List your UNSUNG military hero

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First of all, The Unsung Heroes are all of those nameless men & women in ALL branches of service.

We will never know their names, faces, or anything else about them...But they ARE heroes.

Now specifically, my grandfathers on both sides of family. WWI "Doughboys". Grandfather on Moms side died before I was born. Tuberculosis, Doc said the Mustard Gas he inhaled had already damaged his lungs quite a bit.

Dad was a WWII Army Infantryman, earned a Silver Star in Pacific Theatre. Mrs. Foggy's Dad was a ground crewman (Army Air Corps, I think it was called then) Patched up and 'reloaded' the B-17's/B-25's, and some fighter planes, too...Maybe the Corsair, not sure.

Oldest brother was Air Force Surgical Scrub Tech during VietNam.

Nephew is currently a United States Marine Lance Corporal, last I heard, somewhere near Fallujah.
 
(Rank Unknown) Dale Calhoun, Signal Corps, WWII Pacific Theatre. Never talked about it, except to say that they did all their work at night in No-Man's Land, and got shot at by both sides since each thought they were the enemy.
 
Sgt. Charles White of D.C.

On 3 Dec. 1968, company D, 2/7 Cav. of the First Air Cav. was flown into what was an unextractable and unreinforcable ambush by a vastly superior enemy force in S. Vietnam. Sgt. White manned our only 81 mm mortar tube to give the rifle platoons supportive fire, and gunning that erect tube in the flat field of the ambush placed him as the target for all the surrounding enemy fire! Myself and the others of the crew prepared the round charges, and when ready, exposed ourselves to drop in those rounds and make gun adjustments. There Sgt. White stood his ground, rapidly cranking the adjustment wheel; all the while, three 12.6 mm guns were firing at us. We had fired all the rounds we had except for two, and had dropped down while they were prepared. I had turned around to get one of the rounds when I felt a consussion blast and heat; the tube was struck with a rocket round. End of our fire mission, but not of the brave Sgt. White.
This all day long battle for our lives is recorded in .military.com. >Vietnam >Articles > "No DEROS DELTA" written by brave Steve Banko III -a fellow survivor.

Through the years I have hoped to meet Chas. White of Washington, D.C.; if anyone knows of him please contact me here!
 
George H. Thomas

A southerner by birth. He rallied the remnants of the Army of the Cumberland after a Union screwup coinciding with Longstreets divisional attack cut the Union force in half and drove some two thirds of it from the field in a rout. He skillfully held his command and bled Bragg's Army of the Tennessee white as it tried to dislodge Thomas and his tattered command from Horseshoe Ridge.
For his stand that day at Chicamauga he was rewarded with overall command of the Cumberland. He also earned the nickname "Rock Of Chicamauga".
In November of that year his troops(not neccessarily following orders) overreached their limited attack at Missionary ridge and, again, drove Bragg's army from the field. This left Grant and Sherman, who were in overall command that day, standing there with their mouths agape after beating themselves senseless against Cleburne's Command on the Confederate right.

In the closing months of the war he again drove from the field and destroyed the same army that was under command of Joseph E. Johnson at the battle of Nashville. The survivors just melted away and never took the field again.

We can't forget his crushing a small confederate Army at Mill Springs Kentucky in the early days of the war which gave the Union its first victory after the dark days of Bull Run.

His only real failure was not being on US Grant's good side. Coupled with a distrust of those of southern birth he rarely gets the recognition he deserves.
 
Generally all men and women of all five services who have ever served so that we may sit at our computers writing these threads.
Personally my father, Warren H. Sears, MD,USNR,Medical Corps in the Pacific during WW II and then 11 yrs in the VA. He was the doctor who brought me into this world on a hospital gurney between the ambulance and the VA ER after I decided to leave the womb 3 weeks early and the ambulance didn't make it to the County Hospital.

Bob
 
The soldiers of the 3rd United States Infantry (The Old Guard)

In addition to their recent deployment to Africa in support of the Global War on Terror, these soldiers (who normally do ceremonies in the DC area) were the main search and recovery force at the Pentagon after from 9/11 until the job was done. I was proud to be with them at that time.


By the way, i'm medically cleared for deployment and in the middle of "refresher training"

I should link up with my unit at the end of the month (probably a national guard mechanized infantry unit) then "over there."

W00t

James
 
I'll say what my Pop says...

The heroes he knew are buried in Punchbowl Cemetary in Honolulu.

Pop = USMC, 6th division, 15th Marines
Okinawa, Saipan, Guadalcanal.

He is my hero.
 
my grandfather a member of the army corps of engineers. fought in 7 major campaigns of the pacific.

my other grandfather, member of the US navy in WW2 and served on an aircraft carrier.

My father, who never dodged the draft and enlisted in the air force in 1967.

My friend Tom, a member of the US Army's 173rd Airborne and now serving in Afghanistan.

My friend Ed, a navy corpsman currently in Iraq.

oh and everyone else who gives a damn about this country and puts their butt on the line for it.
 
Unsung military hero?

That's easy: Major General James Longstreet, CSA

Just before Appomattox, at Long Bridge, after fleeing from Richmond in 1865, with more than 2/3 of his Army of Northern Virgina melted away, starved, mostly weaponless, and severly depleted ranks from his recent battle at Sailor's Creek, with Union infantry and cavalry troops almost surrounding them, General Lee asked General Longstreet whether they should surrender? General Longstreet thought a bit, then said, "Not Yet."

The Warhorse!

