decapitated. If a prisoner fell out of ranks, he was initially mistreated. Some of these men were beaten the entire length of the march. If the man fell out again, he was shot or bayoneted. As he marched, Abel saw many bodies of prisoners lying along the sides of the road.

While on the march, Abel was to witness a number of acts of cruelty by the Japanese. One night, when the prisoners were resting, the Filipino soldier next to Abel tried to build a fire to cook some rice he had come across. A Japanese guard bayoneted the man to death for doing this. In a separate incident, Abel witnessed the Japanese execute four or five Filipinos. The Japanese tied the Filipino prisoners to a hay stack and set the stack on fire. Abel remembered the screams of the these prisoners as they were burned alive.

The final incident involved an American soldier. As the POWs were marching, one POW fell from the ranks. A Japanese truck ran over the prisoner flattening him into the ground. Abel recalled that the driver of the truck had plenty of time to swerve and avoid the man. The Japanese soldiers did these things, but, to Abel, it seemed that the officers stood back and silently approved of the soldier's actions.

On the fifth day of the march Abel received his first food. It was a handful of steamed rice. On the sixth and seventh day of the march, Abel received about a half a mess kit full of rice. He estimated that the total amount of food he received during the twelve days it took him to complete the march was the equivalent of three filled mess kits.

Abel arrived at Camp O'Donnell on April 27, 1942, and watched as a great number of the prisoners died from disease. Abel was never really sure how many men died per day because during his interment there, Abel was often exhausted, dazed and unaware of what was going on around him.

On May 7, 1942, Abel was transferred to another camp near Calauan under the command of Captain Wakamori. The men in this camp received good treatment when compared to the other camps, and the food in the camp was good and adequate. The men were fed rice and soup each day. The prisoners on this detail were given the duty of repairing the bridges and roads destroyed during the Battle of Bataan.

On September 8, 1942, Abel and the other Prisoners Of War were sent to Cabanatuan. As a prisoner here, Abel worked in the camp farm. This was where the "Blood Brother" rule was first enforced. Each group of ten men were responsible for each other. If one man escaped, the other nine would be executed. Abel recalled that a soldier by the name of House escaped from the camp. For whatever reason, the Japanese did not execute the other nine men.

On January 28, 1943, Abel was transferred to a work camp at Lipa in Batangas Province. The men on this detail built runways for the Japanese. The work was extremely hard and the food was scarce. The average meal was rice and soup. The prisoners were able to work but could not do much beyond this. On this detail, Abel worked with Joseph Lajzer a member of Company B, 192nd Tank Battalion.

While a POW at Lipa, Abel was sent out on a work detail. It was on this detail that Abel witnessed a Japanese guard beat an American officer because he did not like him. The guards lined the POW's up at attention and called the officer out. The officer, a Lt. Wandell was made to get in the "pushup position." He was then beaten by the guard with a long branch of a tree. Lt. Wendell fell to the ground, but the guard would not stop until he returned to the up position on his hands and toes. In Abel's estimation, the beating lasted approximately ten minutes. When the guard was satisfied, he allowed Lt. Wendell to rise. The officer was able to walk, but he was very weak and staggered.

It was Abel's belief that had the beating not stopped, the POW's were on the verge of attacking the guards. The Japanese had made them watch the beating but had forgotten to take away their picks and shovels.

On March 26, 1944, Abel was transferred to Camp Murphy which was a work camp where he once again engaged in airport building. At this camp the prisoners were frequently beaten with pick handles. It was at this camp that Abel would be punished severely.

One morning, Abel and two other POW's were the last men to fall in formation. The three men were made to stand at attention while a guard walked past them slapping them hard on the left side of their faces with the flat side of a bayonet. After this the men were made to kneel. A stick, about two inches in diameter cut from a tree with small stubs sticking out of it, was placed behind the knees of each man. This made kneeling extremely painful. As they knelt each man was punched in the face by the guards. The guards also began jumping on the legs of the men so that the sticks would dig into their legs. This beating lasted about twenty minutes.

