Americans veterans who fought against German tyranny are heroes for our time while we risk losing our Democracy

Story of 3 war heroes' fight against tyranny 80 years ago echoes today | Opinion Published by Al Cross in the Courier Journal 

Three Americans risked their lives 80 years ago to save Europe from tyranny. They were recognized with the Medal of Honor, including Garlin Conner of Southern Kentucky.

Eighty years ago this week, on successive days a few miles apart in eastern France, three rural Americans risked their lives to help save Europe from tyranny. 

One soon died of his wounds, and another’s heroism was almost unknown until after his death. Their lives and their valor, all recognized with the Medal of Honor, should be remembered as America reflects on its role in the world — past, present and future.

All three soldiers were in the Third Infantry Division, which chased German forces out of the Colmar Pocket, named for a city between the Rhine River and the Vosges Mountains. This 800-square-mile area was the last part of France held by the Germans, and had been German territory before World War I, so they fought hard to keep it.

No matter where you are reading this, you’ve probably heard of the third soldier who earned the Medal of Honor in the Colmar Pocket, on January 26, 1945: Second Lt. Audie Murphy, an East Texan who was hailed as the most decorated American soldier of World War II and became a movie star.

Audie Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was one of the most decorated United States Army combat soldiers of World War II, serving from 1942 to 1945. He received every American combat award for valor available at the time of his service,[ALM 1] including the Medal of Honor. He also received recognitions from France and Belgium.

Murphy’s postwar life was in sharp contrast to that of the Third Division soldier who earned the Medal of Honor two days earlier, on January 24. He was First Lt. Garlin Murl Conner, who didn’t get the medal until 2018, 20 years after he died, because of the fog of war — and returned to a Southern Kentucky farm that had no electricity or running water.

But Conner was luckier than the other Medal of Honor recipient in the Colmar Pocket. On January 25, 1945, PFC Jose F. Valdez of northwest New Mexico, who had already killed three heavily armed Germans in a firefight, volunteered to cover his patrol’s retreat against heavy fire. Even after he was shot through, he directed artillery fire and held off 200 Germans. He died three weeks later.

Garlin Murl Conner's heroism in WWII

Murphy also directed artillery fire, after ordering his company to retreat. When the Germans knocked out a tank destroyer near his command post, he mounted the flaming vehicle and directed its machine gun at advancing enemy troops, killing or wounding 50. 

He suffered a leg wound, ran out of ammunition and rejoined his company, which forced the Germans back.

Kentuckian Garlin Murl Conner's heroism in WWII:  Conner’s heroism on January 24, 1945, was also about directing artillery at great risk. He had already earned three Silver Stars and had been assigned to a staff position because he was due to be sent home after 28 months in combat and had suffered a leg wound, but when Germans advanced on the 3rd Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment, he volunteered to be a forward observer for artillery. He unrolled telephone wire as he ran more than 400 yards through German artillery fire and slid into a shallow ditch, from which he directed fire for three hours – finally on his own position because enemy troops were 15 feet away. The Germans finally retreated after 50 were killed and more than 100 were wounded.

Conner’s commanding officer was Col. Lloyd Ramsey, who went on to be a major general and have future Gens. Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf under his command. He told his staff to seek the highest possible honor for Conner, but he was injured the next day and detailed eyewitness accounts needed for the Medal of Honor were not gathered. Instead, Conner was given the Distinguished Service Cross after winning his fourth Silver Star.

Like most war heroes, Conner didn’t tell war stories, and his heroism was never publicly reported in Clinton County, Kentucky, where he returned to live and farm. 

Near the end of his life, he was visited by Richard Chilton of Genoa City, Wis., a retired soldier seeking information about his uncle’s service in World War II. 

Conner could talk only a little, but as Chilton left, Conner’s wife Pauline showed Chilton her husband’s box of medals. When he saw the DSC and four Silver Stars, and heard the story about his heroism at Houssen, he started a campaign to get Conner the Medal of Honor — a task made daunting by federal law, Army regulations and the Pentagon bureaucracy.

