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00:00:06The following program contains scenes of graphic violence.
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00:00:12This is the story of our nation's greatest military honor.
00:00:17It takes an action that is above and beyond the call of duty.
00:00:23I made up my mind I wasn't going to run and I wasn't going to surrender.
00:00:27The fight don't get going good until you're surrounded.
00:00:30I thought, they can't do this to me, they can't get me.
00:00:34I am going to survive this thing.
00:00:37It is not an award a soldier seeks.
00:00:39I don't want to be a hero. A lot of them died to be a hero.
00:00:43Today, it is the highest medal given for exceptional bravery and courage.
00:00:47You're not doing it for the country, you're doing it for the one on your left and on your right.
00:00:51The Medal of Honor.
00:00:57September 15, 1942
00:01:02On September the 15th, 1942, I was awarded this medal.
00:01:09It's a bronze piece of brass, costs about 85 cents, and it hangs from a pale blue ribbon.
00:01:17It's got the goddess Minerva repulsing Discord.
00:01:22Discord is this little dude down here in the corner with snakes in his hands.
00:01:28This is the highest military decoration that the United States can give to its soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guard, or airmen.
00:01:38The Medal of Honor.
00:01:40From the jungles of Vietnam to the Iraqi desert, from Gettysburg to Normandy, the Medal of Honor has defined American heroism.
00:02:03Four-star generals stand and salute the lowliest private who wears one.
00:02:11They reflect the qualities we value in honor, initiative, and self-sacrifice.
00:02:20Only 3,400 have been awarded since its creation during the Civil War.
00:02:32And increasingly, you may have to die to receive one.
00:02:40I think back of the day on October the 5th, 1945, when President Truman placed that medal around my neck.
00:02:51And I have never, I don't believe, been more frightened in my life than I was at that moment.
00:02:59My body was shaking and it would not remain still.
00:03:05And he put his left hand on my shoulder and said to me,
00:03:10I would rather have this medal than to be President of the United States.
00:03:29Before the invasion of Hiroshima, American battleships pounded the island for three days in the greatest naval bombardment of World War II.
00:03:45But the 21,000 Japanese were dug into impenetrable caves and concrete bunkers called pillboxes.
00:03:58As the Marines struggled up Mount Suribachi, the Japanese mowed them down with their machine guns.
00:04:10At just 5'6", Corporal Herschel Williams had been turned down twice by the Marines.
00:04:18After two days of fighting, he was the only flamethrower left in his company.
00:04:27We had tried to break through a line of pillboxes and we were constantly being beat back.
00:04:37My company commander was extremely frustrated because he had lost so many of his men.
00:04:45And he asked me if I thought I could do anything about some of those pillboxes with the flamethrower.
00:04:51I don't remember what I said.
00:04:54Others said, I said, I'll try.
00:04:58That sounds like me, like I might say that.
00:05:03The volcanic landscape gave Williams little cover.
00:05:07Four riflemen were his only protection as he crawled toward the bunkers.
00:05:14I was approaching a pillbox and I saw smoke come out of the top of the pillbox.
00:05:21I thought there's got to be an opening up there.
00:05:24So I crawled around on the blind side to the top of the pillbox and here was a vent.
00:05:30So I stuck my flamethrower down there and let it go.
00:05:44In the scorching heat, Williams crawled through the dirt towards the next pillbox.
00:05:50As he did, he realized the Japanese gunner could not angle his gun barrel low enough to hit him.
00:05:58The bullets were hitting those tanks on my back.
00:06:01And as it were, of course, it was shaking my body just like a jackhammer.
00:06:07And I had enough sense to keep crawling forward rather than crawl backwards.
00:06:14If I'd gone backwards, I wouldn't be talking to you today.
00:06:23For four hours, Williams battled the Japanese, silencing seven pillboxes,
00:06:30finally clearing a path for the Marines to advance.
00:06:34And I had to use six flamethrowers during that four-hour period.
00:06:41My mind will not bring back to me, how did I get those flamethrowers?
00:06:47I apparently went back and got them myself.
00:06:51And although I was scared out of my wits, my training kept telling me,
00:06:56this is what you do, this is your obligation, so go do it.
00:07:01I didn't even know what the Medal of Honor was.
00:07:32Of his terrible swift sword, his truth is marching on.
00:07:46The Founding Fathers resisted the idea of military medals,
00:07:51perhaps because they seemed too much like the decorations of the European aristocracy.
00:07:58All of that changed with the Civil War.
00:08:03Vast new armies had to be raised.
00:08:06Volunteers had to be motivated to enlist and not desert.
00:08:10And morale kept up on the home front.
00:08:14The Navy was the first Medal of Honor.
00:08:17And then they came out with the Army Medal.
00:08:20Of course, back then there was only two medals,
00:08:22the Purple Heart, which they used to call the George Washington Medal,
00:08:26and also the Medal of Honor.
00:08:29The first Medals of Honor were given out for a raid to destroy a key Confederate rail line.
00:08:36It was a pretty harebrained cockamamie scheme.
00:08:39Twenty-one fellas infiltrated enemy lines and went down below Vicksburg.
00:08:45They wore Confederate uniforms, which they then removed,
00:08:48and they hijacked a locomotive called the General.
00:08:52They began running up the line, tearing up track.
00:08:56The Confederates got onto them pretty quick.
00:08:59They finally ran out of steam, and they had to abandon the train and make a run for it.
00:09:03And they were all captured.
00:09:05Some of them were hung, and some of them were taken prisoner.
00:09:10And when they had an exchange of prisoners,
00:09:12Secretary of War Stanton was congratulating them for what they did.
00:09:16And as kind of a second thought, he said,
00:09:18Well, we just passed an award for a medal, and I'd like to give you the first ones.
00:09:23So he gave Jacob Perot and some of the other boys from Ohio that were exchanged
00:09:28the first Medal of Honors that we ever received.
00:09:31The rest of them got it posthumously.
00:09:36If one single action can be said to have saved the Union,
00:09:40it might well be the defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg.
00:09:46The Battle of Gettysburg, by Colonel Joshua Chamberlain.
00:09:51He protected the left flank of the Union in a most unconventional way.
00:09:56He had his men hinged like a door and charged downhill with bayonets
00:10:01when they were out of ammunition, and won the day against Hood's Texans.
00:10:11Many Civil War recipients were flag bearers.
00:10:14Unarmed soldiers sent out in front of the charge, carrying the regimental colors.
00:10:20The flag provided a visual marker for an officer to follow the position of his men on the battlefield.
00:10:27Capturing a Confederate flag would throw them into a state of confusion
00:10:31because now they don't know exactly where they're supposed to be,
00:10:34whether they're charging or retreating.
00:10:36But then the other purpose, too, was that it stirred patriotism,
00:10:39that people really would have these heightened emotions about seeing their flag touch the ground
00:10:46or seeing their flag carried off by the enemy,
00:10:48which is, I think, why you see so many Medal of Honor actions involving the flag.
00:10:55William Harvey Kearney was standing next to a flag bearer
00:10:59when that flag bearer was shot and the flag was going to fall.
00:11:02So he dropped his firearm, picked up the flag, and assumed the role of the flag bearer.
00:11:08And in the course of doing that was shot several times.
00:11:13That action was the first by an African American that would earn the Medal of Honor.
00:11:25During the Civil War, and for a half century after, the Medal of Honor was handed out freely.
00:11:32Eight hundred and sixty-four men of the 27th Maine Infantry were offered the medal to reenlist.
00:11:40The entire honor guard at Lincoln's funeral was given the Medal of Honor.
00:11:46Twenty-four were awarded for the Battle of Little Bighorn.
00:11:50Fifty-six for the invasion of Veracruz, Mexico.
00:11:54At Veracruz, every officer that went ashore got the Medal of Honor.
00:11:58Back then, they had different standards.
00:12:051917. America's hope for peace sank with the Lusitania.
00:12:11As America's entry into World War I loomed,
00:12:14Congress realized that the criteria for receiving a Medal of Honor needed tightening.
00:12:20Now it required actual conflict with the enemy, distinguished by gallantry or intrepidity at the risk of life.
00:12:30The classic example is falling on a grenade to save fellow soldiers.
00:12:37Later, additional medals were created to form the Pyramid of Honor.
00:12:43At the very tip of the pyramid, of course, is the Medal of Honor,
00:12:46followed by the service crosses, the silver star, then the bronze star.
00:12:52By creating these other awards, it enhanced the value of the Medal of Honor.
00:12:58It made it that much more difficult to achieve.
00:13:04They don't award a Medal of Honor for being successful on the battlefield, just killing the enemy.
00:13:09You have to risk your life for your fellow soldiers.
00:13:16It takes an action that is above and beyond the call of duty.
00:13:24A witness to the action writes a recommendation.
00:13:28It makes its way up the chain of command to the top uniformed officer of the service branch,
00:13:34then to the Secretary of the Army, Navy, or Air Force, the Secretary of Defense, and finally, the President.