If such Generals existed today wars would fought as they are suppose to be fought; with every fiber of one's being!
 
That's easy: Major General James Longstreet, CSA
Click to expand...
No kidding...

Minor thread hijack: If Lee had paid attention to Longstreet more often then IMO it is highly likely that the North American continent would have one more nation on it's soil today than it does. (not a good thing - the extra nation I mean).

Longstreet is a much overlooked General in US Military History - depending on one's POV he may very well have been the best of the best.

:End of Hijack...
 
My Granfadther, Nick Polito, USA WWI
He immigrated to the US in 1912/13. Was inducted into the National Army in 1917 , Camp Dix NJ, and went to France. One evening over a gallon of red wine he told me some stories in 1977. Said one night he was in a big fight. His position was the center of a trench, one man to his right in a corner of the trench, the other name Dutch on the left. Dutch was saying all during the fight that his arm was hot but kept shooting. When the sun came up Grampa saw his friend on the right was dead but Dutch was still standing. He went to see Dutch and found he was dead and still holding his rifle against a tree he'd been bracing his rifle against. His trigger finger hand and arm was shot up and he bled to death, Germans shot at his muzzle flash and got him. Now Grampa returned to his part of the trench and a German was there. They fought and Grampa didn't finish the story.
Next he told me about instructions US soldiers were given incase they were wounded to follow the purple wire back for help, to get it in your hand and don't let go till you found aid. All his medals and papers were stolen in a house burlary when some loser stole my Grandma's jewelry. The US Army records were lost in a 1972 fire. What I can gather is he was in the Lightning Division, the battle he described was the Argonne Offensive in October 1918.
After the Armistice was signed he and other Americans were celebrating in a French bar and a fight broke out, a French MP was going to bayonet an American soldier so everyone piled on the Frenchmen and beat the heck out of him. They took souveneers and Grampa got the Lebel bayonet. He hid it in the bottom of his foot locker, which he said was a stupid thing to do but it went undiscovered. I saw it once and it had a brass handle, cruciform blade with scabbard. It was lost in a house fire a few years ago.
Grandma blamed his bad temper on the mustard gas. He mostly wore long sleeve shirts and when I saw him wash up his arms were so scarred up it looked like ruts in a road. Grampa died in 1980.

W.D. Raftery: I knew Bill he taught me to shoe my horses and some others alot about the US horse cavalry of pre WWII. When he was "dehorsed" in April 1942 he joined the Rangers. Was in the 2nd Rangers, among other landings he went up Point du Hoc. He'd tell mostly humorous stories but did not say much about himself or the hard parts of war, and when he died in 1998 his obituary said he'd received 2 Silver Stars and Purple Hearts.
He did call his Purple Hearts my "1st Bulletversary" , 2nd and so on. He knew Gen Patton.
He wouldn't revisit Normandy , said to me "all he left there was alot of friends and bad memories."

I think of them everyday.
 
Captain Third Class Aleksandr Marinesco. A brilliant submarine captain in the Soviet Navy in WWII, commander of the S-13, the only surviving submarine in the Baltic Fleet. S-13 was responsible for 1/8 of the tonnage sunk by the fleet.

He disobeyed orders and changed course, which led him to finding and sinking the "Wilhelm Gustloff", Hitler's favorite cruise ship. S-13 ran at night, on the surface, with hatches dogged. Marinesco was up at the tower with the lookout, ready to give the order to dive if they were discovered. Diving would have meant his death in the winter sea.

"Wilhelm Gustloff" carried 1000 trainees for the U-boat fleet and other German Navy personnel. Unfortunately, it also carried civilian passengers. Because of that and because of Marinesco being not very good at toeing the party line he and his entire crew were not given the appropriate recognition.

As soon as the war was over he was kicked out of the navy. In his civilian life he was falsely accused of theft and went to prison. He died in poverty and anonymity. His name was struck from the history books. Some sailors chipped in and built a memorial to him, but the Ministry of the Navy sent someone to pry the plaque with his name off it. The only reason I know about him is that my grandmother chanced to find his grave at a St. Peterburg Cemetery and pointed it out to me one day. We would always clean it up when we passed by.

I guess that's about as unsung as you can get.
 
Theodore "Ted" Krein, He comes to mind because of his story. A Ukarainian school teacher , taken from his wife and children, drafted into the Nazi Army and made a driver of a staff car. He didn't last long as a soldier, captured by the Soviets and spent 17 years in a prison/coal mine of Siberia.
Now another important part about his story was the American GI's he knew and was imprisoned with.
He said " the Americans were not friendly with him but one he remembered was named Albert."
I asked what the Americans ever said to him and they were not allowed to speak to each other. Americans were not allowed to send or recieve letters, Ted was. He said they were bitter that their country forgot them. Somewhere I have a copy of his manuscript and a map he marked.
His wife and family had emigrated to New York state where he finally met them about 1960.
Whenever Ted repeated the story he said " god Bless Eisenhower, he got me out". He said he never "fired his weapon, thank God."
I believe his story about the GI's, he had no reason to lie and wasn't that kind of person anyhow.
 
The almost completely forgotten men who flew the rag-tag assortment of Catalinas and P-40 "Aleutian Tigers" against the Japanese invasion force, trying to keep the Japs pinned down. Also, the men of the 7th ID who liberated Attu, suffering the second highest casualty rate of any US forces in the war.
 
Everyone who helped my father make it through a couple years in Vietnam with only one scratch. He speaks very fondly of the ROK soldiers he was based with for a while.
 
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