On September 24, 1944, Abel was transferred to Bilibid Prison in Manila. He remained here only a few days before being put on the Japanese freighter, Hokusen Maru, that was bound for Formosa. The experience of the trip to Japan on this "Hell Ship" was the worse experience Abel had as a POW. Five hundred prisoners were placed in a 45 foot by 30 foot hold and were fed once or twice a day. The hold was extremely hot and men suffered from heat prostration. Eight or nine men died and a number of other men went insane.

Since there was no room to sit down, the men stayed in a half-sitting position most of the time. The only times the men were permitted on the deck was to go to the latrine. When this was done, only one man was permitted on the deck at a time and only for a few minutes.

The convoy Abel's ship was in was attacked by American submarines and a number of the prisoner ships were sunk. One of which was the Arisan Maru. Abel remembered that four survivors from the ship were placed on his ship. After the submarine attack, Abel's ship went to Hong Kong instead of Japan. Arriving there, the ship remained in the harbor for eleven days and was bombed by American planes. None of the bombs hit Abel's ship. The ship next went to Formosa where one of the four POWs who had survived their ship's sinking died when the ship reached Formosa.

On Formosa, Abel was sent to a work camp and out on work details. Even though the work was not that hard, many of the POW's died of malnutrition. Abel would remain on Formosa from November 1, 1944 until January 14, 1945, when he was sent to Japan on the Melbourne Maru.

Abel arrived in Japan on the 14th or 15th of January and was sent to Osaka. There, he did stevedore work in the port for the Kamiguni Company. Abel recalled that the prisoners were still beaten; but, by this time, they were so used to it that it did not bother them.

Around March of 1945 Abel was sent from Osaka to Maibara 10-B. This was somewhere in the interior of Japan. There he worked building canals and draining lakes. This was near the end of the war so the treatment the POW's received had gotten better.

One day a British POW entered the camp and told the men that the war was over. The prisoners decided that they were going to test this information. The guards were standing nearby, but their guns were leaning against a building. The POW's rushed the guns and so did the guards. After a short struggle, the guards let go of the guns and left. To the POW's this was the first proof that the war was over. When American planes appeared and started to drop them supplies, the prisoners' belief was confirmed.

Abel and the other men decided to take the parachutes from the planes and had a Japanese tailor make the flags of their countries. They then collected instruments and played the national anthems of each of the countries as they raised the flags.

On September 10, 1945, the POW's made contact with American troops. Abel was sent to Yokohoma, Japan to to be deloused, to shower and to receive new clothes. He returned to the United States at the end of October 1945.

After the war, Abel saw Sgt. House standing outside a Army Recruiting Office. When Sgt. House saw Abel he turned away from him and would not acknowledge Abel. Abel presumed that he did not know that the other men had not been killed because he had escaped.

Today, Abel resides in San Antonio, Texas, and his fishing buddy is Joseph Lajzer, of Company B, who had been a POW with him. Abel also enjoys giving presentations about his experiences as a POW."

http://www.proviso.k12.il.us/bataan%20web/ortega.htm

Go to next link for video interview
http://www.proviso.k12.il.us/bataan%20web/interviews.htm

Home link
http://www.proviso.k12.il.us/bataan%20web/company_a.htm

As a side note, My uncle was again called up for the Korean Conflict. He would often state, "I guess they didn't think I did enough the first time around seeing as I sat it out".

[bobdina]

Grenmamba here's the thread on German Offficer dies saving wounded American in WW2 it was done a while ago http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/showthread.php?t=2509

[bobdina]

New rules in affect for the Hero board, please read


When you want me to honor someone in the other section, not this thread but where the hero's are listed please put Country, name, award (if you know it) and for what theater of operations (if known)I.E. Germany Nico Greenmamba, courage award, Apache nation. Mil badge holders can put their submission right into the other section but please use the above format. It makes it much easier for me when trying to see if someone has already been honored, for non badge holder's if you don't post it here it will go into a cue to make sure no one tries to slip by someone not deserving. We have had to install this because of 1 members actions. Non badge holders I would rather you post here first to save me a little time as I am very busy to keep checking the cue. As you guy's can see when I have enough info I have posted everyone's request . If you have no info but wish to honor friends, family whatever do it here and when I have time I will do research to see what I can dig up. Thanks guy's for making this section a success.

