The unsung heroes of war

[C-grunt]

Several times on this forum I have seen the phrase "imagine all the stories that are not told" when talking about the actions of famous military heroes. We have more than a couple military veterans who know heroes who never were recognized outside of their piers. I say we should have a thread full of great untold stories of heroism.




My story is of Sgt Nicholas Thompson (Private E2 at the time of the story)

Nick and I spent our careers in the Army together. We were in the same platoon in Basic Training in Echo Company 1/19 Infantry at Ft Benning. After Basic we both ended up in the same unit and in the same company, though he was in a different platoon than I.

When we deployed to Kuwait in January 2003, our battalion 1/30 Infantry combined with 2/69 Armor to form Task Force 1/30 and Task Force 2/69. Basically we gave them a company of Infantry and we received a company of tanks. Breaking it down even further my company received a platoon of tanks and we gave the tank company a platoon of Infantry. Nick was in that platoon.

Side note: I was not present during this incident but the story was told to me by multiple people who were there. Nick didn't speak much about it as he didn't feel like it was a big deal.

Somewhere in the outskirts of Baghdad Nick's company runs into heavy resistance from the Medina Republican Guard. Nick was in the back of a Bradley as they are maneuvering down a road. The Bradley drives into the kill zone of an ambush and is hit by an RPG. The RPG hits the rear/right side of the turret and explodes against the cargo boxes that line the rear of the turret. The Bradley doesn't receive serious damage, but all of the items in the cargo areas immediately catch fire. The crew signals for everyone to evacuate the vehicle. Everyone exits the vehicle under enemy fire. Once everyone is out of the vehicle they realize that the Track Commander is not with them.

Nick immediately climbs up the side of the Bradley and finds the Sergeant unconscious on top of the turret. The Sergeant had been part way out of the hatch when the RPG hit the vehicle and took shrapnel to his face, neck, shoulder, and arm. He was also lying in a fire. Luckily the Nomex crew suit worked properly and he was not badly burned. Nick pulled him from the top of the turret and handed him down to the rest of his squad, who were on the ground returning fire at the enemy. While Nick is doing this he was under constant rifle and machinegun fire. Nick's canteen was actually hit by a round during the rescue. As Nick was handing the wounded Sergeant down from the vehicle, another RPG is fired at the Bradley. The RPG hits the front of the turret, skips off the armor and flies into a nearby field.

After they get the wounded Sergeant off the vehicle they attempt to call for a medic. The medic track is also under enemy fire and cannot get to them. Nick's squad then throws a few smoke grenades and lays down covering fire. Then Nick and a couple other guys were able to carry the wounded Sergeant to the medic vehicle. The wounded Sergeant lived and made a decent recovery. I believe he received a medical retirement, but Im not positive.

Nick was put in for a Bronze Star by his Platoon Leader for his actions. Unfortunately because of Army politics Nick's award was downgraded to am ARCOM with a V device.

Nick stayed with the unit until he got out around 2008 or so. Unfortunately, Nick died in 2013 from complications with some medication he was prescribed by the VA. He was a great man who will forever be remembered by his brothers in arms.

[Averageman]

Thanks for posting that.

[Campbell]

Thanks, excellent thread topic...

[chuckman]

As we are inching closer to Memorial Day I think of all those guys who died doing their job, quietly and without fanfare. They are all heroes to me, and the fact I knew any of them humbles me to my core. Good thread.

[Campbell]

Thankfully I was peace time/ part time... I was really expecting some good reading from this thread???

[SteyrAUG]

Won't hear about this one very often. Definitely worth the read.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/piggyback-hero-by-ralph-kinney-bennett.html

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/54d560948536289a34d440b8da72a868.jpg

[Campbell]

[QUOTE=SteyrAUG;2318771]Won't hear about this one very often. Definitely worth the read.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/piggyback-hero-by-ralph-kinney-bennett.html

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/54d560948536289a34d440b8da72a868.jpg[/QUOTE

Truly incredible!

[SteyrAUG]

Truly incredible!

Yeah, it's one of those things that if anyone told the story you'd just assume they are completely FOS. So many impossible things happened in that event I don't even know where to start.

[26 Inf]

You know it is hard to imagine the bravery of those men, who strapped up to fly their missions. In the early war before the P51 and to the target and back escorts, losses were nearly 50%:

For much of the war both the Bomber Comand and the 8th AF ran a casualty rate in excess of 50 percent of crew force. In the 8th AF, the pioneers of 1942-43 paid the heaviest cost. Only one in five of these fliers completed their tour of duty. Of the 110,000 aircrew in Bomber Command, 56,000 were kiled, a los rate of 51 percent, the highest casualty rate of any of the Commonwealth's armed forces in the war.
8th AF's total casualty rate was between 26,000 and 28,000 fatalities (12.3 percent) of the 210,000 crewmen who flew in combat.

And the survivors are fewer and fewer.

