The road to the Medal of Honor:  The campaign got traction when Byron Crawford, then a columnist for The Courier Journal, wrote about it and Conner’s heroism, which was news to almost all of his neighbors. One of them, Walton Haddix, took charge of the campaign and got lawyers involved. After many twists, turns and apparent dead-ends, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the Army to mediate the matter, and the end result was that Pauline Conner accepted the Medal of Honor in 2018.

Donald Trump has never shown respect for the military. He is unfit to serve unqualified to be commander in chief- Dump Trump!

Echo opinion letter published in the Houston Chronicle:

Trump’s dishonorable comments: 

Trump's disgraceful Medal of Honor remarks prove he's unfit to lead | Opinion:  Unless I missed it, the Houston Chronicle dedicated zero print to Donald Trump’s (booooring 🥱😧 ) hour-long press conference during which he told more than two lies per minute.

During this event, Trump said that the Presidential Medal of Freedom was “much better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor, because “everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets, or they’re dead.”

Given the staggering magnitude of his ignorance — according to his former chief of staff, Trump didn’t even understand the significance of Pearl Harbor — it’s tempting to dismiss this comment as innocuous. He was simply complimenting a Medal of Freedom recipient who, unlike the “suckers” and “losers” who defend this country, happened to be a “healthy, beautiful woman” and, of course, a billionaire donor to his campaign. But it underscores deeper, ongoing and far more consequential haracter flaws that should render him permanently unfit for any public office.

He has profoundly perverted the definition of leadership. For him, there is nothing greater than self-enrichment and self-preservation, which is why sacrifice, service, honor and humility are pointless gestures. Loyalty is something to be imposed, not inspired. 

Trump does not inspire loyalty.  Rather he demands it.  A zero sum game for Trump.

Seriously ❗ This is not just a character flaw, it’s a complete absence of character and it runs against the basic values we all teach our children.

His seemingly inconsequential ramblings are newsworthy because they reveal a myopic world view that will inform his policy decisions. This is critical information for any voter — the uninformed, misinformed and those with short memories.

From Robert Campbell, in Katy, Texas

Donald Trump keeps digging into political quicksand - does not get how to message about veterans or disabled

Echo opinion by Alex Green published in the Boston Globe:

Rarely a day passes without a sneering (boring😒🥱) screed from (cruel😡) Donald Trump that casts America as a land of stupid, deranged, weak, and ugly people. It’s such a tired litany that only the most absurdly vicious comments make their way into the press anymore. 

Most recently, it was his remark that the civilian Medal of Freedom was superior to the military’s Medal of Honor.

The Medal of Freedom is “much better,” Trump said last week, than the Medal of Honor, whose recipients, who stepped in front of grenades and ran into burning buildings to save other human beings, and are now, in his words, “in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”

Trump’s years of comments about wounded and deceased veterans have rightly been denounced as an affront to those who served, but they are also representative of his broader and (sick❗) unrelenting hatred of disabled people, even though a doctor diagnosed him with heel spurs in 1968, which gave him a medical exemption from the Vietnam draft. 

Trump has mocked physically disabled people, lied about an influx of immigrants being escapees from “mental institutions,” and suggested that his nephew’s disabled child was an example of why disabled people “should just die.”

To some extent, the fact that Trump holds these beliefs is not unusual. He was raised in an era when disability was a source of extreme stigma and more than half a million disabled people were held against their will in institutions. The disappearance of that world began during Trump’s childhood seven decades ago, and the changes that it wrought have clearly been a lifelong source of outrage for him.

Vote Harris and Walz - Dump Trump❗

It’s easy to see that Trump’s main grievance stems from the rift that began in that era. As with most of his existence, his concerns are brutally cosmetic and his gripe seems to be that government no longer hunts down and removes the vulnerable the way it used to. In that stunted worldview, the presence of disabled people in public is an affront that he cannot abide.

The important question is why Trump has escaped any sustained blowback for the underlying belief connecting so many of his comments that garner media attention as standalone incidents.The clearest answer is that his hatred of disabled people is acceptable to the widest swath of his supporters while the least number of his opponents find it objectionable.