[s.sack]

German Heinrich Severloh (* 23. Juni 1923 † 14. Januar 2006 in Lachendorf) better known as “Beast of Omaha Beach”

He rose to notoriety as a gunner in a machine gun emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62”, whose position enabled him to inflict 1500-2000 casualties while American soldiers were landing on Omaha Beach as part of Operation Overlord.


The site of Severloh’s last active mission was a simple foxhole in the section of Omaha Beach known to the Americans as “Easy Red”, close to the present site of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Colleville-sur-Mer. Severloh’s superiors had ordered him to use all means to drive back the landing American soldiers. His foxhole was part of a medium-sized emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62” (English: resistance nest 62). In the absence of a well-developed defensive line, such “resistance nests” had been established along the Atlantic coast and allocated numbers for identification. There were radio and telephone connections between the various emplacements, and many were also within eyesight of one another. The soldiers manning the emplacements in a firing line could therefore coordinate with one another.

Severloh was assigned to a Lieutenant Frerking. While Frerking coordinated the artillery fire of his battery from a bunker, the young Severloh manned an MG42. He fired on the waves of approaching American GIs with the machine gun and two Karabiner 98k rifles, while comrades kept up a continuous flow of ammunition to him. By 3 p.m., Severloh had fired approximately 12,000 rounds with the machine gun and 400 rounds with the two rifles. Some have asserted that this resulted in an estimated 2000-2500 American deaths and injuries, however this is likely a gross overestimation, since total American casualties on Omaha Beach weren't more than 2000-2400. GIs finally found a thinly manned gap between resistance nests 62 and 64 (directly below the site of the U.S. War Cemetery) and were thus able to attack Widerstandsnest 62 from behind and take it out (resistance nest 63 was a command centre in Colleville and not an emplacement).

Lieutenant Frerking’s artillery observation bunker and Widerstandsnest 62 still exist and can be visited at the beach below Colleville. The foxhole can only be vaguely discerned.

One of the few survivors of Severloh’s MG salvos was the 19-year-old GI David Silva, who was, however, gravely wounded. In the 1960s, Severloh found David Silva’s name in a book about the invasion. Wishing to find this man that he had once shot at, Severloh wrote him a letter. Several months later, Severloh discovered that Silva was once more active in the U.S. Army as a military chaplain and was stationed in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was there that they met for the second time. Severloh asked him how he had come to be a chaplain. Silva's answer was: “In the moment when I had to get out of that landing boat and run up into the fire of your machine gun, I cried out to God to help me to get out of this hell alive. I pledged to become a chaplain and as such to help other soldiers.” After living through the war, he was ordained a priest. The erstwhile enemies became good friends and at the 2005 reunion of Allied Forces in Normandy, Severloh and Silva met once more. According to eyewitnesses, the two seemed to be “the best of friends”.[citation needed] Between the time they first met after the war, until Severloh's death, the two wrote to each other often. Silva is now living in Cleveland, Ohio as a priest and has visited Severloh's gravesite more than once.

For decades, this epithet was hurled at the unknown German soldier who had impeded the invading GIs at “Easy Red” with such terrible effectiveness. These thousands of slaughtered soldiers had fallen victim to the misplaced assumption that this section of the beach and all of the Wehrmacht’s emplacements had already been cleared away before the invasion. The “Beast of Omaha Beach” would remain more or less unknown until the last memorial reunion commemorating the landing of the Allies in Normandy.


When Severloh was taken captive, he thought that he could tell nobody, not even his comrades, how many men he had probably killed during the landing. He thought that he might be murdered if the Americans ever found out what he had done.


(wikipedia)

no1: Severloh with Silva at Omaha no2:Severloh early 1940

[leahcimnosirrom]

a lot of history on this board. i hate to be that guy that says his father, but i got to say it is my father. he was in vietnam early in the war hanging out of a huey with a stripped m-60 attached by a small cord. he survived multiple forced landings and received a purple heart while in country. he stayed in the army close to 10 years. never heard that man complain once about the cards he was dealt... it has been close to 4 years sense he passed away. i miss him greatly.

[bobdina]

a lot of history on this board. i hate to be that guy that says his father, but i got to say it is my father. he was in vietnam early in the war hanging out of a huey with a stripped m-60 attached by a small cord. he survived multiple forced landings and received a purple heart while in country. he stayed in the army close to 10 years. never heard that man complain once about the cards he was dealt... it has been close to 4 years sense he passed away. i miss him greatly.