;

[JC5188]

You know it is hard to imagine the bravery of those men, who strapped up to fly their missions. In the early war before the P51 and to the target and back escorts, losses were nearly 50%:

For much of the war both the Bomber Comand and the 8th AF ran a casualty rate in excess of 50 percent of crew force. In the 8th AF, the pioneers of 1942-43 paid the heaviest cost. Only one in five of these fliers completed their tour of duty. Of the 110,000 aircrew in Bomber Command, 56,000 were kiled, a los rate of 51 percent, the highest casualty rate of any of the Commonwealth's armed forces in the war.
8th AF's total casualty rate was between 26,000 and 28,000 fatalities (12.3 percent) of the 210,000 crewmen who flew in combat.

And the survivors are fewer and fewer.

















;

That's an amazing stat. It equates to literally, cutting cards, with the winner shooting the loser in the head.

[Firefly]

Back on the History channel, before it was all about hock shops and gay lumberjacks, there was a show called Unsung Heroes.

It was bad ass, they talked about the Wild Weasels, SOG teams, and even some Korean War hard asses.

There was a time when if you were bored you could put on MTV and/or History channel and leave it on all day.

Now....blech

[SteyrAUG]

You know it is hard to imagine the bravery of those men, who strapped up to fly their missions. In the early war before the P51 and to the target and back escorts, losses were nearly 50%:

For much of the war both the Bomber Comand and the 8th AF ran a casualty rate in excess of 50 percent of crew force. In the 8th AF, the pioneers of 1942-43 paid the heaviest cost. Only one in five of these fliers completed their tour of duty. Of the 110,000 aircrew in Bomber Command, 56,000 were kiled, a los rate of 51 percent, the highest casualty rate of any of the Commonwealth's armed forces in the war.
8th AF's total casualty rate was between 26,000 and 28,000 fatalities (12.3 percent) of the 210,000 crewmen who flew in combat.

And the survivors are fewer and fewer.

















;

My grandfather was part of the Ploesti run, right after they hit the refinery they were knocked out. He spent several months in Romania, he was fortunate that he was an Iowa farm boy, spoke German and found a farm of sympathetic people who let him work as a "hired hand" while the gestapo ran around scooping up airmen.

He was MIA for several months and in his own words "wasn't in a hurry to get back." He managed to avoid capture and get back to his base in Italy just in time for the Schweinfurt raid in Germany. Remembering how he almost didn't get out of the plane the last time (and several other crew members didn't get out at all) he operated the top turret of his B-24 with one foot on the ladder.

When they had lost three engines the pilot gave the bailout order and to hear crew members tell it my grandfather was out the door before the sentence was even completed. Once he had an open canopy he looked up to count parachutes in his words "those assholes spun one of the fans and flew home." He was the only crew member who bailed out, once again landed in enemy territory and once again evaded capture and eventually made it back to his base.

He also earned a new nickname "First One Out Of The Plane" followed by his last name.

[JC5188]

My grandfather was part of the Ploesti run, right after they hit the refinery they were knocked out. He spent several months in Romania, he was fortunate that he was an Iowa farm boy, spoke German and found a farm of sympathetic people who let him work as a "hired hand" while the gestapo ran around scooping up airmen.

He was MIA for several months and in his own words "wasn't in a hurry to get back." He managed to avoid capture and get back to his base in Italy just in time for the Schweinfurt raid in Germany. Remembering how he almost didn't get out of the plane the last time (and several other crew members didn't get out at all) he operated the top turret of his B-24 with one foot on the ladder.

When they had lost three engines the pilot gave the bailout order and to hear crew members tell it my grandfather was out the door before the sentence was even completed. Once he had an open canopy he looked up to count parachutes in his words "those assholes spun one of the fans and flew home." He was the only crew member who bailed out, once again landed in enemy territory and once again evaded capture and eventually made it back to his base.

He also earned a new nickname "First One Out Of The Plane" followed by his last name.

That's an awesome story, and first hand gold.

My Grandfather was on The USS Boston, a "pocket battleship" in The Pacific. 10 battle stars for that ship, and for the most part, he absolutely would not talk about it. He died when I was 10, and that is one of the strongest memories I have of him.

I was fascinated with WW2 at that age, and asked him about it often. I asked him once if he'd seen the Kamikazes, to which he shook his head yes. After that, It was always the same grandfatherly smile, followed by "we don't talk about that".

There is a WW2 era sub near where I live that I have been in. I remember when I first checked it out, I looked at the controls and overall technology of the era and thought "screw that shit". I can't imagine being at sea in that, or in combat in a WW2 period aircraft for that matter.

An amazing generation by any measure.

[Averageman]

Years ago my Mother informed me that my Grandfathers Brother, my Great Uncle was a Navigator on a Bomber in WWII.
She told me they took off and never returned and there wasn't a lot of information about what happened or exactly where.
As my Great Grandfather had passed some years earlier it took some time to inform all of the Family Members, 13 brothers and a Sister. I'm not even sure who got the original message.
It is kind of strange to think that 75 years ago someone could die in the Military and it might take months for the family to find out about it.