And Trump’s detractors seem just as prone as anyone to engage in the kind of flippant armchair diagnosis that makes this such a hostile society to disabled people. At every turn, they sought to argue, without proof, that he is mentally ill rather than simply rambling, cruel, elitist, aging, and unchecked by common decency. To make him evil, they seem to be saying, he must be disabled.

Fully one-quarter of the American public is disabled in some way, from substance abuse disorder to autism, cerebral palsy, mental illness, Down syndrome, physical injury, and more. Many of us live in poverty, face extreme adversity, and have to fight to be seen each day. Many also now represent greatness in terms that the nondisabled cannot reduce to a cute, backhanded phrase like “special needs.”

Billionaires like Alex Karp openly talk about their disabilities. Disabled veterans like Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois serve in the highest offices in the nation. Countless athletes, like Suni Lee, Serena Williams, Aly Raisman, and Naomi Osaka, have won the world’s greatest contests, inspiring generations of future athletes to lean on one another while confronting the day-to-day challenges that disabilities throw their way.

We all benefit from their greatness and the example that it sets. But in Trump’s America, they’re just another bunch of losers. 😒😠

Alex Green is a writer and disability rights activist.

Precious American blood is hardly dry in Ramadi but evil ISIS is taking back the Iraq city

This current fiasco in Ramadi, follows two tragic Battles to control the Iraqi city of Ramadi.
The Battle of Ramadi was fought in 2006 and Americans lost lives defending this Iraqi city.

Now, Ramadi could fall to evil ISIS militants, Iraqi official warns.

Sadly, Americans aren't hearing the details about this serial disaster in our national media.  

Instead, main stream media are too busy stalking Mrs. Hillary Clinton, as she travels in Iowa.  

My sincere sympathy to the families of American military who died trying to defend Ramadi, because now their deaths must be explained.  Ramadi might well become an evil ISIS stronghold.  

West of Baghdad, Iraq (CNN: ISIS militants might be just hours away from taking the key Iraqi city of Ramadi. Fierce fighting has engulfed Ramadi, which lies only about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of Baghdad and is the capital of Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni heartland...it's unclear how much longer government troops can hold their front lines against the ISIS offensive.

The Battle of Ramadi in June, 2006 cost American lives and millions of dollars of tax payer money. 

The Battle of Ramadi in 2006 (sometimes referred to as the Second Battle of Ramadi) was fought during the Iraq War from April 2006 to November 2006 for control of the capital of the Al Anbar Governorate in western Iraq. A combined force of U.S. Soldiers, U.S. Marines, U.S. Navy SEALs, and Iraqi Security Forces fought insurgents for control of key locations in Ramadi, including the Government Center and the General Hospital. Coalition strategy relied on establishing a number of patrol bases called Combat Operation Posts throughout the city.

U.S. military officers believe that insurgent actions during the battle led to the formation of the Anbar Awakening. In August, insurgents executed a tribal sheik who was encouraging his kinsmen to join the Iraqi police and prevented his body from being buried in accordance with Islamic laws. In response, Sunni sheiks banded together to drive insurgents from Ramadi. In September 2006, Sheik Abdul Sattar Abu Risha formed the Anbar Salvation Council, an alliance of approximately 40 Sunni tribes.[9]

U.S. Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the battle. On September 29, 2006, he threw himself upon a grenade which threatened the lives of the other members of his team. Monsoor had previously been awarded the Silver Star in May for rescuing an injured comrade in the city.

The battle also marked the first use of chlorine bombs by insurgents during the war. On October 21, 2006, insurgents detonated a car-bomb with two 100-pound chlorine tanks, injuring three Iraqi policemen and a civilian in Ramadi.

Spiritual Medal of Honor Ceremony: Army Chaplain Father Emil Kapaun Receives Postumous Medal of Honor and Might Be a Candidate for Cannonization

Although awarding a heroic veteran the nation's highest Medal of Honor is always a prestigious ceremony, the sensitivity with which President Obama presented the biography of the recipient, Father Kapaun, clearly demonstrated the respect he felt for the man he was recognizing. It was an unusually moving presentation.

President Barack Obama eloquently explained how the late Army Chaplain Father Emil Kapaun reminded him about the Kansas roots the Army chaplain shared with his own grandfather, who helped to raise him after his father left the family in Hawaii.  

