Master Sergeant John Franklin Baker Jr. (United States Army -ret.)
In November of 1966, then Private Baker’s company was tasked with rescuing another company that was pinned down by Viet Cong troops.
Baker was promoted to sergeant, and received the Medal of Honor for his actions.
Today’s NYT has an interesting article about an attempt to unearth and recreate the tunnel system used in Stalag Luft III.
It turns out that the team was unable to excavate “Harry”, but they did manage to dig down to “George”. They also constructed a new tunnel called “Roger”, “but in a trench just beneath the surface; anything deeper was deemed too dangerous”. (The original tunnels ran 30 feet below the surface.)
I am looking forward to this documentary showing up on PBS. (At least, I’m hoping it will show up on PBS instead of The Hitler History Channel.) I think this is a review of it from the Telegraph. Here’s a link to an older NOVA documentary. For any of my younger readers who are unfamiliar with the story, here’s the Wikipedia entry to use as a starting point. The Great Escape
Dakota Meyer has been awarded the Medal of Honor.
Meyer is credited with killing at least eight attackers despite being wounded in his arm by shrapnel.
By the way:
Meyer also recovered the bodies of four friends killed in action.
At the time of his actions, Meyer was a corporal. He
(Post title borrowed from LaRue Tactical.)
Sergeant Petry, who was with the 75th Ranger Regiment at the time of his actions, became engaged in a firefight during a raid on an insurgent compound in Paktia. During the course of the firefight, Sgt. Petry was shot through both legs. Another Ranger near Sgt. Petry was hit in his body armor; Sgt. Petry led the other Ranger to a safe position behind a chicken coop and then re-engaged with the enemy.
I thought about including this in the previous round of random notes, but on second thought it deserves a post by itself. Here are two epic tales from bloggers that I admire (though I have not met either of them):
Ambulance Driver and his buddy, Too Old to Work, Too Young to Retire, bring a woman back from the dead while on vacation.
Ken over at Popehat talks about a day in the glamorous life of a defense lawyer.
Staff Sergeant and Medal of Honor recipient Sal Giunta is leaving the military when his current tour ends in mid-June.
You know, if I ran a public (or private) university somewhere, I’d come up with the money to offer Sgt. Giunta a full free ride for four years. Maybe he’d be willing to work part-time, perhaps as a mentor to younger students who could use some help?
The NYT reports on the controversy over early “Spider-Man” reviews.
Lucky J’s Chicken and Waffles has opened their sit-down restaurant. Until I visited their website, I had no idea how tough these guys have had it. I knew about the trailer theft, of course, but the death of a child, divorce, and reconstructive hand surgery? This guy sounds like Austin’s own version of Job. I’m going to try Lucky J’s this weekend; not because of the suffering, but because I like the idea, and because it’s sort of on my usual weekend path. (Man does not live by Torchy’s Tacos alone. Though I have to admit, the new location on Burnet Road is much nicer than some of the others I’ve been to.) Full report to follow.
The LAT would like for you to know that cockfighting is bad, m’kay? And not just because people sometimes get stabbed to death by roosters with blades.
Barney Hajiro.
Here’s Mr. Hajiro’s Medal of Honor citation:
Mr. Hajiro was nominated for the Medal of Honor at the time, but did not receive it until 2000, after a Pentagon investigation into why more Asian-Americans had not received the MoH.
Both of these broke yesterday, but I was waiting until I found some better sources before posting:
Peter Yates, director. Lawrence and I were discussing his rather interesting career yesterday. Yates directed such films as Bullit, The Dresser, Breaking Away, and The Friends of Eddie Coyle. He also directed The Deep, Mother, Jugs & Speed, and Krull. (And let’s not forget The Hot Rock, one of the better adaptations of a Donald Westlake Dortmunder novel.) (LAT obit.)
Richard Winters, of Band of Brothers fame. (WP obit.)
I haven’t had much to say about events in Arizona, and probably won’t. Other people are covering this much better than I am; you can pretty much click on any blog in my blogroll for commentary. If you have to pick one, Battleswarm seems to be doing good roundups.
Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller was awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday.
Sgt. Miller’s unit was ambushed by a group of about 100 insurgents in the Gowardesh Valley of Afghanistan on January 25, 2008. Miller’s unit was pinned down and exposed to devastating fire.
By the way, the award was posthumous; Sgt. Miller was killed in the firefight.
We previously noted that the White House was considering awarding the Medal of Honor to a living recipient, for the first time since the Vietnam War.
The decision has been made.
US Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta will be awarded the Medal of Honor for charging into the middle of a Taliban ambush and rescuing three wounded members of his platoon.
(Hattip: Ace of Spades.)