00:13:44Every detail of the action is scrutinized.
00:13:48The process can take years.
00:13:52And you know that certain political decisions get made along the way.
00:13:56It disappears into the fog of the bureaucracy, and you have to deal with it.
00:14:01It disappears into the fog of the bureaucracy, and somebody gets selected for a Navy star, somebody gets selected for a Medal of Honor.
00:14:10When top officers voted on a Medal of Honor for Navy SEAL Mike Thornton, there was one holdout.
00:14:18Chief of Naval Operations was Admiral Zumwalt, so why are you voting no, Lou?
00:14:21He basically said, how does a guy do that and still be alive?
00:14:25Heroes do not win wars by themselves.
00:14:29But in every conflict, there are men like Mike Thornton, who in the heat of battle do things that defy belief.
00:14:38The Medal of Honor is awarded for those actions.
00:14:44In October 1972, Mike Thornton was 23 years old on his fourth tour of duty in Vietnam.
00:14:52He had always wanted to be a Navy frogman.
00:14:58American troops had already begun their withdrawal when he joined a reconnaissance mission led by Lieutenant Thomas R. Norris.
00:15:07With three South Vietnamese soldiers, they traveled north to scout the Qua Viet River.
00:15:14I crawled up, looked around, checked to make sure there was no enemy in sight, and then we called them up one at a time.
00:15:22I said, I don't see the Qua Viet, and Tom said, I don't see it either.
00:15:25So I went south for a while, came back, no river.
00:15:29We didn't know where we were, and they didn't know where we were.
00:15:33Patrolling inland, the team passed a fortified enemy base.
00:15:38That's when Thornton realized they had been mistakenly put ashore inside North Vietnam.
00:15:45You'd hear something, you'd stop, listen, move.
00:15:49Stop and listen.
00:15:51Move.
00:15:53There was a creek to the north of us, and I said, let's get in that creek and let's follow it back out to the ocean.
00:16:00We passed the creek, and we saw the enemy.
00:16:03I said, let's get in that creek and let's follow it back out to the ocean.
00:16:08We passed the enemy from ten feet away in some areas.
00:16:12You could see them in the bonfire actually silhouetting themselves while we were out on the outside.
00:16:18As they neared the ocean, Thornton spotted two enemy soldiers on patrol outside a village.
00:16:25He knocked one unconscious and signaled for Thai, a young Vietnamese officer on his first mission with Thornton, to take out the other.
00:16:34I'm going like this to him to move up, to sneak up behind this guy, knock him out, eliminate him or whatever needed to be done.
00:16:41And he stands up, and this guy's a hundred and something yards away from him.
00:16:44He yells, lie down, my land, lie down.
00:16:46He's out there yelling, lie down, my land.
00:16:49Yelling, get over here, almost cost them their lives.
00:16:52The startled North Vietnamese soldier turned and opened fire.
00:16:57And I just start running, because I knew he was going to head for that village.
00:17:01And then I look up, and there was about 50 to 75 of the militia coming forward, flying at me.
00:17:08And then I opened fire on them.
00:17:11Tommy came down off the sand and had a LAWL rocket.
00:17:15He was shooting into the tree, so I could break contact.
00:17:17The firefight that began at sunrise lasted seven hours, pinning the men down in the sand dunes.
00:17:25They took this CHICOM grenade, and they threw it over to my side.
00:17:29An American grenade is four seconds instantaneous.
00:17:32You go 1,000, 2,000.
00:17:34So I'm going 1,000, 2,000.
00:17:36I grab this grenade, and I throw it back.
00:17:38And I'm going 6,000, 7,000, no grenade.
00:17:40They throw it back.
00:17:42I'm going 8,000, 9,000.
00:17:43I throw it back.
00:17:45I'm going 11,000, 12,000.
00:17:47And they throw it back.
00:17:49And I said, this grenade has got to go off.
00:17:51Well, it did.
00:17:53And I rolled over.
00:17:55I turned over and rolled away from the grenade.
00:17:57It went off.
00:17:59And I had hit six times, and my back was frapped in the wounds.
00:18:01Finally, the squad made it back to the beach.
00:18:04I'm yelling, Tom, fall back, fall back.
00:18:06And I couldn't see Tommy.
00:18:08And I saw Dane come running.
00:18:10And I said, where's Tommy?
00:18:11Where's Tommy?
00:18:13He said, Dowey's dead, Dowey's dead.
00:18:15I said, what do you mean?
00:18:17He said, he was shot in the head, Mike.
00:18:19He's dead.
00:18:21I said, y'all stay here.
00:18:23Tommy was laying on the side of the sand dune.
00:18:25The bullet had entered in his left temple.
00:18:27He'd lost his whole forehead,
00:18:29his front lobe part of his brain.
00:18:31His eye was gone.
00:18:33The structure of his eye socket was gone.
00:18:35And I eliminated these guys that were coming
00:18:37over the top of Tom.
00:18:39And I eliminated them.
00:18:41And I grabbed Tommy, and I put him on.
00:18:43And I hear this noise.
00:18:45And I knew exactly what it was.
00:18:47It was from the Newport News.
00:18:49And Tommy had called in to fire for effect.
00:18:52That first round hit.
00:18:55Blew me like 20 feet in the air.
00:18:57Then Tommy left my shoulders and flew off.
00:18:59Then I moved over to grab Tommy.
00:19:01And he said, Mike, buddy.
00:19:03And I said, the SOB's still alive.
00:19:05We got to the water's edge.
00:19:07And I said, we swim.
00:19:09And I grabbed Tommy.
00:19:11And when I was swimming, you could see the surf line.
00:19:13They were just shooting at us.
00:19:15You could see the bullets going through the water.
00:19:17Well, I look off to my right.
00:19:19And there's my buddy, little Quan, over there.
00:19:22He had been shot through his right hip.
00:19:24And his buttock was completely gone.
00:19:26So I grabbed him.
00:19:28And I put his arms over my neck.
00:19:30And he grabbed Tommy.
00:19:32And I put my arms underneath him.
00:19:34And I started breaststroking.
00:19:36And I looked across.
00:19:38And the Newport News turned around and left.
00:19:39And I seen that big ship turn around.
00:19:41I said, God, where are they going?
00:19:43Where are they going?
00:19:45If I was going to die,
00:19:47we're a better place to die
00:19:49than in the arms of your fellow comrade.
00:19:52Wounded, towing two men,
00:19:55Thornton swam for more than two hours
00:19:58before they were rescued by a search party.
00:20:01Norris and Quan both survived.
00:20:05Go!
00:20:09Two, go.
00:20:11Coming past you, coming through the door.
00:20:13You're up. Got it.
00:20:15Keep your weapon up.
00:20:17You're at the high ready.
00:20:19You're ready to shoot.
00:20:21Since the Vietnam War,
00:20:24the Medal of Honor has rarely been awarded.
00:20:27American troops are no less brave.
00:20:31But combat has changed.
00:20:34In a war of ambushes and IEDs,
00:20:37there are fewer opportunities for heroism.
00:20:43The military awarded two medals for the conflict in Somalia.
00:20:47Posthumous.
00:20:50One for the war in Afghanistan.
00:20:53Posthumous.
00:20:56And four for the first five years of the war in Iraq.
00:21:01All posthumous.
00:21:03All but one for covering grenades with their bodies.
00:21:12Sergeant Paul Smith was the first soldier
00:21:15awarded the Medal of Honor for action in Iraq.
00:21:22In the early days of the invasion in 2003,
00:21:25American troops met little resistance.
00:21:29One place where the enemy took a stand
00:21:31was at the Baghdad airport,
00:21:34where Sergeant First Class Paul Smith
00:21:37was leading his platoon.
00:21:42Smith was a lifer,
00:21:44a 33-year-old with a wife and two children
00:21:47back home in Florida.
00:21:49The kind of soldier that's the backbone of the Army.
00:21:53We started working under Sergeant Smith
00:21:56back before 2001.
00:21:58He was our platoon sergeant
00:21:59when we went to Kosovo.
00:22:01He was a very demanding perfectionist.
00:22:05He wanted everybody to succeed,
00:22:08and he pushed you to do the best you could.
00:22:11And not only you, but everybody around you.
00:22:14You do something perfect as a squad.
00:22:17Run through it perfect, flawless.
00:22:19He'd be like, all right, good job,
00:22:21now go do it again.
00:22:23He'd keep you out till, you know,
00:22:25late hours of the night
00:22:26training on something you've already perfected,
00:22:29because he knew we were getting deployed.
00:22:33On that hot morning in a walled courtyard
00:22:36at the Baghdad airport,
00:22:38all of Sergeant Smith's training and preparation
00:22:41were put to the test.
00:22:47The squad was setting up
00:22:49a holding area for prisoners
00:22:51when they came under attack
00:22:53by about 100 Iraqi soldiers.
00:22:55For many of the men,
00:22:57it was their first experience in combat.
00:23:01When we started receiving small arms fire,
00:23:03we had guys running around
00:23:05that have weapons that, you know,
00:23:07the enemy starts shooting at you,
00:23:09you're supposed to return fire.