Sounds like a true hero, if you want pm me his name I'll see If I can come up with something to put in the other thread, Bob

[bobdina]

German Heinrich Severloh (* 23. Juni 1923 â€* 14. Januar 2006 in Lachendorf) better known as “Beast of Omaha Beachâ€�

He rose to notoriety as a gunner in a machine gun emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62�, whose position enabled him to inflict 1500-2000 casualties while American soldiers were landing on Omaha Beach as part of Operation Overlord.


The site of Severloh’s last active mission was a simple foxhole in the section of Omaha Beach known to the Americans as “Easy Red�, close to the present site of the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial near Colleville-sur-Mer. Severloh’s superiors had ordered him to use all means to drive back the landing American soldiers. His foxhole was part of a medium-sized emplacement known as “Widerstandsnest 62� (English: resistance nest 62). In the absence of a well-developed defensive line, such “resistance nests� had been established along the Atlantic coast and allocated numbers for identification. There were radio and telephone connections between the various emplacements, and many were also within eyesight of one another. The soldiers manning the emplacements in a firing line could therefore coordinate with one another.

Severloh was assigned to a Lieutenant Frerking. While Frerking coordinated the artillery fire of his battery from a bunker, the young Severloh manned an MG42. He fired on the waves of approaching American GIs with the machine gun and two Karabiner 98k rifles, while comrades kept up a continuous flow of ammunition to him. By 3 p.m., Severloh had fired approximately 12,000 rounds with the machine gun and 400 rounds with the two rifles. Some have asserted that this resulted in an estimated 2000-2500 American deaths and injuries, however this is likely a gross overestimation, since total American casualties on Omaha Beach weren't more than 2000-2400. GIs finally found a thinly manned gap between resistance nests 62 and 64 (directly below the site of the U.S. War Cemetery) and were thus able to attack Widerstandsnest 62 from behind and take it out (resistance nest 63 was a command centre in Colleville and not an emplacement).

Lieutenant Frerking’s artillery observation bunker and Widerstandsnest 62 still exist and can be visited at the beach below Colleville. The foxhole can only be vaguely discerned.

One of the few survivors of Severloh’s MG salvos was the 19-year-old GI David Silva, who was, however, gravely wounded. In the 1960s, Severloh found David Silva’s name in a book about the invasion. Wishing to find this man that he had once shot at, Severloh wrote him a letter. Several months later, Severloh discovered that Silva was once more active in the U.S. Army as a military chaplain and was stationed in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was there that they met for the second time. Severloh asked him how he had come to be a chaplain. Silva's answer was: “In the moment when I had to get out of that landing boat and run up into the fire of your machine gun, I cried out to God to help me to get out of this hell alive. I pledged to become a chaplain and as such to help other soldiers.� After living through the war, he was ordained a priest. The erstwhile enemies became good friends and at the 2005 reunion of Allied Forces in Normandy, Severloh and Silva met once more. According to eyewitnesses, the two seemed to be “the best of friends�.[citation needed] Between the time they first met after the war, until Severloh's death, the two wrote to each other often. Silva is now living in Cleveland, Ohio as a priest and has visited Severloh's gravesite more than once.

For decades, this epithet was hurled at the unknown German soldier who had impeded the invading GIs at “Easy Red� with such terrible effectiveness. These thousands of slaughtered soldiers had fallen victim to the misplaced assumption that this section of the beach and all of the Wehrmacht’s emplacements had already been cleared away before the invasion. The “Beast of Omaha Beach� would remain more or less unknown until the last memorial reunion commemorating the landing of the Allies in Normandy.


When Severloh was taken captive, he thought that he could tell nobody, not even his comrades, how many men he had probably killed during the landing. He thought that he might be murdered if the Americans ever found out what he had done.


(wikipedia)

no1: Severloh with Silva at Omaha no2:Severloh early 1940

Thanks for that great info, Bob

[shatto]

Rich Grey died.

You don't know him, and even a deep search on Google might not find him. So, why should you be interested? That is the reason behind this little essay.

