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Profiles in Courage

Lt Gen Lewis “Chesty” Puller, U.S.Marine Corps (1919-1955)

Lt Gen Lewis “Chesty” Puller, U.S.Marine Corps (1919-1955)

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"Lewis Burwell ' Chesty' Puller, born in the 19th century, fought in the heaviest fighting of the 20th century and is now a legend in this century. The most decorated Marine to ever wear the uniform, and also the most beloved, Puller left a mark on the Marine Corps that would define its culture for years to come." - Michael Lane Smith Biography of Lewis "Chesty" Puller The son of a grocer, Lewis "Chesty" Puller was born June 26, 1898, at West Point, Virginia, to Matthew and Martha Puller. He loved hunting and fishing and was a military history buff who grew up listening to old veterans' tales of the American Civil War and idolizing Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson. He was forced to help support his family after his father's death when he was ten. Puller attempted to join the U.S. Army in 1916 to take part in the Punitive Expedition to capture Mexican leader Pancho Villa, but he was too young and his mother refuses to grant parental consent. In 1917, he followed his martial interest to...

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Col Ola Lee Mize, U.S. Army (1950-1981)

Col Ola Lee Mize, U.S. Army (1950-1981)

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Ola Lee Mize was born August 28, 1931, in Albertville, Alabama as the son of a sharecropper. He was forced to leave school after just the ninth grade to help his family put food on the table, as was very common throughout the United States in that era. Mize's Military Service Mize tried several times to enlist in the Army but was rejected for being too light at just 120 pounds. He finally got in when his mother signed an affidavit to affirm his age since a tornado had destroyed all his town's records while he was young. But once in the Army, a bigger problem was looming. Mize was virtually blind in one eye, which had been accidentally pierced with an ice pick when he was five years old. The vision exam for the Army at that time involved holding a paddle over one eye and looking at the chart with the other. He passed the test by briskly switching paddles in a way that made it look as if he was switching eyes. He had practiced this bit of subterfuge with spoons beforehand. Ola Lee Mize...

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Maj. George Armistead, U.S. Army (1799-1818)

Maj. George Armistead, U.S. Army (1799-1818)

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In the Spring of 1814, the war between the British and the still-young United States looked pretty bleak for the Americans. The War of 1812 had started with a bang for the U.S., with American troops crippling the war efforts of Native tribes in the south and making incursions into British Canada in the north. But 1814 was a turning point for the British Empire. It had just defeated Napoleon and sent the Emperor to exile on the island of Elba. This victory allowed Britain to move 30,000 veteran soldiers from Europe to North America, where a three-pronged plan threatened to cut the new republic to a shell of its former self.  The British sent three expeditions, each with 10,000 fresh, skilled soldiers, toward three targets: New York City, Baltimore, and New Orleans. If any of them succeeded in capturing their objectives, the Americans would be forced to make disastrous concessions in the Treaty of Ghent, negotiated to end the war. If New Orleans fell, it would have invalidated the...

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LTC Darrell Elmore, U.S. Army (1956-1994)

LTC Darrell Elmore, U.S. Army (1956-1994)

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LTC Darrell Elmore remembers, "In June 1964, I was part of an operation designed to intercept a VC propaganda team reported to be parading a small group of U.S. Prisoners of War along the border between Cambodia and Vietnam. The purpose was to show the locals and the VC units that the Americans were easily beaten in combat. In charge of this operation was Saigon based, Maj. LaMar and the 1st SFG A-Team at Trang Sup, a camp about 12 kilometers north of Tay Ninh.  The Operational Plan LaMar Designed in Vietnam War The operational plan LaMar designed was to employ the classic military hammer and anvil tactics used successfully by Alexander the Great in his conquest of the known world. The first element of his plan was a superior infantry force setting up a blocking position. The second element was an airmobile cavalry using armed helicopters to drive the enemy out of hiding into a clearing into the waiting friendly infantry units ready to blow them away. Several American Special...

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CSM Bennie Adkins, U.S. Army (1956-1978) – Medal of Honor Recipient

CSM Bennie Adkins, U.S. Army (1956-1978) – Medal of Honor Recipient

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Presented with the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in 2014, Bennie Adkins distinguished himself as a war hero during three tours of duty between 1963 and 1971, later creating a charitable foundation to help returning veterans to attend further education and settle into civilian life. President Obama said at the time, 'to be honest, in a battle and daring escape that lasted four days, Bennie performed so many acts of bravery we actually don't have time to talk about all of them.' Unfortunately, the popular Vietnam veteran was unable to escape his final battle. Adkins was admitted to the East Alabama Medical Centre in Opelika, Alabama at the end of March 2020. When his condition deteriorated, he was moved to intensive care and put on a ventilator, but despite the best efforts of his medical team he sadly died on April 17th following complications caused by Covid-19, coronavirus. Bennie Adkins in the Vietnam War The veteran Soldier was reported to have killed and injured 135 to...

