mf mil bad asses

8/8/2019 MF Mil Bad Asses

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youthinkbig-budget,specialeects-driven

Hollywoodblockbustersstretchtheboundaries

obelievability,takealookatsomeothe

ollowingactualaccounts.Iamoviewere

madeoanyotheseindividualslives,noone

wouldbelieveit.Wheretoughmencongregate,

thoseonthislistarecalledSir.Though

countlessactsouncommonbraveryexistin

Americanmilitaryhistory,theseexampleso

modernmilitarybadasseryshowedundaunted

courage,staringtheenemiesoAmericainthe

eyeandreusingtofinch,evenwhenblood

wasstreamingdowntheiraces.

This is a sTill fromThe film To hell andBack, which depicTedThe warTime heroicsof maj. audie mu rphy,The mosT-decoraTedu.s. soldier of wwii

Art Imitates Life

Feature

76 MUSCLE&FITNESS 10.10

Factisstrangerthanfictionandawholelotmorebadass

Real-LifeExpendables

ByLt.CoL.KeLLyCrigger,U.S.Army


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Cpl. Alvin C. YorkIn 1918 Europe was a cratered wasteland o misery,

and many troops died o disease beore ever fring

a shot in anger. Among these barrens Alvin C. York,

an uneducated Tennessee hillbilly, and 16 other

soldiers wound up behind enemy lines when they

misread their French map. A brie and conusing

frefght ensued, which resulted in the temporary

surrender o the superior German orce. An enemy machine-gun nest overlooking theracas shouted in German to hit the deck and mowed down the Americans. Nine o the

17 men, including Yorks best riend, were killed. A skilled marksman, York immedi-

ately charged the hill and silenced the machine-gun crew, killing nine Germans and

capturing 132 prisoners that he and his comrades marched back to American lines.

the number of soldiers (one is a woman)who have earned the medal of honorsince congress made it permanent in 1863 fr

om

top:lewr

obertson/gettyimages;

bettmann/Corbis;apimages.pg.77:

bettmann/Corbis

Feature

Gunnery

Sgt. Carlos

White Feather

HathcockThe world o military snipers

is rie with antastical tales o

the single atal shot. In this

subculture o men hyperat

tuned to their surroundings,

Marine sniper Carlos Hath

cock is a l egend. Though he

no longer holds the record or

the longest shot (he recorded

a kill at 2,286 meters in 1967,

which held the record until

2002), he once crawled more

than 1,500 meters over open

ield or our days to put a

round in a North Vietnamese

Army (NVA) generals chest.

He once killed another sniper

by putting a bullet through hisscope. Hathcock volunteered

or so many missions during

his two tours o duty that his

commanding oicers had to

restrict him to quarters to

make him rest.

The highest award the

Marines give or marksman

ship is named ater Hathcock,

as is a sniper rile, the shoot

ing range at Camp Lejeune

(North Carolina) and a Marine

Corps library in Washington,

D.C. Though he doesnt hold

the record or the most kills,

there are 93 conirmed enemy

combatants who wish they

had never run across him. Histally was so high that North

Vietnam once put a bounty o

$30,000 on his head.


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CloCkwisefrom

topleft:apimages;

bettmann/Corbis(2);Courtesyu.s.navy;

bettmann/CorbisLt. Gen. Lewis B.

Chesty PullerEven among the most battle-hardened U.S.

Marines, Lewis Pullers name is revered. Ater

battling Caco rebels in Haiti in 1919 and Nica-

raguan bandits in 1930, and spending two quiet tours

o duty in China, Pullers career kicked into high gear

when World War II broke out. For three years he led the

Marines in the bloodiest battles o the Pacifc, hacking

his way through Japanese inantry, and earning fve

Navy Crosses and two sniper bullets along the way.

During the Korean War, Puller was in command

o the 1st Marine Regiment during the Inchon

landings, where he was awarded a Silver Star

or bravery under fre. It was while surrounded by

North Korean and Chinese troops at the Battle o Chosin

Reservoir that he uttered his a mous line,

Theyre on our let, theyre on our right,

theyre in ront o us, theyre behind us...

they cant get away this time. And in a

disagreement over the ownership o some

Army equipment, Puller allegedly told an

Army colonel: It has USMC [U.S. Marine

Corps] markings on it now and i you

want it back, kick my ass. No challenge

was made thereater.