Rich Grey was in the 366th Fighter Group, known as "The Gunfighters." He flew a P-47 fighter in ground support after D-Day and through the rest of the Second World War.
He told me that intelligence said that the Germans were using everything possible to resupply their troops, even the hand carts refugees used to carry their belongings in as they tried to move away from combat. Rich said he was flying parallel to a road, saw what appeared to be families and a number of carts.....He hit full left rudder, putting his plane in a skid, you aren't supposed to be able to make a P-47 skid sideways much less do it and strafe. The .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun is an awesome weapon, those big slugs are capable of doing very serious damage, and he had eight of them and BLOOIE! the carts erupted as the ammunition in them exploded.
We talked about airplanes and techniques he used to extend the range of the plane hundreds of miles further than the specifications said a P-47 could go.
Rich told me he stayed with the 366th into the jet age, before finally retiring as a Colonel. He was a gentle-man in every sense, and although we read in the Obituaries "they were devoted" blah, blah, Rich and his wife were just that, the happiness of the other being the concern of each. I would have liked to talk more but they were too far away for more than the rare times they were at my in-law's home.

I met Rich at the home of my father in-law, Morris "Andy" Andersen, a man who, even in the depths of Dementia before he passed on, was always a polite and sociable gentle-man and that is an uncommon blessing as those with experience with Dementia and Alzheimer's know. Andy was a Colonel in General George S. Patton's Third Army, but never left the States. Andy ran a factory that made ammunition for the rest of the Division to shoot at Germans.

Another person I got to meet at the Andersen's was Charlie Hudson. Charlie had a life that was worth making into a movie based on his book; "Combat, He Wrote" about being the lead bombardier for the 8th Air Force and his life after the war. No, wait. There were movies.
http://www.91stbombgroup.com/91st_business/hudsonbook.html
Charlie grew up with Andy's wife, Klondie in Taft, California. Their life long friendship is why I got to meet Charlie when he visited.

A grandfather, Leon Offner received an award from the Commanding Officer as the best telegraph operator in the Pacific Fleet. He had been retired from the Navy many years before the Japanese attack and his ship was the only undamaged Battle Ship at Pearl Harbor December 7 1941, the USS Pennsylvania.

My mothers father Wayne A. Tatom lied and got in the Navy at 16. He served on a "armored cruiser" commissioned West Virginia in 1905 and changed to USS Huntington in 1917. So, another grandfather served but missed a war.

It is uncommon for a step-parent and step-child to get along, but I was lucky to learn a little bit about mine, Chesley H. Robertson. My discovery was reading a couple sentences about him in the book; "RAF Biggin Hill. Ches joined in Canada to get into Eagle Squadron, flying a Spitfire against the Luftwaffe at the end of the Battle of Britain. Originally from Mississippi, Ches was a Southern Gentleman, and outside confirming what I'd read and that he went on to fly the P-47 when his squadron was absorbed into the United States Army Air Force, he never spoke about the war. I did see a photo of him, a lanky 6'4" youngster in a group around Winston Churchill. That was all.
He and my mom went to an Eagle Squadron reunion. Like many, he walked over to the Spitfire, gently petted it, and cried.

Ted Shatto was a fighter pilot in The Aleutians. Around campfires, he gave me only the smallest tidbits; a story about being jumped by Zero's who shot out one engine of his P-38, and there he was, upside-down over the Arctic Ocean and then they killed the other engine....
He told of the Royal Canadian Air Force pilot that was cross training with the Yanks who was assigned to my dad and was to fly using his P-40. He was told that you had to use full power to take off from the muddy strip and the best way to overcome the torque was to wedge his arm against the side of the cockpit with the stick against the butt of his hand. The Canadian did it like he would in a Hurricane, part throttle, and drove my dad's favorite plane right into the bay at the end of the runway.
He used to remove the ammo bins, fly to the mainland and load up with beer.
They had to have someone walk the paths to the tents they lived in after a party when the Medic let them use some of his Alcohol to mix with orange juice...because a guy could freeze if he passed out on the way to his tent and bed.
He said his Distinguished Flying Cross was awarded just because he took over when the flight leader slipped, fell and broke his arm trying to mount his plane for a mission one rainy morning.
Once, he looked back to see a puff of black smoke where the bomber he was escorting had been. Ack-Ack in the bomb bay.
Then, there was the poor guy sitting in a rock looking across the water and dreaming about home. Dad said he would not have seen him, and he would have been fine except he got up and ran into a nearby shack.