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Admiral Paul A. Yost Jr, U.S. Coast Guard (1951-1990)

Admiral Paul A. Yost Jr, U.S. Coast Guard (1951-1990)

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When Paul A. Yost Jr. assumed the position of Commandant of the United States Coast Guard in 1986, he approached the role with a powerful philosophy: "You have to lead the charge." At the time this was considered as an over-aggressive approach to leading what was viewed as more of a law enforcement agency than a military organization, but Admiral Yost had learned that lesson the hard way - in the jungles of Vietnam. Ever since they discovered a fishing vessel smuggling weapons into Vung Ro Bay in 1965, Coast Guard and Navy personnel had been conducting a joint operation known as 'Market Time.' The goal was to apprehend, attack, or interrupt any smuggling in South Vietnam, to stop the flow of supplies to the Viet Cong. In 1968 the Coast Guard Combat Commander attached to ‘Market Time' billet opened up to volunteers.  Because no one came forward for the position, the command reached out to Commander Paul A. Yost Jr., then on board the cutter Resolute. However, Yost refused...

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Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, U.S. Navy (1994–Present)

Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt, U.S. Navy (1994–Present)

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As the USS Abraham Lincoln sailed into San Diego Thursday, Aug. 11, with two destroyers in tow and some 6,000 sailors and Marines aboard, it marked the completion of a U.S. military first: Navy Capt. Amy Bauernschmidt has now completed her first mission as the first woman to command a U.S. aircraft carrier. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier left for a routine deployment to the Indo-Pacific region — generally ranging from the Philippines to the South China Sea — on Jan. 3. Over the next eight months, the USS Abraham Lincoln and the other ships encountered everything from the Chinese military to whale-awareness training. For the Marines, the exercise also included the first deployment of F-35C fighters aboard an aircraft carrier. The plane is widely viewed as an innovative weapon capable of both military and intelligence operations. Amy Bauernschmidt Spoke about the Mission In a phone call from aboard the Lincoln, just a day before the strike group returned to Naval Air Station...

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Gen Louis H. Wilson, U.S.Marine Corps (1941–1979) – Medal of Honor Recipient

Gen Louis H. Wilson, U.S.Marine Corps (1941–1979) – Medal of Honor Recipient

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There have been a few Commandants who had been recipients of the Medal of Honor, but Louis H. Wilson was the last. And given that the entire ranks of the modern Marine Corps are currently devoid of any officers with the nation's highest military honor it could be quite some time before the world would ever see it again. His tenure as the nation's top Marine from 1975 to 1979 would be one of remarkable transitions. The World War II generation had all but faded out, and the Commandant who followed him would, in fact, be the last World War II veteran to serve in that position. The nation had wound down from the war in Vietnam, and the Marine Corps was subsequently struggling to reorganize and refit for a new generation. Who better to lead them through this task than the man who received the Medal of Honor for reorganizing and refitting Marines under heavy Japanese fire on the island of Guam 30 years prior. Louis H. Wilson Military Service Louis Wilson was born in Brandon, Mississippi,...

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Sgt Michael Wynn, U.S. Marine Corps (1966-1970)

Sgt Michael Wynn, U.S. Marine Corps (1966-1970)

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Michael Wynn is a Marine Sargeant, a four-year USMC volunteer, of First Battalion, Third Marines, hailing from Marion, Ohio who took part in Operation Ballistic Charge near Dai Loc, in Quang Nam Province, South Vietnam. He shared a history of his motivation to join the Marine Corps which was a mixture of patriotism and seeking excitement and adventure. Michael Wynn's Childhood "My name is Mike Wynn and I was born on January 17, 1947. I grew up in Marion, Ohio, and attended Olney Ave. Elementary, Edison Jr. High, and graduated from Harding High School in 1965. I played baseball and football for Harding for 3 years. I enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1966. After high school, I attended Otterbein University on a football scholarship. During the season I concentrated on my studies to keep my eligibility to play football. After the season I found other interests and let’s just say I came to a mutual agreement with the school that I would not be returning the next semester....

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PFC Oscar Palmer Austin, U.S. Marine Corps (1968 – 1969)

PFC Oscar Palmer Austin, U.S. Marine Corps (1968 – 1969)

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One of the bravest, most extraordinary acts of valor American troops are known to do in combat is throwing themselves on a grenade to save their brothers and sisters in arms. Few survive such a selfless act of heroism. Even fewer get the opportunity to risk sacrificing their lives for a fellow service member twice. Oscar Palmer Austin was a Marine who did just that. It happened on the same fiery night in Vietnam, and he did it to save the same person. For his selfless bravery in saving the life of his fellow Marine, he would receive the Medal of Honor. Oscar Austin's Early Life and Education Austin was born in Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1948, just a couple of years after the end of World War II. As he came of age, American involvement in Vietnam began to ramp up. A few months after he turned 20 years old in 1968, he joined the Marine Corps to do his part. He was a good Marine and was promoted to private first class within six months.  He became an assistant machine gunner, and...

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Lt. Col. James Rowe, U.S. Army (1958 – 1989)

Lt. Col. James Rowe, U.S. Army (1958 – 1989)

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Throughout the Vietnam War, the United States estimated that more than 2,500 American service members were taken prisoner or went missing during the Vietnam War. North Vietnam acknowledged only 687 of those unaccounted for. Most of them were returned during Operation Homecoming in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords ended U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Of those 687, only 36 U.S. troops managed to escape their captors in North Vietnam and Laos. Of course, there were other attempts, but only those 36 made it back to American lines. One of those successful attempts was made by James N. Rowe, a Special Forces officer who would later use what he learned to help future American escapees. Biography of James Rowe James N. Rowe was a Texas native who attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point after graduating from high school in 1956. He earned a commission in 1960 and by 1963 found himself in South Vietnam, acting as the executive officer of Detachment A-23, 5th Special Forces Group. It...

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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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