00:23:11And they're running around going,
00:23:13what do I do, what do I do, what do I do?
00:23:15Iraqis were advancing from two sides
00:23:17and firing from a tower
00:23:19overlooking the Americans in the courtyard.
00:23:21They're moving.
00:23:22They're fucking moving.
00:23:25Sergeant Smith started coming down
00:23:27telling us, place this vehicle here,
00:23:29we need this weapon here,
00:23:31get your men up here.
00:23:33Everything was reaction for him.
00:23:35He knew exactly what to do and when to do it.
00:23:37Smith called for support
00:23:39from a Bradley fighting vehicle.
00:23:41Bradley was the first vehicle through the gap,
00:23:44but it quickly ran out of ammunition
00:23:46and it moved back.
00:23:50After the Bradley pulled back,
00:23:52the Americans' only heavy weapon
00:23:54was the .50 caliber machine gun
00:23:56mounted on an M113 armored personnel carrier.
00:24:00But the Iraqis landed a mortar round on it.
00:24:07There were at least four injured personnels
00:24:09in that vehicle.
00:24:11So we got a vehicle there
00:24:13with a big weapon system,
00:24:15but nobody was manning it.
00:24:17Smith jumped into the M113
00:24:19and took over the machine gun,
00:24:20firing at the Iraqis
00:24:22attacking through the gate
00:24:24and from the tower.
00:24:27Sergeant Smith is sitting there
00:24:29yelling, I need a driver.
00:24:31So I jumped up in there.
00:24:33He's telling me exactly where to drive
00:24:35as he's shooting on the .50 caliber.
00:24:37He kept telling me,
00:24:39all you got to do is keep me loaded
00:24:41and duck down.
00:24:43So I was just constantly going up,
00:24:45linking a couple rounds,
00:24:47and he kept yelling at me the entire time
00:24:48because he didn't want me to get a shot.
00:24:51The M113's machine gun
00:24:53is mounted on top,
00:24:55leaving the upper half
00:24:57of the gunner's body unprotected.
00:25:00He had no protection up there
00:25:02behind that weapon system at all.
00:25:04For a long period of time,
00:25:06it was just him holding the enemy back.
00:25:10As soon as the battle started,
00:25:12another sergeant began recording
00:25:14the sounds of the firefight
00:25:16on a tape recorder.
00:25:19You can actually hear on that tape
00:25:21when the .50 cal is shooting.
00:25:23The pause is when he was reloading
00:25:25and then returning fire again.
00:25:27It was really rapid, loud sound.
00:25:32And then at the end,
00:25:34you hear it go silent.
00:25:36And you're expecting it to come back again
00:25:38and listen to it,
00:25:40and it never came back.
00:25:42I thought, man, I'm going to be in trouble.
00:25:44He's going to yell at me
00:25:46because he's out of bullets.
00:25:48Blood running down his face
00:25:50and down his chest.
00:25:52Paul Smith died a short while later.
00:25:56By holding off the Iraqis
00:25:58for almost an hour,
00:26:00he had kept the American position
00:26:02from being overrun.
00:26:05We're getting ready to mount back up
00:26:07and leave when Sergeant Medrano ran up
00:26:09and told me that Sergeant Smith
00:26:11had been wounded.
00:26:13And then when the news came down
00:26:15that he was actually dead,
00:26:16it was a bigger shock.
00:26:18It hit the platoon pretty hard
00:26:20because your platoon sergeant
00:26:22is the person who takes care of you.
00:26:24And he's like your dad.
00:26:29As many as 50 Iraqi soldiers
00:26:32were killed in the fight at the courtyard.
00:26:35But Smith was the only American
00:26:37who died there.
00:26:39It's pretty hard when you're in combat
00:26:41and you lose somebody that you work with.
00:26:43But we're soldiers.
00:26:45I mean, we understand the risk.
00:26:47That's something that you as a soldier
00:26:49have to know.
00:26:51And you have to know it
00:26:53and you have to push it to your family.
00:26:55Two years after his death,
00:26:58Paul Smith's family accepted
00:27:00his Medal of Honor at the White House.
00:27:09You don't go out and try to win
00:27:11the Medal of Honor.
00:27:13It's terrible.
00:27:15Because a whole bunch of them
00:27:17are impostors, you know.
00:27:19They weren't trying to win it either.
00:27:21They just got killed doing it.
00:27:41When we wear the Medal of Honor,
00:27:43we wear it for all of those
00:27:45that fought.
00:27:47There were just witnesses
00:27:49that saw what we did.
00:27:51The action has to be observed
00:27:53and most often it isn't observed.
00:27:55There's nobody there to see
00:27:57what you've done.
00:27:59Everybody dies.
00:28:04In the first six days
00:28:06of the invasion of Normandy
00:28:08in World War II,
00:28:10nine soldiers were awarded
00:28:11the Medal of Honor.
00:28:13Only two survived.
00:28:21On June 6, 1944,
00:28:24D-Day,
00:28:26Sergeant Walter Ehlers
00:28:28landed on Omaha Beach in France.
00:28:37A few hours later,
00:28:39his brother Roland was killed
00:28:41in a stretch of sand.
00:28:48On June 9,
00:28:50fighting amid the notorious
00:28:52hedgerows of Normandy,
00:28:54Ehlers came face-to-face
00:28:56with a four-man German patrol.
00:28:59I couldn't capture them
00:29:01because they'd have probably shot me.
00:29:03So I just automatically
00:29:05shot all four of them real quick there.
00:29:08The following day,
00:29:09Ehlers' unit came under fire
00:29:11from two sides.
00:29:15The company commander
00:29:17ordered the men to pull back.
00:29:20But he held his position.
00:29:23I thought,
00:29:25if we turn around and start withdrawing,
00:29:27we're going to get killed.
00:29:29And as I was firing on them,
00:29:31I got hit in the back
00:29:33and it spun me around.
00:29:35But I saw a guy in the hedgerow
00:29:37and I just shot him on the way down.
00:29:39My automatic rifleman
00:29:41landed on the field
00:29:43and I had to go get him
00:29:45because he was wounded.
00:29:47And when I got back there
00:29:49and turned him over to the medics,
00:29:51I went back and got the rifle back.
00:29:53That's the only automatic rifle
00:29:55we have in the squad
00:29:57and I knew we weren't going to get
00:29:59another one from anybody else.
00:30:01Walter Ehlers was not the first
00:30:03or last man to earn the Medal of Honor
00:30:05for not following orders.
00:30:07Somebody asked me,
00:30:09I wasn't thinking.
00:30:11If I'd been thinking,
00:30:13I wouldn't have done it.
00:30:15I think it's kind of wonderful
00:30:17that the highest award
00:30:19that the military can bestow
00:30:21has to do with maverick behavior
00:30:24because military basically
00:30:26is a prescribed way
00:30:28of going about things.
00:30:30The chain of command,
00:30:32we do what we're told to do
00:30:34when we're told to do it.
00:30:36Well, nobody ever told
00:30:37us to go and take that hill
00:30:39and to take out, you know,
00:30:41four machine gun nests.
00:30:47Hiroshi Miyamura
00:30:49had joined the Army
00:30:51at the end of World War II
00:30:53but never saw combat.
00:30:57In April 1951,
00:30:59the corporal's machine gun squad
00:31:01was defending a position
00:31:03on a Korean mountainside
00:31:05when the Chinese attacked.
00:31:08The firing was getting very heavy
00:31:11and I could see that
00:31:13eventually we were going to be
00:31:15overrun because the Chinese
00:31:17were close by.
00:31:19I had to fire at them behind me.
00:31:24So I gave the orders
00:31:26for my men to withdraw.
00:31:29Why get them all killed?
00:31:32Instead of leaving
00:31:34the besieged hill with his men,
00:31:35Miyamura stayed behind
00:31:37to cover their withdrawal.
00:31:40When his machine gun
00:31:42finally ran out of ammunition,
00:31:44he descended the mountain
00:31:46through the enemy lines
00:31:48armed with only a rifle.
00:31:50I ran into an enemy soldier.
00:31:53I bayoneted him
00:31:55and shot him at the same time.
00:31:58This soldier had a grenade
00:32:00in his hand.
00:32:02I could feel it drop
00:32:03on my leg and I just
00:32:05kicked back at it
00:32:07and it went off.
00:32:09Wounded,
00:32:11Miyamura crawled
00:32:13towards the road.
00:32:15I was focused
00:32:17on a tank of ours
00:32:19and I tried
00:32:21to get his attention
00:32:23and I started running
00:32:25but by that time
00:32:27the tank just took off.
00:32:30I guess I ran about
00:32:3150 yards or so
00:32:33and then I passed out.
00:32:37And then that voice
00:32:39in English told me,
00:32:41get up, you're my prisoner.
00:32:43Miyamura's squad
00:32:45made it back to safety.