So, what is the point?

I believe the stories need telling because they make up the thread and the fabric of a family and holds it together.
The stories that make up the history of a family, a clan, berg, village, town, city, the stories of the people add-up to the story of a nation and culture.

Without knowing what happened and how it relates to us personally, we have no context, no basis, no foundation upon which to build our lives and we are likely to be easily manipulated by people with agendas based upon theories and practices that have often-times already been proved not to work.

Every one of us wishes, too late, that we had been able to talk with and learn more about the people we know.
These stories need to be told.
Not just the warriors tale, but the everyday people from all parts of our family. The people who invented and gave us the lifestyle we enjoy today. The old folks who lived what is in today's history books.

They rarely offer their stories.
We would be enchanted by them.
They would enjoy the attention.

[bobdina]

Thanks shatto for sharing very interesting keep up the good work

[ghost]

Awesome post, man. Great read. Thanks for sharing. Sounds like a great group of guys.

This is exactly why they are our greatest generation.

[JiiVee]

Lauri törni known as Larry Thorne.
Read those and maybe lauri is you hero too.

http://www.mikecleverley.com/more_on_larry_thorne
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauri_T%C3%B6rni

[JMfin]

World best sniper ever: Finnish sniper/soldier: Simo häyhä. nicknamed "White Death" by the Soviet army, was a Finnish soldier. Using a standard iron-sighted, bolt action rifle in the Winter War, he had the highest recorded number of kills as a sniper in any major war. It was during the Winter War (1939–1940), between Finland and the Soviet Union, that he began his duty as a sniper and fought for the Finnish Army against the Red Army.

In temperatures between −20 and −40 degrees Celsius (−4 and −40 degrees Fahrenheit), dressed completely in white camouflage, Häyhä was credited with 505 confirmed kills of Soviet soldiers,[2][4] and 542 if including the unconfirmed deaths.[4] The unofficial Finnish frontline figure from the battlefield of Kollaa places the number of Häyhä's sniper kills over 800.[5] A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was conducted for the Finnish snipers. Besides his sniper kills, Häyhä was also credited with over two hundred kills with a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun, thus bringing his credited kills to at least 705.[4] All of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in less than 100 days.

[JiiVee]

World best sniper ever: Finnish sniper/soldier: Simo häyhä. nicknamed "White Death" by the Soviet army, was a Finnish soldier. Using a standard iron-sighted, bolt action rifle in the Winter War, he had the highest recorded number of kills as a sniper in any major war. It was during the Winter War (1939–1940), between Finland and the Soviet Union, that he began his duty as a sniper and fought for the Finnish Army against the Red Army.

In temperatures between −20 and −40 degrees Celsius (−4 and −40 degrees Fahrenheit), dressed completely in white camouflage, Häyhä was credited with 505 confirmed kills of Soviet soldiers,[2][4] and 542 if including the unconfirmed deaths.[4] The unofficial Finnish frontline figure from the battlefield of Kollaa places the number of Häyhä's sniper kills over 800.[5] A daily account of the kills at Kollaa was conducted for the Finnish snipers. Besides his sniper kills, Häyhä was also credited with over two hundred kills with a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun, thus bringing his credited kills to at least 705.[4] All of Häyhä's kills were accomplished in less than 100 days.

Häyhä is one biggest finnish hero.
But so are all those veterans who gain ours independence.

[Ragnark]

my heros are patrick behlke and roman schmidt
+ 20.10.2008
about one year ago

[bobdina]

my heros are patrick behlke and roman schmidt
+ 20.10.2008
about one year ago

Did the 4 soldiers who received the medal about 6 months ago, however at the time time did not have the names of the soldiers who died. It's been updated Thank you


http://www.apacheclips.com/boards/showthread.php?t=2505

[gremlin]

My late father

Royal navy

[kingrasta]

My pops used to tell me about how fierce the weather was in Korea. When he got there, the Army had issued him spring weather gear. The first night was in the low 30's with a gusty wind chill of 25 and he froze butt all night long. While walking his patrol he heard whistles, gongs, and horns off in the distance. They got louder and louder as the minutes passed. He was scared silly. That was the night he started smoking! What he didn't know was, for the past 5 weeks the Chinese were sending hundreds if not thousands of young men to crash the wire and every night the Marines buried in the hillside below lite them up. In the morning, after the fog lifted the bodies had all been removed until the next wave was sent. He used to say, these guys aren't even Korean, their Chi niee he would say.

