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Profiles in Courage

Eileen Nearne – British WWII Heroine

Eileen Nearne – British WWII Heroine

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The "Croix de Guerre" or "Cross of War," is a French military decoration honoring people for their resistance against the Nazis in WWII. Furthermore, being appointed a "Member of the Order of the British Empire" by King George VI for services rendered in France during the enemy occupation was a high British honor. Any man who was awarded such honors must have been a remarkable one. Only, in this case, we are dealing with a woman and a brave and tenacious one at that. The Perilous Life of Eileen Nearne in WWII Eileen Nearne, the woman who received these accolades, lived a perilous life in WWII. To a large extent, her exploits mirrored those of Charlotte Gray in the 2001 movie bearing the same name. The film, based on the novel by Sebastian Faulks, features the adventures of female agents in German-occupied France. But why have most of us never heard of Eileen Nearne? Is it because her missions were so top-secret that information never leaked out? Or is it like many events during the...

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Cpt Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace, U.S. Army (1959–1965) – Medal of Honor Recipient

Cpt Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace, U.S. Army (1959–1965) – Medal of Honor Recipient

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Captain Humbert Roque Versace, affectionately called "Rocky," was an officer of the United States Army. He went on to receive the Medal of Honor-the greatest military decoration of the United States-for the heroic actions he undertook as a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War. Puerto Rican-Italian by descent, he was the first member of the U.S. Army to have ever received such a distinction. Born on July 2, 1937, in Honolulu, Hawaii, Humbert Roque Versace was the eldest of five children. Versace's father was Colonel Humbert Joseph Versace (1911–1972), and his mother was Marie Teresa Ríos (1917–1999) who authored three books, which includes the popular work 'Fifteenth Pelican,' on which the 1960s starred Sally Field as 'The Flying Nun' was based. Having grown up in Alexandria, Virginia, Versace attended Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C. during his freshman and sophomore years, Frankfurt American High School in his junior year, and after graduating from Norfolk Catholic High...

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Col Merryl Tengesdal, U.S. Air Force (1994-2017) – U2 Pilot

Col Merryl Tengesdal, U.S. Air Force (1994-2017) – U2 Pilot

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Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Merryl Tengesdal is the first African American female U-2 pilot in history and is the first African American woman to fly the Air Force's U-2 Dragon Lady Spy Plane. She is the only black woman alongside five white women and two black men to fly spy planes. Merryl Tengesdal was born Merryl David in 1971 in the Bronx, New York. She excelled in math and science classes in grade school and high school and graduated from the University of New Haven in Connecticut in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. She completed the U.S. Navy's Officer Candidate School in 1994. Merryl Tengesdal Served in the Iraq War And the War in Afghanistan In her first assignment as a Naval Aviator at Naval Station Mayport in Florida, Tengesdal flew the SH-60B Seahawk helicopter, a derivative of the Army's UH-60 Black Hawk. The SH-60B Seahawk is used for anti-submarine warfare, search and rescue, anti-ship warfare, drug interdiction, cargo lift, and special...

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SFC Leigh Ann Hester, U.S. Army (2001-Present) – Silver Star Recipient

SFC Leigh Ann Hester, U.S. Army (2001-Present) – Silver Star Recipient

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On the morning of March 20, 2005, then-Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester was tasked with assisting a supply convoy moving east of Baghdad, a job that meant scanning and clearing the route of any improvised explosive devices. She'd done this job countless times before, getting shot at on almost a daily basis and seeing vehicles blown up more times than anyone would like to remember. Leigh Ann Hester Was Cited for Valor in Close Quarters Combat Executing daily patrols as a member of the National Guard's Kentucky-based 617th Military Police Company meant guaranteed exposure to combat, something the Pentagon, until an order was signed in 2013, was not even allowing women to officially engage in as an occupational specialty. "It was that one job where you can get out there and get dirty and be in an infantry-type environment," she told the Tennessean in 2015. "I guess it was one of the more exciting jobs in the military for women when I enlisted, and it still is now." As such, Hester's resolve in the...