00:32:47He would be recommended
00:32:49for the Medal of Honor
00:32:51and called a hero
00:32:53by his country.
00:32:55I think they used the word
00:32:57hero a little carelessly.
00:32:59I've known every man
00:33:01through my time
00:33:03to receive the Medal of Honor,
00:33:05the Spanish-American War,
00:33:07the Boxer Rebellion,
00:33:09the Philippine Insurrection,
00:33:11the Banana Wars,
00:33:13and I haven't ever heard
00:33:15one man use that term
00:33:17about himself.
00:33:19Sometimes the respect
00:33:21and the adulation
00:33:23that is given to you
00:33:25as a recipient of the
00:33:27Medal of Honor,
00:33:29people kind of look
00:33:31at you and say,
00:33:33I want to be your hero.
00:33:35I would say
00:33:37that the average American
00:33:39could easily be a hero
00:33:41if he's in the right place
00:33:43at the right time
00:33:45and it happens.
00:33:51Chief Petty Officer John Finn
00:33:53was in charge of armaments
00:33:55at the Naval Air Squadron
00:33:57on Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii,
00:33:59across the island
00:34:01of Hawaii.
00:34:03On the morning of
00:34:05December 7, 1941,
00:34:07the United States
00:34:09was not yet at war.
00:34:11Finn and his new wife, Alice,
00:34:13were in their bungalow.
00:34:15All of a sudden,
00:34:17I heard,
00:34:19pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
00:34:21I wondered,
00:34:23who the hell's firing
00:34:25machine guns?
00:34:27Hey, it's Sunday.
00:34:29Now I was in bed,
00:34:31and I heard an airplane
00:34:33approaching me
00:34:35from a stern.
00:34:37And here were these
00:34:39two big old red meatballs
00:34:41on the bottom of his wings
00:34:43glaring right at me.
00:34:45I said,
00:34:47boy, this is the real McCoy.
00:34:49It's the Japs.
00:34:52The Japanese dive bombers
00:34:54caught the American planes
00:34:56on the ground.
00:34:58The airfield had
00:34:5940 anti-aircraft guns,
00:35:01just .30 and .50 caliber
00:35:03machine guns
00:35:05the planes carried.
00:35:07Finn's request to build
00:35:09gun mounts on the ground
00:35:11had been ignored.
00:35:13He grabbed a gun
00:35:15and got it working.
00:35:17I had to change parts.
00:35:19Cartridge stops,
00:35:21they got mixed up.
00:35:23One front was in the rear.
00:35:25I took that .30 caliber gun
00:35:27and put it up
00:35:29and I shot at every one
00:35:31that I could bear on.
00:35:37And all of a sudden,
00:35:39this guy started yelling to me.
00:35:41I said,
00:35:43get the hell back on your gun.
00:35:45And I pointed,
00:35:47plane's coming.
00:35:49They were on their way down
00:35:51to make another strafing attack.
00:35:53And he took two or three steps
00:35:55forward and yelled again,
00:35:57three times.
00:35:59Plane is jammed.
00:36:01Well, I said,
00:36:03why the hell didn't you tell me?
00:36:05I run up there,
00:36:07cleared the stoppage,
00:36:09got right on those planes
00:36:11and fired at them.
00:36:14I remember one time
00:36:16thinking,
00:36:18Jesus Christ,
00:36:20why stand here and get killed?
00:36:22But I didn't think about it
00:36:24very long.
00:36:30Fifteen miles away
00:36:32at Pearl Harbor,
00:36:34the battleship USS Arizona
00:36:36was ablaze
00:36:38and the USS Oklahoma
00:36:40was upside down.
00:36:43For more than two hours,
00:36:45John Finn fired
00:36:47at the Japanese Zeros
00:36:49as bombs were falling
00:36:51all around him.
00:36:53Finn took more than
00:36:5520 shrapnel wounds
00:36:57but kept shooting.
00:36:59And I don't want for anybody
00:37:01to think I was fearless,
00:37:03but there's fear and anger.
00:37:05And I was so damn mad
00:37:07that we didn't have
00:37:09any gun mounts.
00:37:11I think that anger
00:37:13chases fear away.
00:37:17Well, anyone who is not
00:37:19afraid in combat
00:37:21isn't wired up completely
00:37:23because it's a very scary thing.
00:37:26You would land in that
00:37:27helicopter in that rice patio
00:37:29or that field
00:37:31and immediately you started
00:37:33going into that jungle.
00:37:36Quiet.
00:37:38And all of a sudden
00:37:40all hell would break loose.
00:37:42You have people
00:37:44shooting at you
00:37:46and you don't know
00:37:48where it's coming from.
00:37:50You're afraid to move
00:37:52because you didn't want
00:37:54to attract attention to yourself.
00:37:55Fear is an amazing tool.
00:37:57I don't see it as
00:37:59a weakness at all.
00:38:01Fear can save your life,
00:38:03but you have to
00:38:05not let it control you.
00:38:10In 1950,
00:38:12Tibor Rubin was a
00:38:14Hungarian immigrant
00:38:16who was turned down
00:38:18twice by the army
00:38:20because his English
00:38:22was so poor.
00:38:24So he would hit them
00:38:26and say,
00:38:28you are a rock.
00:38:30Well, I said,
00:38:32I have to go
00:38:34because I promise I will go
00:38:36to pay back the United States
00:38:38what they did for me.
00:38:40Rubin was the son
00:38:42of a shoemaker
00:38:44born in the small town
00:38:46of Pasztau, Hungary.
00:38:53I was 13 years old.
00:38:55They rounded up
00:38:57all the Jews.
00:38:59I was sent to
00:39:01Mauthausen
00:39:03concentration camp.
00:39:05My mother and two sisters
00:39:07went to Auschwitz.
00:39:10I have a beautiful
00:39:12little sister,
00:39:1410 years old,
00:39:16going to the gas chamber.
00:39:18My mother, you know,
00:39:20she knew where she was going to go,
00:39:21so she went with the little girl.
00:39:2440 months I was in the camp.
00:39:27I was liberated
00:39:29by the 11th Armored Division.
00:39:32And then when I made a promise,
00:39:35if the Lord help me,
00:39:37I go to United States,
00:39:39I'm going to become a G.I. Joe.
00:39:41You see, that's the way
00:39:43we called the American soldiers.
00:39:48So I ended up in Korea.
00:39:52That July,
00:39:54Tibor Rubin got the chance
00:39:56to become a hero,
00:39:58thanks to his sergeant.
00:40:01That guy tried to kill me.
00:40:03He was a big anti-Semite.
00:40:06He used to say,
00:40:08get me that fucking funny-talking
00:40:10sort of a big Jew.
00:40:12That was me.
00:40:14I was his volunteer.
00:40:18One day,
00:40:19he put me on a hill.
00:40:21Then he told me that,
00:40:23Rubin,
00:40:25you're going to guard the hill.
00:40:27I said, where is the other ones?
00:40:29We have to withdraw
00:40:31because such and such.
00:40:33So what can I say?
00:40:35I guard the hill.
00:40:38Left with only
00:40:40a pile of ammunition,
00:40:42Rubin spent the night
00:40:44preparing for the inevitable
00:40:46North Korean assault.
00:40:48So I figured somehow
00:40:50I have to show them
00:40:52there is more than one person.
00:40:56Every foxhole,
00:40:58I put a bunch of hand grenades.
00:41:00Then I load up my M1.
00:41:02M1 is our rifle.
00:41:04Then a carbine.
00:41:06I was pretty scared.
00:41:09So I prayed, too.
00:41:11I made the Shemmai Israel.
00:41:13Shemmai Israel,
00:41:15Adoshem,
00:41:17Elohim,
00:41:19Adonai,
00:41:21Elohim.
00:41:23I prayed to Jesus.
00:41:25I prayed to Buddha.
00:41:27I prayed to Moses, everybody.
00:41:29I said, somehow,
00:41:31you guys have to get my ass out of here.
00:41:33You let me come home
00:41:35from the concentration camp.
00:41:37Couldn't you give me some guts
00:41:39to show that guy
00:41:41we Jews can fight?
00:41:44The North Koreans attacked
00:41:46at 4 a.m.
00:41:50Oh, my God.
00:41:52I got so scared.
00:41:54Threw a bunch of grenades
00:41:56and I pulled the pen, boom.
00:41:58I made so much noise,
00:42:00but they still coming.
00:42:02Then I shooting my rifle.
00:42:04Then I come back for a carbine.
00:42:06Cross here and there.
00:42:10I heard some screaming,
00:42:12but that's all I heard.
00:42:15Boom.
00:42:19Rubin held the hill
00:42:21for 24 hours,
00:42:23single-handedly slowing
00:42:25the North Korean advance.
00:42:30The events
00:42:32for which a man receives
00:42:34the Medal of Honor
00:42:36are always extremely interesting.
00:42:38In almost every case,
00:42:40they were faced with a circumstance
00:42:42where the outcome
00:42:44was going one way,
00:42:46and what they did
00:42:48was they pushed back the tide.