Thought I would share that with ya all.

[fratricide357]

My grandfather wwII. love you grandpa. R.I.P

[153Alpha]

My brother.

He's the one who's inspired me to more or less follow in his footsteps. (He's a 153A aviator as well, flies blackhawks for the 101st) He's inspired me in so many ways, I can't list them. He's been deployed twice, both times to Iraq. As I said, he's inspired me to fly helicopters.

Then there's my second brother (a 92F) has been deployed to Afghanistan twice now, and got back home just a few days ago. He's my hero because he has done so much for our country.

[DefensorFortis]

Here's someone that is closer to home for me:

Lance Corporal Jeremy Lasher

Age: 27
Hometown: Oneida, NY
Date of Death: 7/23/2009
Incident Location: Helmand province, Afghanistan
Branch of Military: Marines
Rank: Lance Cpl
Unit: 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II MEF
Unit's Base: Camp Lejeune, NC

Obituary:

LCpl. Jeremy S. Lasher
Oneida
LCpl. Jeremy S. Lasher, USMC, 27, Luther Court, Tarawa Terrace, North Carolina, died Thursday, July 23, 2009, in the Helmand province of Afghanistan while on a mission. Born in Hamilton on November 12, 1981, he was the son of Gary Lasher and the former Vicky Barker Lasher. Jeremy was a graduate of Oneida High School, Class of 2000. He married Andrea Wolcik in Vernon on June 20, 2006. While in high school, Jeremy was active in many sports, especially wrestling. In his younger days, he was involved with Pop Warner Football and Little League, Babe Ruth and Connie Mack Baseball. Jeremy enlisted in the Marine Corps on October 10, 2006, and faithfully served his country in the Iraq War. He was a member of the Verona Fire Department and enjoyed music, golfing, snowmobiling, sketching, skateboarding, rollerblading, landscaping and gardening and especially loved spending time with his family and friends. Jeremy was of the Christian faith. Surviving besides his wife, Andrea, is their son, Caden S. Lasher, at home; his mother and step-father, Vicky and Scott Arnold of Oneida; his father and step-mother, Gary Lasher and Deanna Lebesque of Cold Brook; one sister, Jennifer L. Makepeace of Sherrill; two brothers and one sister-in-law, Daniel W. Lasher of Oneida and LCpl. Ryan M. and Debra Lasher of Camp Pendelton, California; two half-brothers, Colin M. and Connor C. Lasher, both of Cold Brook; one brother-in-law, Greg Makepeace of Phoenix; grandparents, Joanne and Charles Wingerter of Camillus and Ella Mae Lasher of Coconut Creek, Florida; mother-in-law and her companion, Patricia Wolcik and Frederick Kalil of Liverpool; father-in-law and his companion, Bernard Wolcik and Donna Eckenrod of Orlando, Florida; two brothers-in-law and one sister-in-law, Christopher G. Wolcik of Orlando, Florida, and Bryan E. Wolcik and Wasontiiosta George of Maricopa, Arizona; and several aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. He was predeceased by his grandparents, Ray and Jean Barker, Walter Lasher, and Andreas grandparents, George and Delores Wolcik. Funeral services will be held 10:30 AM, Saturday, from New Beginnings Methodist Church, Route 5, Wampsville, with the Reverend Skip Hellmig officiating. Interment will take place at the convenience of the family in the family plot in Oneida Castle Cemetery. Friends may call at the Campbell-Dean Funeral Home, Inc., 260 Main Street, Oneida, on Friday from 1-7 PM. Contributions, in Jeremys memory, may be made to the Caden S. Lasher Educational Fund, c/o Oneida Savings Bank, 182 Main Street, Oneida, NY 13421. Envelopes for this fund may be obtained at the funeral home. A reception immediately following the funeral service will be held at the Oneida American Legion.
LCpl. J.S. Lasher

Published in The Observer-Dispatch on July 30, 2009

Story:

Honoring a hometown hero


Farah Jadran Pike 08/02/09More articles
[Click to enlarge]
“Next time we meet at the gates of heaven,� Ryan said of his brother. “I will salute you and tell you, you are relieved of your post.�
A man with an undeniable character, conviction and courage, was how fellow friend and Verona fireman described Lance Cpl. Jeremy Lasher, 27. Similar sentiments and memories were shared during his funeral service Saturday Aug. 1 at New Beginnings Methodist church in Wampsville.