Father Kapaun's inspirational acts of courage transcended the terror the chaplain must have experienced as he heroically stood up against aggression to defend American troops in a prisoner or war camp during the Korean War.

Father Emil Kapaun received his posthumous medal of honor for exhibiting extraordinary heroism during the time when he became a prisoner of war during the Korean Battle of Unson.

Emil Joseph Kapaun (April 20, 1916 – May 23, 1951) was a Roman Catholic priest and United States Army chaplain who died in theKorean War. The Roman Catholic Church has declared him a Servant of God and he is a candidate for sainthood. On April 11, 2013, President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Captain Chaplain Kapaun. The medal was accepted by Kapaun’s nephew at a White House ceremony.

Transcript from President Obama:

"This year, we mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War -- a time when thousands of our prisoners of war finally came home after years of starvation and hardship and, in some cases, torture. And among the homecomings, one stood out."

"A group of our POWs emerged carrying a large wooden crucifix, nearly four feet tall. They had spent months on it, secretly collecting firewood, carving it -- the cross and the body -- using radio wire for a crown of thorns. It was a tribute to their friend, their chaplain, their fellow prisoner who had touched their souls and saved their lives -- Father Emil Kapaun."

"This is an amazing story. Father Kapaun has been called a shepherd in combat boots. His fellow soldiers who felt his grace and his mercy called him a saint, a blessing from God. Today, we bestow another title on him -- recipient of our nation’s highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor. After more than six decades of working to make this Medal a reality, I know one of Father Kapaun’s comrades spoke for a lot of folks here when he said, 'it’s about time'."

"Father, as they called him, was just 35 years old when he died in that hellish prison camp. His parents and his only sibling, his brother, are no longer with us. But we are extremely proud to welcome members of the Kapaun family -- his nephews, his niece, their children -- two of whom currently serve in this country's National Guard. And we are very proud of them."

....and President Obama went on to explain:

"Now, I obviously never met Father Kapaun. But I have a sense of the man he was, because in his story I see reflections of my own grandparents and their values, the people who helped to raise me. Emil and my grandfather were both born in Kansas about the same time, both were raised in small towns outside of Wichita. They were part of that Greatest Generation -- surviving the Depression, joining the Army, serving in World War II. And they embodied those heartland values of honesty and hard work, decency and humility -- quiet heroes determined to do their part."

"For Father Kapaun, this meant becoming an Army chaplain -- serving God and country. After the Communist invasion of South Korea, he was among the first American troops that hit the beaches and pushed their way north through hard mountains and bitter cold. In his understated Midwestern way, he wrote home, saying, “this outdoor life is quite the thing” -- (laughter) -- and 'I prefer to live in a house once in a while'.  But he had hope, saying, 'It looks like the war will end soon'.”

"That’s when Chinese forces entered the war with a massive surprise attack -- perhaps 20,000 soldiers pouring down on a few thousand Americans. In the chaos, dodging bullets and explosions, Father Kapaun raced between foxholes, out past the front lines and into no-man’s land -- dragging the wounded to safety."

"When his commanders ordered an evacuation, he chose to stay -- gathering the injured, tending to their wounds. When the enemy broke through and the combat was hand-to-hand, he carried on -- comforting the injured and the dying, offering some measure of peace as they left this Earth."

"When enemy forces bore down, it seemed like the end -- that these wounded Americans, more than a dozen of them, would be gunned down. But Father Kapaun spotted a wounded Chinese officer. He pleaded with this Chinese officer and convinced him to call out to his fellow Chinese. The shooting stopped and they negotiated a safe surrender, saving those American lives."   

"Then, as Father Kapaun was being led away, he saw another American -- wounded, unable to walk, laying in a ditch, defenseless. An enemy soldier was standing over him, rifle aimed at his head, ready to shoot. And Father Kapaun marched over and pushed the enemy soldier aside. And then as the soldier watched, stunned, Father Kapaun carried that wounded American away."

"This is the valor we honor today -- an American soldier who didn’t fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live. And yet, the incredible story of Father Kapaun does not end there."