00:42:50They changed history
00:42:52through sheer audacity,
00:42:54through their own refusal
00:42:56to accept the circumstance
00:42:58that was coming their way.
00:43:01I wanted to live.
00:43:05I thought,
00:43:07they can't do this to me.
00:43:09They can't get me.
00:43:11I am going to survive this thing,
00:43:12and I would never let myself
00:43:14think otherwise.
00:43:17I made up my mind
00:43:19I wasn't going to run,
00:43:21and I wasn't going to surrender.
00:43:23My sergeants were men
00:43:25that indoctrinate you
00:43:27into the fact that
00:43:29the fight don't get going good
00:43:31until you're surrounded.
00:43:33Ronald Rosser was the oldest
00:43:35of 17 children
00:43:37from a coal mining town in Ohio.
00:43:42One frozen January morning in Korea,
00:43:44his company battled
00:43:46an enemy battalion
00:43:48dug into a mountainside.
00:43:51Out of the 170 of us
00:43:53that started out originally,
00:43:55there was about 35 of us left,
00:43:57and it was 20 below zero,
00:43:59and our wounded
00:44:01was freezing to death.
00:44:03All the officers were down,
00:44:05including the company commander
00:44:07who was wounded, hit in the face.
00:44:09The sergeants were gone.
00:44:11By radio,
00:44:13the regimental commander
00:44:15ordered the captain
00:44:17to make one more assault.
00:44:19And he looked up the mountain,
00:44:21and he got this hopeless look
00:44:23on his face,
00:44:25and I heard somebody saying,
00:44:27I'll take him up for you, Captain.
00:44:29And then I realized
00:44:31it was me talking,
00:44:33and I thought, my God,
00:44:35what have I done?
00:44:37When I gave the word,
00:44:38the machine guns
00:44:40going point-blank at us.
00:44:42I got about two feet
00:44:44from the Chinese,
00:44:46and I looked back,
00:44:48and I was by myself.
00:44:50All the other men
00:44:52had been knocked down.
00:44:54And I seen it was going
00:44:56to be a bad day.
00:44:58I just had a second
00:45:00to think about everything.
00:45:02My kid brother
00:45:04had been killed in action.
00:45:06I'm going to get even
00:45:08saying, no use
00:45:10wasting the whole day,
00:45:12let's get it going.
00:45:14And I jumped in the trench
00:45:16with the Chinese.
00:45:18I killed eight real quick,
00:45:20and I shot my way up
00:45:22to these two big bunkers.
00:45:24I had one hand grenade left,
00:45:26and I pulled the pin
00:45:28and kicked the spoon
00:45:30and reached down
00:45:32and rolled it in the back door.
00:45:34And I went around
00:45:36the corner of the trench,
00:45:38and went after them.
00:45:40And the ones in front
00:45:42couldn't even believe their eyes.
00:45:44One crashed down
00:45:46and emptied a burp gun
00:45:48right into me,
00:45:50and I could feel the bullets
00:45:52sucking up my clothes,
00:45:54but nothing hit me.
00:45:56And all at once,
00:45:58I looked,
00:46:00and they were all
00:46:02running from me.
00:46:04Out of ammunition,
00:46:06Rosser went back
00:46:08and twice more
00:46:10he ran out of ammunition
00:46:12and descended to rearm himself,
00:46:14stripping guns and ammunition
00:46:16from dead G.I.s,
00:46:18helping the wounded to safety.
00:46:23Both sides suffered
00:46:25heavy casualties.
00:46:31It gets kind of bad sometimes,
00:46:33you know,
00:46:35where it just gets bad.
00:46:39You got all these dead
00:46:41and wounded around you,
00:46:43and they're screaming,
00:46:45high-pitched screams.
00:46:47The enemy,
00:46:49you got hundreds of them down.
00:46:52Best way I can describe it
00:46:54is just a nightmare.
00:46:57For his actions on that day,
00:46:59January 12, 1952,
00:47:02Rosser's commander
00:47:04recommended him
00:47:06for the Medal of Honor.
00:47:08And the commander called me up
00:47:10and ordered me off the line.
00:47:12I told him,
00:47:14I'm not coming off the line, Colonel.
00:47:16He said,
00:47:18Oh, you got to come off the line,
00:47:20you're in for the Medal of Honor.
00:47:22And I said,
00:47:24Colonel,
00:47:26I know you're not hard of hearing.
00:47:28You people can put me in
00:47:30for whatever you want to,
00:47:32but you can't make me take it.
00:47:34Now you leave me alone
00:47:36or take the medal and stick it
00:47:38up my ass.
00:47:40The military's worst
00:47:42public relations nightmare
00:47:44is for a Medal of Honor recipient
00:47:46to be killed
00:47:48in another action.
00:47:50It was hard to stay
00:47:52in the military
00:47:54and be a holder of the Medal of Honor
00:47:56because they're always
00:47:58looking out for you,
00:48:00maybe a little bit too much.
00:48:02I was in the hospital
00:48:04when I was notified,
00:48:06and I thought it was nonsense
00:48:08that I was going to die.
00:48:10NARRATOR.
00:48:12Cary led his team
00:48:14of Navy SEALs
00:48:16on a raid against
00:48:18a Viet Cong-held island
00:48:20scaling a 350-foot cliff
00:48:22in the dead of night.
00:48:24In the firefight,
00:48:26Cary's leg was shattered
00:48:28by a grenade.
00:48:30Applying a tourniquet
00:48:32to his own knee,
00:48:34he continued to direct
00:48:36his men until rescued.
00:48:38This medal is crazy.
00:48:40And the guy said,
00:48:42look, you've got to take it
00:48:44for all the rest of us.
00:48:46This is not you,
00:48:48this is us,
00:48:50so you've got to
00:48:52accept this thing.
00:48:54When Danny Inouye,
00:48:56who's a current
00:48:58senior senator from Hawaii,
00:49:00received the Medal of Honor,
00:49:02he said,
00:49:04I'm listening to all these
00:49:06awards given to people
00:49:08who have served in the military.
00:49:10I think the responsibility
00:49:12of a medic in combat
00:49:14is something where
00:49:16it can be godlike.
00:49:18Because you can take care of one,
00:49:20you can't take care of
00:49:22five or six people
00:49:24at the same time.
00:49:26At that time,
00:49:28you have to make a decision
00:49:30that literally is going to
00:49:32come back and bear on your life
00:49:34for a very long time
00:49:36as to whether you made it
00:49:38or not.
00:49:40Don't worry about it at that time.
00:49:42Those that are going to survive,
00:49:44you try to take care of those.
00:49:46Those that have no chance
00:49:48whatsoever,
00:49:50you go through the motions
00:49:52and get on to the next person
00:49:54who's going to be able to survive.
00:49:56Alfred Rascone's family
00:49:58made it across the border
00:50:00from Mexico when he was
00:50:02three months old.
00:50:04At 19,
00:50:06he was in Vietnam,
00:50:08north of Saigon.
00:50:10Rascone's reconnaissance platoon
00:50:12was ordered to back up
00:50:14an American battalion
00:50:16caught in an ambush.
00:50:19And this hellacious
00:50:21firefight starts.
00:50:23I'm talking about literally
00:50:25trees were falling down,
00:50:27machine guns,
00:50:29hand grenades going off.
00:50:31The area where the
00:50:33North Vietnamese were set up
00:50:35in an ambush was like
00:50:37one of our machine gunners
00:50:39was laying there.
00:50:41I went up to the front,
00:50:43but the firefight was so intense
00:50:45that I couldn't get to him.
00:50:47Two or three times,
00:50:49I tried moving up to him
00:50:51and every time I kept
00:50:53on getting shot at.
00:50:55I could hear the guys
00:50:57yelling cover for Doc,
00:50:59cover Doc.
00:51:01Eventually what I did,
00:51:03I just said screw this thing
00:51:04and my body just literally
00:51:06pulsated from being shot.
00:51:09And I was hit.
00:51:11They hit me in the hip,
00:51:13went up my spine and came
00:51:15out of my collarbone.
00:51:17And I couldn't move,
00:51:19I couldn't move my legs.
00:51:21And eventually I ended up
00:51:23getting enough strength
00:51:25where I was able to take
00:51:27Thompson off the trail.
00:51:29And he just laid there
00:51:31and I realized he was dead.
00:51:32He had a terrible amount of ammo.
00:51:34And I saw that he was
00:51:36wounded in the leg.
00:51:38I'm trying to take care
00:51:40of his leg.
00:51:42He's telling me to get away
00:51:44from me, I need ammo.
00:51:46I said well I just took
00:51:48Thompson off the trail.
00:51:50He's got two bandoliers
00:51:52across him that are M60 rounds.
00:51:54He said go get it.
00:51:56And I said to myself,
00:51:58hell I'm not going back
00:52:00over there.
00:52:03They were throwing
00:52:05hand grenades at us.
00:52:07And it hit me in the face
00:52:09and it literally tore my face
00:52:11from here to here,
00:52:13here and I guess in the back.