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SFC Fred Willam Zabitosky, U.S. Army (1959-1989) – MOH Recipient

SFC Fred Willam Zabitosky, U.S. Army (1959-1989) – MOH Recipient

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For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. SFC Fred Zabitosky, US Army, distinguished himself while serving as an assistant team leader of a nine-man Special Forces long-range reconnaissance patrol. SFC Zabitosky's patrol was operating deep within the enemy-controlled territory in Laos when they were attacked by a numerically superior North Vietnamese Army unit.  SFC Fred Zabitosky Repeatedly Exposed Himself to North Vietnamese Attackts SFC Fred Zabitosky rallied his team members, deployed them into defensive positions, and, exposing himself to concentrated enemy automatic weapons fire, directed their return fire. Realizing the gravity of the situation, SFC Zabitosky ordered his patrol to move to a landing zone for helicopter extraction while he covered their withdrawal with rifle fire and grenades. Rejoining the patrol under increasing enemy pressure, he positioned each man in tight perimeter defense and...

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SCPO Mike Day, U.S. Navy Seal

SCPO Mike Day, U.S. Navy Seal

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Senior Chief Petty Officer Douglas "Mike" Day was the first to breach a small room while on a house raid in Iraq's Anbar Province in April 2007. The moment he walked in, he felt like a sledgehammer hit him. It was the first of many bullets he would take in the next few minutes. The entire gunfight was about to take place inside of a 12-foot room. Day and his fellow U.S. Navy SEALs were tasked with taking down a terror cell run by al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), the group that years later would morph into the Islamic State. With them was a team of Iraqi scouts on the hunt for a high-value target inside an AQI terror cell. They had shot down a pair of American helicopters, killing everyone aboard.  Mike Day's Attack on Terror Cell Run By Al-Qaeda in Iraq To catch him, they were raiding a suspect's house at night. This particular house they were raiding was full of enemy insurgents. The room he just entered contained three of those insurgents. They opened fire on him as soon as he entered...

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SM1c Douglas Munro, U.S. Coast Guard (1939 – 1942)

SM1c Douglas Munro, U.S. Coast Guard (1939 – 1942)

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During the World War II fight for Guadalcanal, three companies of United States Marines were cut off from the main force fighting along the Matanikau River. Surrounded and outnumbered, Marine Corps leadership believed the men would be annihilated - all but one, that is.  Lt. Col. Lewis "Chesty" Puller wasn't about to let three whole companies die if he could do anything about it. If anyone could, it was Chesty. He flagged down the destroyer USS Monssen, organized a relief force of Higgins boats to withdraw the men, and directed the Monssen to provide cover fire.   The officer in charge of the Higgins boats was Signalman 1st Class, Douglas Munro. Rarely, if ever, has the U.S. military had such a legendary one-two punch of heroism as it did that day at Guadalcanal.  Douglas Munro is Only Coast Guardsman to be Awarded The Medal of Honor Munro was a lifelong patriot who spent time living in Canada with his family. When they returned to the United States in 1922, young...

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WW2 – The Heroes Of Eager Beavers

WW2 – The Heroes Of Eager Beavers

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In 1943, several U.S. airmen went on a suicide mission. Two men, who were part of Eager Beavers, on the mission were awarded a Medal of Honor - the only time in WWII that two men received the same award for the same engagement. Interestingly, their careers didn't start out well. Biography of Lt Col Jay Zeamer Jr. Jay Zeamer, Jr. got his wings in 1941 at Langley Field. All his classmates became pilots and got their own planes and crews, but not Zeamer. Although he could fly and had a passion for it, he just didn't have what it took to be a pilot. Still, he could fly, so when America entered the war, they made him a co-pilot. In March 1942, they sent him to Australia where he again tried to become a pilot but again failed. They sent him to the Solomon Islands - the same thing. Zeamer was to spend WWII as a co-pilot, navigator, gunner, and anything else; just not a pilot. Biography of 2nd Lt Joseph Raymond Sarnoski Joseph Raymond Sarnoski met Zeamer at Langley. Sarnoski got his wings,...

