Forget this shooting.

Augusta, Ga. about ten years back a good friend got woke up by his wife standing next to his bed and said, "there is somebody going through your truck" and she hands him her Model 12 20 ga. She went bird hunting with him all the time.

He gets up and walks out and this guy doesn't hear him coming and my buddy tells him to get out of his truck. The guy backs out of his truck and obviously he is on something or stupid above and beyond the call of duty but he curses him and violates the SECOND GREAT TRUTH which is "never take a knife to a gun fight". and he also violated Second Great Truth 1A , 2A 3A, 4A and 5A which is never take a knife to a gun fight when the guy with the gun was a Sniper w/ Third Army in WW2, Battle of Bulge Survivor, 5 Bronze Stars with Vs, 5 Purple Hearts, and shot a walking German at 700 yards from the standing position with one shot, (range confirmed with artillery range finder that afternoon) got hit at Bulge and two medics killed working on him in field. A third medic killed working on him in aid station, a 4th killed backing ambulance up to farmhouse (field hospital) to get him to the rear and 47 surgeries since WW2 to remove shrapnel, and did I say he held a AA Skeet Rating and former Georgia State Rifle Champion multiple times?
Guy advances with knife and Jack lets him hold it right there. The Sheriff himself comes out at 3AM to see, looks at scene and says, "Jack you done good."

When I heard the next day I went to see him to see "how he was" and he said his yellow lab was still shook up. Her name was "Baby". He was fine. She was used to retrieving birds Jack shot but never saw him shoot something that big.

He died last year and I really miss him. He and my Dad used to ride to Florida and all over Georgia together to shoot in rifle matches back in 40s/50s. One really great guy. I went by to see him one day and he came out in shorts with no shirt and the shrapnel scars were unbelievable. He looked like he had been in a chain saw fight and his wouldn't start.

entropy said:

You do tell a great story, Hummer70. Guy must have been suicidal.

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And he succeeded! ! ! ! ! ! !

They took his right leg off below the knee about four years before he died. He never told me they took it, never mentioned it. I had noted the stocking covering the prosthesis but I never said anything either.
His unit clerk came up with an idea of every survivor in his unit write up their history of the war and send it to him and he would publish them all. I saw Jack's submission before he sent it in.
I was at his house and he showed me the final compilation and I asked if there was another available and he walked to the phone, picked it up and called the clerk and told him a friend wanted a copy and handed me the phone. The Co Clerk said there was one copy left and their cost was like 25.00 to have them printed. I sent him 25.00 immediately.
The most amazing thing was how many of our guys were killed by being run over by our tanks in the dark. About 1/3rd of their combat losses were from that alone.
Jack saw Saving Private Ryan and he said the scene of the sniper in the third floor window throwing out Molotov Cocktails and then saw the anti tank gun cranking up to shoot him. He said he saw the exact same thing doing the same thing in a town in Belgium and he yelled to get out and he ran and as he dived out the door he remembered he had not picked up his rifle. He looked back and it was sitting by the window. The 88 round came in and blew and after the dust cleared he went back to get it and the 88 round had hit the rifle in the action and rifle was in two pieces and he had to go out and find another quick.

I think you are right. Only time I learned he had five bronze with Vs was at his funeral. He never told me how he got any of them. His stepson has promised me to tell me the rest of his stories he passed to him and we keep in touch.

Phaedrus/69 said:

I'm sorry for your loss. It sounds like the world is a poorer place for his passing.

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Thank you, I think of him every time we go near his house.

Armored Farmer, just noticed you are also a member of the Traveling mob as I am.

Herrwalther, had another friend who was captured by four Germans and they rifle whipped him and kept ramming the muzzles of their K98s into his face and he had front sight scars starting in front of face and running back 3 to 4 inches forehead almost to his ears and finally knocked him out. He came to and they were gone so he started walking across a field not knowing which way to go trying to find our lines and walked into an artillery barrage and last thing he said he remembered was getting lifted into the air.
He came to in a hospital ward with about 50 other guys and all he heard was German being spoken (including the nurses) so he figured out pretty quick he had been mistaken for a German so he kept quiet. His dogtags were gone so he put 2 and 2 together and figured he would get better treatment playing the roll of a wounded German for the time being.
A couple days later to his surprise here comes the nurses escorting a US Army Colonel with Medical Corps hardware on his tunic and the nurses were now speaking perfect English and when the Colonel got around to looking at him and of course his head was all wrapped in bandages and they just talked over him and not to him. As they walked off he asked, "Colonel could I get something to eat?"
That stopped the whole parade cold and the Colonel came back and my buddy said he was a GI and they rolled him out of there and he was on the way to another ward where they were all GIs..

He gets to states, gets discharged and comes home to SC and gets a job in a mill and this punk starts something with him and pulls a knife on him and he starts backing up and passed a big rolling tool cart and without thinking he picks up a big wrench and sinks it in his forehead and thus the punk had his ticket punched confirming he had violated another of the great truths, "Don't bring a pocket knife to a big wrench fight." There were multiple witnesses and the brief time he appeared in Coroners Inquest he told them where he had just come from and the rule was if someone threatened you, you killed them. He must have been a sight with all those fresh scars engraving his face and head.

He was immediately released, immediately re- classified totally disabled and lived the rest of his days on disability.

When I was out getting signatures a couple months back for my NRA run for Board of Directors this coming year his son came up, saw my name and walks up to my table with a couple other friends I knew from Spartanburg, SC who I had not seen since the 70s when I left with the gov't to work at Picatinny Arsenal.

Thus we had a big reunion and all four were NRA members thus I got their signatures as well. I had recognized the others but not him as the last time I saw him he was about 16 and I was 30. He definitely remembered me coming to see his Dad as we lived about five miles apart. His Mom and Dad had passed in the 80s and I had heard that but had no clue of what had happened to him.
Thus you are right, don't mess with those guys that went through that, as they were capable of taking immediate action without hesitation or warning.