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Tag: medal of honor

  • Biden Awards Medal Of Honor To 4 Vietnam Struggle Vets For ‘Unbelievable Heroism’

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday bestowed the country’s perfect army honor to 4 Military infantrymen for heroism all over the Vietnam Struggle, bravery that he stated had no longer reduced even with the passage of time.

    Biden introduced the Medal of Honor to Team of workers Sgt. Edward N. Kaneshiro, Spc. 5 Dwight W. Birdwell, Spc. 5 Dennis M. Fujii, and retired Maj. John J. Duffy. Talking at a rite within the White Area East Room, Biden praised their heroism, noting that many like them don’t obtain “the entire reputation they deserve.”

    “As of late, we’re surroundings the file instantly. We’re upgrading the awards of 4 infantrymen who carried out acts of unbelievable heroism all over the Vietnam war,” Biden stated.

    “It’s simply astounding whilst you listen what each and every of them have executed,” he stated. “They went a long way above and past the decision of accountability. It’s a word all the time used however … it takes on lifestyles whilst you see those males.”

    Addressing the 3 residing infantrymen and kinfolk of Kaneshiro, who’s deceased, the president stated, “I’m proud to in spite of everything award our perfect army reputation, the Medal of Honor, to each and every of you.”

    President Biden presents the Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt. Edward Kaneshiro for his actions on Dec. 1, 1966. Kaneshiro's son John accepted the posthumous recognition during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Tuesday.
    President Biden gifts the Medal of Honor to Team of workers Sgt. Edward Kaneshiro for his movements on Dec. 1, 1966. Kaneshiro’s son John authorized the posthumous reputation all over a rite within the East Room of the White Area on Tuesday.

    Evan Vucci by means of Related Press

    Biden famous that greater than 50 years had handed “because the jungles of Vietnam the place, as younger males, those infantrymen first proved their mettle. However time has no longer reduced their astonishing bravery, their selflessness in placing the lives of others forward of their very own and the gratitude that we as a country owe them.”

    Kaneshiro, killed in motion via adverse gunfire in Vietnam in 1967, won his honor posthumously for a Dec. 1, 1966 raid the place his unit got here underneath hearth via North Vietnamese troops. His movements had been credited with serving to his unit withdraw from the village the place they had been preventing. Kaneshiro was once born and raised in Hawaii, a son of Eastern immigrants.

    Spc. Dwight Birdwell received the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions on Jan. 31, 1968, despite injuries to his torso and face.
    Spc. Dwight Birdwell won the Medal of Honor for his heroic movements on Jan. 31, 1968, regardless of accidents to his torso and face.

    Evan Vucci by means of Related Press

    Birdwell was once venerated for movements serving to to go off an attack and evacuate wounded at Tan Son Nhut Airbase close to Saigon on Jan. 31, 1968, regardless of accidents to his torso and face, all over a gap salvo in what’s referred to as the Tet Offensive, an extremely bloody length of the warfare.

    Birdwell, a member of the Cherokee Country and a attorney in Oklahoma Town, had won a Silver Celebrity for his movements. Biden stated it took Birdwell’s commanding officer many years to comprehend that Birdwell had no longer won the right kind reputation and took steps, even in retirement, to “make at the moment imaginable.”

    “In the end, lengthy closing, your tale is being venerated because it will have to were all the time,” Biden informed Birdwell.

    Spc. Dennis Fujii received a Medal of Honor for treating wounded and directing air strikes against enemy positions during the Vietnam War.
    Spc. Dennis Fujii won a Medal of Honor for treating wounded and directing air moves in opposition to enemy positions all over the Vietnam Struggle.

    Evan Vucci by means of Related Press

    Fujii won a Medal of Honor for movements over 4 days in February 1971 treating wounded and directing air moves in opposition to enemy positions after his air ambulance was once compelled to crash land.

    Duffy was once known for main troops who got here underneath ambush after their commander was once killed in motion, repelling attackers and evacuating wounded, regardless of his personal accidents. Duffy went directly to transform an creator and as soon as was once nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

    “He’s the definition of a warrior poet,” Biden stated.

  • Final Last WWII Medal Of Honor Recipient Dies

    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Hershel W. “Woody” Williams, the ultimate last Medal of Honor recipient from Global Conflict II, whose heroics beneath fireplace over a number of a very powerful hours on the Fight of Iwo Jima made him a legend in his local West Virginia, died Wednesday. He used to be 98.

    Williams’ basis introduced on Twitter and Fb that he died on the Veterans Affairs scientific middle bearing his title in Huntington.