“We are not here to mourn Jeremy,� said Steve Wright, who served the Verona Fire Department alongside Lasher. “But to honor what he has become.�

Wright said lasher’s incredible character will forever be an inspiration to the fire department and the entire community, as he was a “great friend and a true hero.�

“Today with Jeremy in heaven, those streets are guarded,� Wright said.

As many family and friends agreed, Lasher was a quiet and soft-spoken man that never wanted to be the center of attention. But with his undoubted sense of courage and service, no one could deny him these special moments to honor his name.

Lasher’s father-in-law Ben Wolcik said that he always felt at peace knowing that a man like Jeremy was taking care of his daughter Andrea, 24, and his 1-year-old grandson Caden.

“He wasn’t outspoken,� Wolcik said. “He spoke with his actions.�

Lasher’s brother Ryan, also a U.S. Marine, said that he had started writing down what he wanted to say when he was traveling to Dover, Del., to meet the that plane that would be carrying his brother’s body home from Afghanistan.

He said he was thinking about bringing his brother home “to a good welcome,� which in Ryan’s heart he knew would be the way that Jeremy “wouldn’t want it.� Ryan said that he and his brother had talked about what could happen at war, he said they “even joked about it,� but that he "never thought this day would come."

As the memories were shared, Reverend Skip Hellmig, who officiated the service, spoke between family members as he explained how hard it would be to put himself in the shoes of any of the Lasher family members. Hellmig talked about Jeremy’s courage and duty as a Marine by which he paid the ultimate price for our country’s freedom.

“They serve because they love,� Hellmig said of all servicemen.

The reverend said that he knows there might be thousands of questions asking “why?� Why my son? Why my husband?�

Hellmig said the best thing he could offer to help cope with those questions is to rest Jeremy’s soul and look to the future of filling Caden’s life with his father’s memories.

Like Hellmig, Andrea’s father said that there are many stories and memories of Jeremy that will be shared with Caden so that he knows the honorable man that his father was.

Jeremy’s sister Jennifer spoke on behalf of Andrea during the service as she read a few excerpts from a journal Andrea had kept. Jennifer said the passages were from Feb. 1, 2007, during Jeremy’s first deployment. The passages contained quotes that Andrea said she found and thought best described her love for her husband Jeremy.

Lasher’s mother Vicky Arnold of Oneida, spoke toward the end of the service also, so that she could not only honor her son as a hero, but her daughter-in-law Andrea. Arnold explained that while Jeremy was on his first deployment, Andrea gave birth to their son Caden and managed to be strong during a difficult time.

Arnold said that Andrea should be honored as well for displaying such strength and courage and pulling through as she and Caden waited for Jeremy to come home.

Both Andrea and Caden were true joys of Jeremy’s life, according to his brother Ryan. “Family came first for Jeremy,� he said. He told the service attendants that if they ever wanted to see true love they should see Jeremy and Andrea or hear them talk about each other.

Ryan said that he wouldn’t go on talking but that anyone of his brother’s friends or family could tell them what kind of friend, brother, husband, son and community member Jeremy was.

“Next time we meet at the gates of heaven,� Ryan said of his brother. “I will salute you and tell you, you are relieved of your post.�

[Al Capwn]

United States Army Staff Sergeant Brent Fetters - 10th Mountain Division

A great NCO, a great soldier, and a great mentor.

[green2delta]

U.S Army Spc. Daniel Paul Unger. During mortar attack he was in charge of local nationals performing work at F.O.B Kalsu in Iraq. Instead of taking cover and leaving the local nationals he stayed with them and tried to usher them to a bunker. He ended up giving his life in this effort. My hero.

[Pittsburgh]

These guys...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z574-c51Eg&feature=related