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PFC Shizuya Hayashi, U.S. Army (1942 – 1945)

PFC Shizuya Hayashi, U.S. Army (1942 – 1945)

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During the Italian Campaign of World War II, German troops were faced with a sight they had never expected: Japanese-American soldiers. These troops were members of the 100th Infantry Battalion, which was comprised entirely of Nisei (children of Japanese Immigrants) troops. What makes this story all the more amazing is knowing how these troops, and their families, had been treated by a scared and hateful populace at home. Their families, friends, and neighbors were being imprisoned by the American government, over suspicions of seditious or treasonous behavior. But the men of the 100th were proud patriots and wanted to prove to the American populace that one's heritage doesn't dictate one's nationality. The Battalion fought bravely through the Italian campaign and earned the respect both of their peers and their enemies. But when this unit made the first contact with the enemy, one man showed his courage above the rest. Shizuya Hayashi was born in Hawaii, on November 28, 1917. The...

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Brig Gen James Robinson Risner, U.S. Air Force (1943 – 1976)

Brig Gen James Robinson Risner, U.S. Air Force (1943 – 1976)

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James Robinson Risner was a man of humble origins, son of an Arkansas sharecropper, educated at secondary school level, not particularly ambitious, a common man save for two things: He could fly the hell out of an airplane; and, under terribly difficult circumstances as a Prisoner of War in North Vietnam, he rose to a level of heroic leadership matched by few men in American military history. Born in Mammoth Springs, Arkansas on Jan. 16, 1925 and raised in a religious family, Robinson Risner made his first critical life choice between attending Bible College or joining the Army Air Forces during World War II. When he passed the tough entrance exam for pilot training by one point, his future aloft was set. Flying came easily to the gifted trainee, which led to a coveted assignment flying fighters after graduation. But Robbie's repeated requests for combat duty were ignored by the Army's personnel system, and he spent the rest of the war defending the Panama Canal. Postwar peace and...

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Staff Sgt. Edward Carter Jr., U.S. Army (1932-1949)

Staff Sgt. Edward Carter Jr., U.S. Army (1932-1949)

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Biography of Edward Carter Jr. A career Army noncommissioned officer, Edward Carter Jr. was born May 26, 1916, in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of missionary parents who went to the Far East and finally settled in Shanghai, China. Edward ran away from this home when he was a young teen to begin a military exodus. However, it was not to be an ordinary journey as his material and spiritual paths intertwined. His first tour was short-lived, yet not too short to prevent the 15-year-old Carter from rising to the rank of Lieutenant in the Chinese Army. When he was discovered to still be a child, Edward was promptly discharged and returned to his parents. It was also long enough for Carter to believe he was visited by a spirit in the Chinese Army and informed him would be a great warrior but would not die in war. Now having a spiritual military destiny, as soon as he was old enough, Edward enrolled in a Shanghai military school. There he received extensive combat...

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Silas Soule and Joseph Cramer

Silas Soule and Joseph Cramer

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The Sand Creek Massacre, occurring on November 29, 1864, was one of the most infamous incidents of the Indian Wars. Initially reported in the press as a victory against a bravely fought defense by the Cheyenne, later eyewitness testimony conflicted with these reports, resulting in a military and two Congressional investigations into the event. Two of those eyewitnesses were cavalry officers Capt. Silas Soule and Lt. Joseph Cramer who had the courage to order their men not to take part in the slaughter. It was these two that were also the driving force in getting the government to conduct more in-depth investigations on what really happened at Sand Creek.  The Causes of the Sand Creek Massacre The causes of the Sand Creek massacre and other atrocities inflicted on the Indians were rooted in the long conflict for control of the Great Plains of eastern Colorado and to the river to the Nebraska border to the Cheyenne and Arapaho. Around the same time, gold and silver were discovered...

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