    “Nowadays, The united states misplaced now not only a valiant Marine and a Medal of Honor recipient, however the most important hyperlink to our Country’s combat towards tyranny within the 2nd Global Conflict,” U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin mentioned in a commentary. “I am hoping each American will pause to replicate on his provider and that of a whole era that sacrificed such a lot to protect the reason for freedom and democracy.”

    As a tender Marine corporal, Williams went forward of his unit in February 1945 and eradicated a sequence of Eastern device gun positions.

    Later that 12 months, at age 22, Williams gained the Medal of Honor, the country’s best possible award for army valor, from President Harry Truman on the White Space.

    “For me, receiving the Medal of Honor used to be if truth be told the lifesaver as it pressured me to discuss the stories that I had, which used to be a remedy that I didn’t even know I used to be doing,” Williams mentioned all through a 2018 Boy Scouts popularity rite in Fairmont, in keeping with the Instances West Virginian.

    Iwo Jima used to be the place Marines planted the American flag on Mount Suribachi, a second captured in probably the most iconic conflict pictures in historical past. Williams mentioned he noticed the flag from a distance after it went up as troops round him celebrated.

    Williams’ movements in struggle to transparent the way in which for American tanks and infantry had been detailed at the army’s Medal of Honor web page: He used to be “fast to volunteer his products and services when our tanks had been maneuvering vainly to open a lane for the infantry during the community of strengthened concrete pillboxes, buried mines, and black volcanic sands. Williams daringly went ahead by myself to aim the relief of devastating machinegun fireplace from the unyielding positions.”

    Dealing with small-arms fireplace, Williams fought for 4 hours, time and again returning to arrange demolition fees and procure flamethrowers.

    “His unyielding decision and abnormal heroism within the face of ruthless enemy resistance had been at once instrumental in neutralizing probably the most fanatically defended Eastern robust issues encountered via his regiment and aided vitally in enabling his corporate to achieve its goal,” the web page mentioned.

    Williams remained within the Marines after the conflict, serving a complete of twenty years, earlier than running for the Veterans Management for 33 years as a veterans provider consultant.

    In 2018, the Huntington VA scientific middle used to be renamed in his honor, and the Army commissioned a cellular base sea vessel in his title in 2020. In February 2018, Williams used to be joined via 14 different recipients of the Medal of Honor to be venerated via the NFL and the country all through the coin toss earlier than the Tremendous Bowl in Minneapolis.

    Williams would possibly not have got as a lot consideration nationally as Air Drive Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, the fancy Global Conflict II fighter pilot ace and West Virginia local who was the primary individual to fly quicker than sound in 1947. Yeager died in December 2020. But in his house state, Williams used to be a family title.

    “Woody Williams will move down in historical past as one of the crucial biggest West Virginians who ever lived, and we salute him for the whole thing he gave to our state and our country,” Gov. Jim Justice mentioned in a commentary.

    U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin mentioned Williams “used to be the embodiment of a real American hero. American citizens like Woody spoke back the decision to serve our nice country and their sacrifices let us benefit from the freedoms we grasp pricey.”

    Williams used to be born the youngest of a circle of relatives of eleven on a dairy farm on Oct. 2, 1923, within the northern West Virginia group of Quiet Dell. Previous to becoming a member of the army, he served within the Civilian Conservation Corps and labored as a teenage taxi driving force in Fairmont, every now and then turning in Western Union telegrams to the households of fallen squaddies.

    It used to be that zeal that later led Williams and his Louisville, Kentucky-based nonprofit basis to boost cash and determine greater than 100 Gold Famous person Households Memorial Monuments in popularity of kin of misplaced provider contributors throughout the US, in keeping with his web page.

    Even supposing his two older brothers had been serving within the Military, Williams sought after to take a unique trail. He knew some Marines from his space and admired their blue uniforms every time they returned house. However at 5-foot-6, Williams used to be rejected on account of his peak when he attempted to sign up for in 1942. A 12 months later, the Marines allowed him in at age 19.

    Williams depended on his fiancée, Ruby, to get him during the steadily nervous occasions all through the conflict, pronouncing he needed to get again to the lady in Fairmont that he used to be going to marry.

    Their marriage lasted 62 years. Ruby Williams died in 2007 at age 83. The couple had two daughters and 5 grandsons.

    Products and services might be held at 4 p.m. Sunday on the state Tradition Middle in Charleston. Visitations might be performed Saturday and earlier than Sunday’s provider within the within reach Capitol rotunda.