(Kapaun)"... carried that injured American, for miles, as their captors forced them on a death march. When Father Kapaun grew tired, he’d help the wounded soldier hop on one leg. When other prisoners stumbled, he picked them up. When they wanted to quit -- knowing that stragglers would be shot -- he begged them to keep walking."

"In the camps that winter, deep in a valley, men could freeze to death in their sleep. Father Kapaun offered them his own clothes. They starved on tiny rations of millet and corn and birdseed. He somehow snuck past the guards, foraged in nearby fields, and returned with rice and potatoes. In desperation, some men hoarded food. He convinced them to share. Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery. He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal into pots and boiled clean water. They lived in filth. He washed their clothes and he cleansed their wounds."

(Describing a battle field scene reminiscent of Calvary....President Obama provided more information about Chaplain Kapaun's heroism...)

"The guards ridiculed his devotion to his Savior and the Almighty. They took his clothes and made him stand in the freezing cold for hours. Yet, he never lost his faith. If anything, it only grew stronger. At night, he slipped into huts to lead prisoners in prayer, saying the Rosary, administering the sacraments, offering three simple words: “God bless you.” One of them later said that with his very presence he could just for a moment turn a mud hut into a cathedral."

"That spring, he went further -- he held an Easter service. I just met with the Kapaun family. They showed me something extraordinary -- the actual stole, the purple vestment that Father Kapaun wore when he celebrated Mass inside that prison camp."

"As the sun rose that Easter Sunday, he put on that purple stole and led dozens of prisoners to the ruins of an old church in the camp. And he read from a prayer missal that they had kept hidden. He held up a small crucifix that he had made from sticks. And as the guards watched, Father Kapaun and all those prisoners -- men of different faith, perhaps some men of no faith -- sang the Lord’s Prayer and 'America the Beautiful'. They sang so loud that other prisoners across the camp not only heard them, they joined in, too -- filling that valley with song and with prayer."

"That faith -- that they might be delivered from evil, that they could make it home -- was perhaps the greatest gift to those men; that even amidst such hardship and despair, there could be hope; amid their misery in the temporal they could see those truths that are eternal; that even in such hell, there could be a touch of the divine. Looking back, one of them said that that is what 'kept a lot of us alive'.”

"Yet, for Father Kapaun, the horrific conditions took their toll. Thin, frail, he began to limp, with a blood clot in his leg. And then came dysentery, then pneumonia. That’s when the guards saw their chance to finally rid themselves of this priest and the hope he inspired. They came for him. And over the protests and tears of the men who loved him, the guards sent him to a death house -- a hellhole with no food or water -- to be left to die."

"And yet, even then, his faith held firm. 'I’m going to where I’ve always wanted to go', he told his brothers. 'And when I get up there, I’ll say a prayer for all of you'. And then, as was taken away, he did something remarkable -- he blessed the guards. 'Forgive them', he said, 'for they know not what they do'. Two days later, in that house of death, Father Kapaun breathed his last breath. His body was taken away, his grave unmarked, his remains unrecovered to this day."

"The war and the awful captivity would drag on for another two years, but these men held on -- steeled by the memory and moral example of the man they called Father. And on their first day of freedom, in his honor, they carried that beautiful wooden crucifix with them."

"Some of these men are here today -- including Herb Miller, the soldier that Father Kapaun saved in that ditch and then carried all those miles. Many are now in their 80s, but make no mistake, they are among the strongest men that America has ever produced. And I would ask all of our courageous POWs from the Korean War to stand if they're able and accept the gratitude of a grateful nation."

"I’m told that in their darkest hours in the camp in that valley, these men turned to a Psalm. As we prepare for the presentation of the Medal of Honor to Father Kapaun’s nephew, Ray, I want to leave you with the words of that Psalm, which sustained these men all those years ago."

Psalm 23:4 

Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely, your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Thank you President Barack Obama for the deep regard you demonstrated for Chaplain Father Emil Kapaun during the spiritually uplifting Medal of Honor Ceremony.  Your presentation touched those of us who watched your prayerful demeanor and your spiritual connection with this Korean War hero was absolutely evident.