00:52:15And I said oh my God,
00:52:17I'm going to die here
00:52:19and my good looks are gone.
00:52:21I don't know why I started
00:52:23to think about the fact
00:52:25that I had good looks.
00:52:27Just then, the soldier
00:52:29manning the rocket-propelled
00:52:30rocket launcher,
00:52:32Raskong saved his life,
00:52:34got peppered with
00:52:36shrapnel again,
00:52:38and kept treating
00:52:40other injured men,
00:52:42shielding them
00:52:44with his wounded body.
00:52:46All of a sudden,
00:52:48it was over with.
00:52:50The firefight stopped
00:52:52just the way it had
00:52:54started, as quickly.
00:52:56Somehow somebody
00:52:58ended up literally
00:53:00taking me to the landing
00:53:02zone where the second
00:53:04battalion was at.
00:53:06I didn't realize that
00:53:08I was pretty well beat up.
00:53:10And as I got there,
00:53:12there was a group of
00:53:14chaplains and they came
00:53:16up to me as I was getting
00:53:18ready to be put on the
00:53:20helicopter and I was
00:53:22given my last rights.
00:53:24The paperwork for
00:53:26Alfred Raskong's
00:53:28recommendation went
00:53:30through, and he received
00:53:32the medal in February
00:53:342000, and is one of
00:53:36only 75 medical personnel
00:53:38ever awarded the
00:53:40Medal of Honor.
00:53:45To His Excellency
00:53:47Lincoln, President,
00:53:49USA.
00:53:51The undersigned asked
00:53:53to be assigned to duty
00:53:55at Douglas Hospital,
00:53:57but she would much
00:53:58rather be stationed with
00:54:00orders to go wherever
00:54:02and whenever there is
00:54:04a battle, where her
00:54:06energy, enthusiasm,
00:54:08professional abilities,
00:54:10and patriotism will be
00:54:12of the greatest service.
00:54:14Mary E. Walker, MD.
00:54:16Mary Walker is
00:54:18distinguished by being
00:54:20the only woman ever to
00:54:22have been awarded the
00:54:24Medal of Honor.
00:54:26She had received a
00:54:28contract surgeon.
00:54:30Mary Edwards Walker
00:54:32had volunteered in
00:54:34military hospitals and
00:54:36at the Battle of
00:54:38Fredericksburg before
00:54:40requesting a commission
00:54:42in the Army, but
00:54:44President Lincoln refused
00:54:46to overrule his
00:54:48officers, who thought
00:54:50no woman was suited
00:54:52to the job of a
00:54:54military surgeon.
00:54:56Even though she
00:54:58was an eclectic
00:55:00practitioner, she
00:55:02believed that you did
00:55:04what worked, and she
00:55:06felt amputation was
00:55:08strictly a last resort.
00:55:10Walker's reluctance to
00:55:12amputate limbs made her
00:55:14popular with the troops,
00:55:16but her insistence on
00:55:18wearing trousers under
00:55:20her skirt annoyed
00:55:22General William Tecumseh
00:55:24Sherman.
00:55:26Put on decent
00:55:28clothes and go to
00:55:30the hospitals where
00:55:32our poor boys are
00:55:34dying of wounds and
00:55:36fevers, and imitate
00:55:38the women in hoops
00:55:40and petticoats who
00:55:42are devoting their
00:55:44time to the work of
00:55:46nursing.
00:55:48Instead, Walker
00:55:50returned to the
00:55:52front lines, and
00:55:54by the winter of
00:55:561864 was making
00:55:58her way to the
00:56:00United States and
00:56:02imprisoned by the
00:56:04Confederates as a spy.
00:56:06And, of course, they
00:56:08were absolutely horrified
00:56:10that a woman would
00:56:12dress like this and
00:56:14would talk like this.
00:56:16They actually made a
00:56:18spectacle out of her,
00:56:20just parading her
00:56:22through the streets
00:56:24of Richmond so that
00:56:26people could see what
00:56:28the Confederates taste
00:56:30for her dress and
00:56:32recommended her for
00:56:34the Medal of Honor.
00:56:36It was awarded by
00:56:38President Andrew
00:56:40Johnson in late 1865
00:56:42and made her for a
00:56:44time one of the
00:56:46most famous women
00:56:48in the country.
00:56:50She was viewed as
00:56:52eccentric, as nutty,
00:56:54as contentious, as
00:56:56ornery, and I think
00:56:58one of the most
00:57:00famous women in
00:57:02the country.
00:57:04When the Medal of Honor
00:57:06criteria were tightened
00:57:08before World War I,
00:57:10a board was created
00:57:12with the power to
00:57:14rescind awards that
00:57:16did not meet the
00:57:18new standards of
00:57:20heroism in combat.
00:57:22Medals of Honor
00:57:24given out in the
00:57:26Civil War just for
00:57:28the Army, he was a
00:57:30civilian employee.
00:57:32Of course, that medal
00:57:34was later reinstated
00:57:36because he was
00:57:38Buffalo Bill Cody,
00:57:40and they rescinded
00:57:42Mary Walker's,
00:57:44which was a
00:57:46stupid thing to do.
00:57:48She absolutely
00:57:50refused to acknowledge
00:57:52that the medal had
00:57:54been rescinded,
00:57:56and she refused
00:57:58to acknowledge that
00:58:00Mary Edwards Walker's
00:58:02Medal of Honor was
00:58:04reinstated by
00:58:06President Jimmy Carter.
00:58:08I think a lot of
00:58:10people should feel
00:58:12uncomfortable about
00:58:14the whole idea of
00:58:16taking medals away
00:58:18from anybody.
00:58:20There were certain
00:58:22rules during the
00:58:24Civil War.
00:58:26Certain people
00:58:28didn't want to
00:58:30take medals away
00:58:32from anybody.
00:58:34And I think
00:58:36that's a
00:58:38very bad thing
00:58:40to do.
00:58:42As a teenager,
00:58:44Drew Dix delivered
00:58:46newspapers and
00:58:48road motorcycles.
00:58:50At 17, he enlisted
00:58:52in the Army.
00:58:54In January 1968,
00:58:56he was in Vietnam
00:58:58when the Phat Offensive
00:59:00began.
00:59:04The Communists
00:59:06were attempting to
00:59:08score a knockout blow
00:59:10against the Americans
00:59:12and South Vietnamese.
00:59:14Dix raced back
00:59:16to his base,
00:59:18the Riverside City
00:59:20Chau Phu,
00:59:22which had been
00:59:24overrun by two
00:59:26Viet Cong battalions.
00:59:28My boss said,
00:59:30it's bad.
00:59:32They're downtown,
00:59:34and we think that
00:59:36the nurse's quarters
00:59:38had been overrun,
00:59:40and she probably did.
00:59:42Dix led his small
00:59:44band of commandos
00:59:46back into the city
00:59:48under heavy fire.
00:59:50There was a road
00:59:52right in front
00:59:54of the hospital
00:59:56that led towards
00:59:58the hospital,
01:00:00and it didn't look good.
01:00:02Maggie's
01:00:04International Scout
01:00:06was just riddled
01:00:08with bullet holes.
01:00:10So I'm yelling,
01:00:12Maggie, Maggie,
01:00:14and all of a sudden
01:00:16I heard a kind
01:00:18of a low whimpered,
01:00:20I'm here, I'm here.
01:00:22And I said,
01:00:24Maggie, come out.
01:00:26And she said,
01:00:28and they left through that.
01:00:30After bringing Maggie
01:00:32to the safety of headquarters,
01:00:34Dix set out to rescue
01:00:36two Filipino allies
01:00:38trapped in the courthouse.
01:00:40When we approached
01:00:42that building,
01:00:44just all hell broke loose.
01:00:46They were firing mortars
01:00:48and rockets,
01:00:50and were up against
01:00:52a very white,
01:00:54pure-looking wall.
01:00:56I'll never forget it
01:00:58for the Filipinos,
01:01:00Dix climbed onto the roof.
01:01:02The roof had been loosened
01:01:04by the heavy bombardment,
01:01:06and I fell through
01:01:08and I was holding
01:01:10on the rafters with my elbows,
01:01:12and all of a sudden
01:01:14rounds started coming up
01:01:16through the bottom.
01:01:18I looked down through my shoulder
01:01:20and I could see
01:01:22at least two enemy soldiers.
01:01:24They could have hit my legs
01:01:26almost with the rifle barrels,
01:01:28but they emptied their magazines,
01:01:30and at the time I fell through
01:01:32and my weapon wasn't empty.
01:01:37Dix repeatedly made the choice
01:01:39to go back into the fight
01:01:41to rescue trapped civilians.
01:01:44Each foray into the city
01:01:46meant risking his life.
01:01:51The Medal of Honor
01:01:53has even been awarded
01:01:55to soldiers who do not fight.
01:01:59When I went to Vietnam,
01:02:01I had never experienced war.
01:02:03It was something
01:02:05totally new to me.
