I HAVE NEVER MET A WAR HERO
By
Michael ConnellyMichaelConnelly.Jigsy.com
I know that may seem like a strange statement since
I am a U.S. Army veteran, have two sons who are
serving in the army, and am a lifetime member of the
American Legion and past commander of a Legion Post.
In addition, I have written a book about my father’s
unit in World War II. It was while researching and
writing that book that I realized that I would never
meet a war hero, at least not anyone who would admit
to being one.
I
started working on the book “The
Mortarmen”
in
2001 I had only my father’s diary to work with. He
had died in 1987 so I could not even question him to
get more details. However, I learned that in the
mid-nineties an association of the survivors of the
87th Chemical Mortar Battalion had been
formed and the battalion records and some company
records were available. I made copies of these and
studied them carefully. I found that of a battalion
of almost 1,000 men 18 had received the Silver Star,
103 had been awarded Bronze Stars for bravery, and
336 had been awarded Purple Hearts.
The
battalion had landed on Utah Beach on D-Day and was
in combat for 326 straight days. Sixty five soldiers
in the 87th were killed and hundreds were
wounded. After my initial research I started
contacting and interviewing the unit survivors, and
in 2004 I attended the final reunion of the men of
the 87th in Baltimore. There were only
eleven of them able to make it, but I was able to
talk to them individually and as a group.
Some
of the men I interviewed at the reunion, and both
before and after, had won awards for heroism yet I
couldn’t get them to talk about that. They all
denied being heroes, but they gladly talked about
their buddies who they all proclaimed were real
heroes. I had run across this before with my own
father. He was a 21 year old 1st
Lieutenant on D-Day and as such Roy Connelly was one
of the oldest members of the unit and was known as
one of the “old guys”. This was because so many of
these men were not technically men at all, but
teenagers.
When
we were growing up my brother and I were
occasionally allowed to go through my Dad’s foot
locker he had kept after the war. It contained many
pictures he had taken and well as items captured
from German soldiers. There was also a case
containing his Bronze Star. He just referred to it
as a medal he had received. He had other medals in
the foot locker and he never talked much about them.
Years later we learned that this medal was different
and it was for valor. Eventually, we got him to tell
us the story of how he had won it.
The
87th had been moving into a village that
had supposedly been vacated by the Germans. However,
the retreating Germans had not left yet and the
battalion ran right into them. A fierce fire fight
broke and the mortarmen suddenly found themselves
fighting as infantry. It was absolute chaos and at
one point my Dad saw two of the men under his
command penned down behind some rubble in a street
by a German machine gun crew firing from the second
story of a nearby building.
It
was just a matter of time before the men were killed
so my father charged the building, dodging the enemy
fire. He got to the wall of the building just under
the window the fire was coming from. His back was to
the wall and he could not step out without drawing
enemy fire, so he does the only thing he can; he
pulls a grenade from his belt, pulls the pin and
throws the grenade back over his head toward the
window.
It
was an act of incredible bravery. If the grenade is
on target, Dad would save the lives of two of his
men. On the other hand, if the grenade misses the
window, it will bounce back to my father’s feet and
kill him instantly. Obviously, the grenade hit its
mark and my father received the Bronze Star. Yet
according to him, he was not a hero; “he was just
doing his job.”
I
can’t tell you how many times I have heard that
statement from America’s heroes. At my American
Legion post you will hear many war stories because
veterans will talk to each other, but not that often
to others, even in their own families. However, I
can’t remember any of them talking about their
medals. They would just say they were doing their
jobs and they mean it.
This
humility is just one of the things I see in my
fellow veterans. They took an oath to defend the
Constitution of the United States against all
enemies foreign and domestic and they don’t believe
that oath ever goes away. They ask for very little
in return for their sacrifices, and unfortunately
they get even less than they deserve.
They
are not just ignored by the government they defended
they are labeled as potential domestic terrorists
simply because they served. They are under assault
by numerous federal agencies that seek to declare
them incompetent to handle their own affairs and
declare them too mentally ill to own firearms. They
are denied not only decent medical care, but even
the basic rights of all Americans to privacy and due
process of law.
Instead the PC crowd has created a new class of
“heroes” for the American people. I’m not buying it.
An NBA player who announces that he is gay is not a
hero and does not deserve a phone call from the
President. Especially from a President who is
effectively destroying the U.S. Military.
A
young thug who commits a robbery in Ferguson, Mo and
is killed while attacking a police officer is not a
hero and doesn’t deserve to have three
representatives from the White House attend his
funeral. Especially since no one from the White
House attended the funeral of American sniper Chris
Kyle, the funeral of U.S. Army General Harold Greene
who was killed in Afghanistan, or any of the
funerals of the marines and sailor killed by a
terrorist in Chattanooga.
In
addition, a man who decides he really wants to be a
woman and starts wearing dresses does not deserve a
heroism award from a major television network. Jason
Collins, Michael Brown, and Bruce Jenner never put
their lives on the line by joining the military and
fighting for our country. They are not heroes and
neither are the people at McDonald’s who demand
$15.00 per hour for making burgers while the new
recruits in the military work much more than 40
hours per week and are paid just over $8.00 per hour
for risking their lives.
Compare $8.00 per hour with the millions demanded by
professional athletes who work for approximately six
months a year. Some of them earn millions more with
product endorsements. They are proclaimed as heroes
and receive all types of rewards and accolades if
they win a championship for their team. When
American veterans win a battle or even a war, they
are told to be quiet and go away into obscurity.
Military members may be honored at half time of an
NFL game, but only if the military pays the teams
for the privilege.
Veterans stand at attention and salute when the
pledge is being said, while the First Lady of the
United States sends text messages or mouths the
words, “all this for that damned flag.” I know who
the real heroes are in this country even though they
won’t admit it. They are not overpaid sports stars,
Hollywood or news media elitists, and certainly not
the politicians who take the same oath to the
Constitution as our soldiers do and then promptly
ignore it and push for their own agenda. Our heroes
are members of the military, military veterans,
police officers, fire fighters and EMTs, and they
deserve our respect and support.
mrobertc@hotmail.com
Michael Connelly blog
www.usjf.net
Constitutional Law Alliance