01:02:08The training I got
01:02:10as a chaplain
01:02:13didn't really prepare me
01:02:15for what would follow
01:02:18in combat.
01:02:20It's a horrible experience.
01:02:24One of our men
01:02:26was just talking to me,
01:02:28and he got killed,
01:02:30and so they called him
01:02:32to take over,
01:02:34and he looked over at me
01:02:36and said,
01:02:38Well, Father,
01:02:40I guess I'm next.
01:02:42And within five minutes
01:02:44he was dead.
01:02:46Charles Litke
01:02:48is one of only five
01:02:50Army chaplains
01:02:52ever to be awarded
01:02:54a Medal of Honor.
01:02:56Before enlisting,
01:02:58he served in Vietnam.
01:03:02On December 6, 1967,
01:03:04Litke's platoon
01:03:06was on patrol
01:03:08in Bien Hoa province
01:03:10when two Viet Cong
01:03:12crossed the path
01:03:14ahead of them.
01:03:16The whole platoon
01:03:18just hustled up there
01:03:20to where they went
01:03:22into the woods,
01:03:24and I was traveling
01:03:26in the middle.
01:03:28The platoon had walked
01:03:30straight into a North Vietnamese
01:03:32battalion of 400.
01:03:37We had several men wounded
01:03:39and several men killed.
01:03:42A couple of men
01:03:44were just blown off the ground
01:03:46right in front of me,
01:03:48so I got a hold of one of them,
01:03:50got down on my back,
01:03:52and pushed with my feet,
01:03:54and he was still conscious,
01:03:56so I told him to push, too.
01:03:58And we wiggled our way back.
01:04:02The Americans called in
01:04:04reinforcements,
01:04:06and Litke stayed with his men
01:04:08in the firefight.
01:04:10I did go in
01:04:12and began to administer
01:04:14last rites to the dead.
01:04:21I just went from
01:04:23soldier to soldier.
01:04:28You have this little
01:04:30circular vial
01:04:32which contains some cotton
01:04:34soaked in oil.
01:04:37After a while,
01:04:39the cotton gets soaked
01:04:41with blood because you're
01:04:43anointing their head
01:04:45and their ears and eyes,
01:04:47and so that's what I did.
01:04:51Litke plunged back
01:04:53into the battle
01:04:55three more times
01:04:56with his men.
01:04:58One was caught
01:05:00in a tangle of vines.
01:05:02Litke cut him free
01:05:04and dragged him to safety.
01:05:06To protect another,
01:05:08the chaplain put himself
01:05:10between the downed soldier
01:05:12and a machine gun.
01:05:14I didn't have time
01:05:16to think about myself
01:05:18because people were in need,
01:05:20and it was strictly
01:05:22an act of compassion
01:05:24on my part.
01:05:26It wasn't an act of bravery.
01:05:28I never in my wildest dreams
01:05:30expected to be
01:05:32recommended for
01:05:34the Medal of Honor.
01:05:49Of the 1.2 million
01:05:51Americans sent to fight
01:05:53in World War I,
01:05:54only 119 Medals of Honor
01:05:56were awarded.
01:06:05In 1917,
01:06:07Alvin York was an unsung
01:06:09corporal from the backwoods
01:06:11of Tennessee and a deeply
01:06:13religious pacifist who
01:06:15struggled with his conscience
01:06:17before achieving fame
01:06:19as the immortal Sergeant York.
01:06:21When I met him,
01:06:22he was in a hospital bed
01:06:24and he wasn't in very good shape.
01:06:26And, of course,
01:06:28I went up looking for
01:06:30Gary Cooper, you know.
01:06:32I ain't a-going to register.
01:06:34You got to register, Alvin.
01:06:36I ain't a-going to.
01:06:38I ain't a-going to war.
01:06:40War is killing,
01:06:42and the book's again killing.
01:06:44So war is again the book.
01:06:47York detailed his conflict
01:06:49in a wartime diary.
01:06:52My religion and my experience
01:06:55told me not to go to war,
01:06:58and the memory of my ancestors
01:07:01told me to get my gun
01:07:03and go fight.
01:07:05One moment,
01:07:07I would make up my mind
01:07:09to follow God,
01:07:11and the next I would hesitate
01:07:13and almost make up my mind
01:07:15to follow Uncle Sam.
01:07:17York's pastor filed
01:07:19conscientious objector papers
01:07:20to keep him out of the army.
01:07:22The War Department agreed,
01:07:25but York did not take the offer.
01:07:29I didn't want to go
01:07:31and fight and kill,
01:07:33but I had to answer
01:07:35the call of my country,
01:07:37and I did.
01:07:41In October of 1918,
01:07:43at the start of the Yargon Offensive,
01:07:46York's squad was attacking
01:07:48a line of German machine guns.
01:07:50In the middle of a fight,
01:07:53a German officer and five men
01:07:56jumped up out of a trench
01:07:58and charged me
01:08:00with fixed bayonets.
01:08:02They had about 25 yards to come,
01:08:05and they were coming right smart.
01:08:08I only had about
01:08:10a half a clip left in my rifle.
01:08:13I touched off the six-man first,
01:08:15then the fifth,
01:08:17then the fourth,
01:08:18then the third, and so on.
01:08:20That's the way we shoot
01:08:22wild turkeys at home.
01:08:24You see, we don't want
01:08:26the front ones to know
01:08:28that we're getting the back ones.
01:08:40He saved a lot of lives,
01:08:42silencing 35 machine guns,
01:08:45killing 25 enemy soldiers,
01:08:48and taking 135 prisoners.
01:08:52That's a hell of a day's work.
01:08:55If that doesn't get to
01:08:57the Medal of Honor, what will?
01:08:59I've done thought it over, Mr. Hull.
01:09:01I ain't proud of what
01:09:03happened over there.
01:09:05What we done in France
01:09:07was something we had to do.
01:09:09Some fellows done it,
01:09:11ain't it coming back.
01:09:13Alvin York was not the only
01:09:15recipient with qualms
01:09:17about his service.
01:09:19Smedley D. Butler,
01:09:21a Marine major known
01:09:23as the Fighting Quaker,
01:09:25tried to return the Medal of Honor
01:09:27he was awarded for his action
01:09:29at Vera Cruz.
01:09:31He went to the Commandant
01:09:33of the Marine Corps and he said,
01:09:35I have done nothing,
01:09:37absolutely nothing,
01:09:39to earn this medal.
01:09:41Butler was ordered
01:09:43to keep the Medal of Honor.
01:09:45He returned it to the
01:09:47Commander of the Marine Corps,
01:09:49General Pierre Hattie,
01:09:51one of only 17
01:09:53to ever receive it twice.
01:09:55Smedley Butler served everywhere.
01:09:58He was in every conflict
01:10:00from 1898 through World War I.
01:10:03He served in China numerous times,
01:10:06South America,
01:10:08but he was always getting
01:10:10in trouble with superiors.
01:10:12After his retirement in 1931,
01:10:13he began his career
01:10:15in imperialism.
01:10:17I spent 33 years
01:10:19in active military service.
01:10:21During that period,
01:10:23I spent most of my time
01:10:25as a high-class muscle man
01:10:27for big business.
01:10:29In short,
01:10:31I was a racketeer,
01:10:33a gangster for capitalism.
01:10:35I helped make Mexico
01:10:37safe for American oil interests
01:10:39in 1914.
01:10:41I helped in the raping
01:10:43of Central American republics
01:10:45for the benefit of Wall Street.
01:10:47Smedley Butler
01:10:49was just a sparkling
01:10:51military character for me.
01:10:53I think it's a rare thing
01:10:55when a military man
01:10:57is going to say,
01:10:59this is wrong.
01:11:01In 1986,
01:11:03after years of soul-searching,
01:11:05Charles Litke went
01:11:07to the Vietnam War Memorial
01:11:09in Washington, D.C.,
01:11:11and left his medal there.
01:11:13He was the first person ever
01:11:15to return the Medal of Honor.
01:11:17I did it because
01:11:19I was ashamed
01:11:21of what my government
01:11:23was doing
01:11:25to the poor people
01:11:27in Central America,
01:11:29specifically El Salvador
01:11:31and Nicaragua.
01:11:33I saw the results
01:11:35of what our military
01:11:37was a part of,
01:11:39and that took me back
01:11:41to Vietnam.
01:11:43I'm not a pacifist.
01:11:45Nations have a right
01:11:47to defend themselves,
01:11:49but the means which we use
01:11:51is another question.
01:11:59Heroism is not confined
01:12:01to combat.
01:12:04The Medal of Honor
01:12:06has also been awarded
01:12:08to prisoners of war
01:12:10for courage that must last
01:12:11long after the battle ends,
01:12:14sometimes for years.
01:12:20On August 26, 1967,
01:12:24Air Force Major George Bud Day,
01:12:27a veteran of both
01:12:29World War II and Korea,
01:12:31was on a bombing raid
01:12:33over North Vietnam.
01:12:36Just as we got over the target,
01:12:38took a terrible hit,
01:12:39and they have to end
01:12:41the airplane,
01:12:43and no alternate
01:12:45but just to eject.
01:12:47So I hit the ground,
01:12:49busted my arm
01:12:51in three places,
01:12:53and injured my knee
01:12:55and lost the sight
01:12:57of one of my eyes.
01:12:59A couple of young kids
01:13:01burst through the forest
01:13:03with rifles,
01:13:05and I was captured.
01:13:07Day was held
01:13:09interrogated for days at a time
01:13:12and beaten relentlessly.
01:13:14They hung him upside down
01:13:16for hours
01:13:18and put a gun to his head,
01:13:20a mock execution.
01:13:22The Vietnamese
01:13:24never recognized
01:13:26the Geneva Convention,
01:13:28so their position was
01:13:30that you were a criminal.
01:13:32They could do anything to you
01:13:34they wanted to do.
01:13:36By pretending he was
01:13:37unable to walk,
01:13:39Day tricked his captors
01:13:41into letting down their guard.
01:13:43The first time,
01:13:45both of them were facing
01:13:47a different direction.
01:13:49I slipped out of this hole
01:13:51and over the rice paddy,
01:13:53slipped and fell
01:13:55and crunched down on my arm,
01:13:57almost bit my tongue off
01:13:59to keep from screaming.
01:14:01I survived basically on water
01:14:03because there was no food.
01:14:05The best I could do
01:14:07was eat frogs.
01:14:09I ate them,
01:14:11and that's not a good deal.
01:14:13I lost track of time.
01:14:15I'd lost my ability
01:14:17to sort things out.
01:14:20On about the 15th,
01:14:2216th, 17th day,
01:14:24I was within about a mile
01:14:26of freedom
01:14:28when I got shot
01:14:30and recaptured.
01:14:34This time,
01:14:35he was sent to the prison camp
01:14:37nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton.
01:14:43There,
01:14:45his interrogators whipped him
01:14:47with a fan belt.
01:14:49After they pounded me
01:14:51for 300 and some of those drugs,
01:14:53I started lying.
01:14:55So when we got to
01:14:57several days through that,
01:14:59and I got to the point
01:15:01where I was feeling
01:15:03a little stronger,
01:15:05I told you,
01:15:07if you torture me,
01:15:09I would lie.
01:15:11So I take it all back.
01:15:13And then we had
01:15:15some really grotesque tortures.
01:15:17They would get your hands
01:15:19behind your back
01:15:21and elevate your arms
01:15:23like a pump
01:15:25and drive your head down
01:15:27between your knees
01:15:29and you're strangling
01:15:31and you can't breathe.
01:15:33I really can't tell you
01:15:35that you just cannot give up
01:15:37because if you do,
01:15:39then you've lost all hopes
01:15:41of surviving.
01:15:45After covering his
01:15:47retreating squad,
01:15:49wounded POW Hiroshi Miyamura
01:15:51was led on a forced march
01:15:53by the North Koreans.
01:15:55One of my closest friends
01:15:57by the name of Joe O'Mella
01:15:59was injured much worse
01:16:01than I was,
01:16:03and I tried to help him along
01:16:05but I was told to leave him.
01:16:07You know, I said,
01:16:09my God,
01:16:11this may be the last time
01:16:13I see him alive.
01:16:15Every night we pulled
01:16:17into these villages,
01:16:19nothing to eat.
01:16:21The second week
01:16:23into our march,
01:16:25they started,
01:16:27issued us some fine powder
01:16:29which consisted of ground up
01:16:31barley, rice, millet.
01:16:33The younger men
01:16:35didn't like this.
01:16:37Being one of the older guys,
01:16:39I said, you gotta eat it
01:16:41if you wanna live.
01:16:43And on our march,
01:16:45they turned into skeletons.
01:16:47It took us a little over
01:16:4930 days to get there.
01:16:53And I'm just sorry
01:16:55to say we lost.
01:17:06We lost at least half.
01:17:11Two months after Tibor Rubin
01:17:13was ordered to protect
01:17:15the hill by himself,
01:17:17his position was attacked
01:17:19by a Chinese battalion.
01:17:23Manning a machine gun
01:17:25to defend his retreating company,
01:17:27Rubin was seriously wounded
01:17:29and taken prisoner.
01:17:31He too ended up
01:17:33in a North Korean POW camp.
01:17:35Our biggest killer
01:17:37was just not with concentration
01:17:39came to dysentery.
01:17:41We don't have nowhere
01:17:43to wash up.
01:17:45Lice was eating us,
01:17:47the bad bugs eating us,
01:17:49the guys dying every day,
01:17:5140 boys died.
01:17:53So, you know,
01:17:55my mother used to say,
01:17:57it was a religious Jewish lady,
01:17:59kosher home, everything,
01:18:01and have to do the mitzvahs.
01:18:03She always told us,
01:18:05when you go to shul,
01:18:07the temple,
01:18:09they say a mitzvah
01:18:11is a good deed.
01:18:13Every night if I can go,
01:18:15I sneak out of the camp
01:18:17and steal food
01:18:19and I bring it back
01:18:21and I share it with the guys.
01:18:23And I wash them.
01:18:25They used to shed all over themselves.
01:18:27Guys was getting sick
01:18:29and I take care of them.
01:18:3140 guys I saved.
01:18:33A lot of them I lost.
01:18:36T-Bor Rubin remained a prisoner
01:18:38for two and a half years
01:18:40before finally being released
01:18:42in April 1953.
01:18:45Later that same year,
01:18:47Hiroshi Miyamura,
01:18:49weighing just 98 pounds,
01:18:51was released.
01:18:53He was released
01:18:55from the prison
01:18:57in April 1953.
01:18:59T-Bor Rubin was released
01:19:01from the prison
01:19:03in April 1953.
01:19:05Hiroshi Miyamura,
01:19:07weighing 98 pounds,
01:19:09was also freed.
01:19:11He returned home
01:19:13to Gallup, New Mexico
01:19:15and went to work
01:19:17in an auto parts store.
01:19:19One day,
01:19:21a stranger walked in.
01:19:23Up until that time,
01:19:25I had no idea
01:19:27whether my friend Joe was alive.
01:19:29And here he comes,
01:19:31five years later,
01:19:33walking through that door.
01:19:35I thought that ever since
01:19:37we found out that
01:19:39we were both alive.
01:19:44To be free again
01:19:46and away from all of that
01:19:48awful stuff was just
01:19:50kind of unbelievable.
01:19:52Sort of like going from
01:19:54the 15th century
01:19:56to the 21st century
01:19:58in the flick of an eye.
01:20:01The picture just kind of
01:20:03says it all,
01:20:05the chance to embrace again
01:20:07and see each other again
01:20:09was just
01:20:11marvelous beyond words.
01:20:15George Budd Day
01:20:17defied his captors
01:20:19for more than five years.
01:20:30By the 1990s,
01:20:32it was obvious that minorities
01:20:33had been overlooked
01:20:35for the Medal of Honor.
01:20:38Not a single African American
01:20:40or Asian American
01:20:42had received one
01:20:44in either of the World Wars.
01:20:50The Army ordered a review
01:20:52and seven black veterans
01:20:54were awarded
01:20:56the Medal of Honor.
01:20:58Only one of them,
01:21:00Vernon Baker,
01:21:01was still alive to receive it.
01:21:06Another review
01:21:08resulted in 22 medals
01:21:10for Asian Americans.
01:21:14In 2001,
01:21:16the files of Jewish veterans
01:21:18were searched.
01:21:20Tibor Rubin had been
01:21:22waiting 50 years.
01:21:24Corporal Rubin's gallant actions
01:21:26in close contact with the enemy
01:21:28and unyielding courage and bravery
01:21:29while a prisoner of war
01:21:31are in the highest traditions
01:21:33of military service
01:21:35and reflect great credit
01:21:37upon himself and the
01:21:39United States Army.
01:21:41To get a medal like that,
01:21:43a guy who wasn't born here,
01:21:45a guy who wasn't a citizen,
01:21:47this is a miracle.
01:21:52My sergeant,
01:21:54he the one who made
01:21:56a hero out of me.
01:21:57I don't even know
01:21:59what is a Medal of Honor.
01:22:01I don't want to be a hero.
01:22:03Maybe a lot of them
01:22:05died to be a hero.
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01:23:54on your left and on your right.
01:23:58Before his death, Sergeant Paul Smith
01:24:01wrote a letter to his parents.
01:24:05Dear Mom and Dad, as I sit here getting ready
01:24:09to head into war once again,
01:24:12I realize that I have left some things unsaid.
01:24:17I love you, and I don't want you to worry,
01:24:21even though I know you will until the day I get home.
01:24:28There are two ways to come home,
01:24:31stepping off the plane and being carried off the plane.
01:24:37It doesn't matter how I come home,
01:24:39because I am prepared to give all that I am
01:24:43to ensure that all my boys make it home.
01:24:46["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"]
01:25:16["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"]
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