Maj. Audie MurphyBaby-aced, underage and underdeveloped

arent characteristics that lend themselves

to military badasses. But Texas armhand

Audie Murphy overcame those hindrances

to become larger than lie during and ater

WWII. Murphy was awarded a Bronze

Star at Salerno or knocking out a tank,

a Silver Star or saving his platoon during

an ambush, the Distinguished Service

Cross in southern France or clearing out

several machine-gunnests, and the Medal

o Honor in Holtz-

wihr or stopping an

armored Nazi assault

while suering a

recurring case o

malaria, a shattered

heel and a snipers

bullet in his hip.

Murphy killed an

estimated 240

enemy combatants

during the nine

major campaigns in

which he ought.

Col. James Nick RoweVietnam was the wrong conlict in

which to be a prisoner o war. Nick

Rowe, an American Special Forces

Oicer captured in 1963, was a POW

or ive years under the harshest con

ditions imaginable. Until his escape

in 1968, Rowe was tortured, beaten,

starved and kept on the move beore

he managed to outwit his captors,

knock a guard unconscious and

make a break or a nearby AmericanHuey helicopter (that almost shot

him irst). Unbelievably, Rowes irst

request was to reenter the bush

he was held in and engage the NVA

based on his intimate knowledge o

the area.

Rowes harrowing tale is recounted

in his book Five Years to Freedom

(Presidio Press, 1984). In 1981 Col.

Rowe was selected to start the Special

Forces Survival, Evasion, Resistance

and Escape (SERE) training program

at Camp Mackall, North Carolina.

A lielong counterguerilla ighter,

Rowe was ambushed and killed by

Communist insurgents in the Philip

pines on his way to work in 1989.

Theyre on ourlefT, Theyre onour righT, Theyrein fronT of us,Theyre BehindusThey canT geTaway This Time

lT. gen. puller

Feature


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from

left:dmitrikessel/gettyimages;Courtesyrobertl.howardtribute,rlhtribute.Com


Feature

Col. Aaron BankFluent in German and French, Aaron Bank enlisted in the Army

at age 37, just beore the outbreak o WWII, and immediately

volunteered or Special Operations. Bank led an elite, three-man

Jedburgh Team that parachuted into Nazi-occupied France, linked

up with the French Resistance and ought the Germans rom

within. He was hand-picked to lead Operation Iron Cross to kill

Adol Hitler, but Hitler beat him to it by committing suicide. Ater

WWII, Bank laid the groundwork or the creation o the Special

Forces. In 1952 he became the frst commander o the frst Special

Forces Group, earning his rightul legacy as the ather o SpecialOperations. Bank swam daily in the Pacifc Ocean well into his 80s

and lived to be 101 years old.

Maj. Richard WintersWhen your exploits stand out in one o the most gruesome periods

in human history, youre a whole new breed o badass. Parachuting

into Normandy the night beore D-Day, Richard Winters pieced

together all the displaced men he could and ought his way through

German units to link up with his regiment. The next day he was

given the task o neutralizing our German artillery units that were

raking Utah Beach. Winters led a squad that destroyed the guns

and killed 15 Germans, allowing the Allied Forces to maneuver

unobstructed across the beach (an operation still studied by West

Point cadets). But D-Day was just the beginning. Winters took

command o Easy Company, 506th Parachute Inantry Regiment,

which was the subject o Stephen Ambrose, PhDs, best-selling

bookBand of Brothers(Simon & Schuster, 2001) and the HBO

miniseries o the same name. Winters repeatedly proved he was

a combat leader who straddled the line between tactical genius

and crazy-brave as the 101st endured one o the coldest winters on

record as they trudged across Europe on oot.

Col. RobertHowardDespite the bland name,

Robert Howard earned

every medal or valor the

U.S. has to ofer. During

ive tours in Vietnam,

Howard was nominated or the Medal o

Honor three times, a eat no other American

serviceman can claim. He inally earned it

ater a grueling rescue mission that went

wrong when his small orce was ambushedby superior numbers o North Vietnamese

soldiers. In the initial ambush Howard was

wounded and his weapon destroyed by an

enemy grenade. Unable to walk, he crawled

to retrieve his platoon leader, who was

gravely wounded and exposed to enemy ire.

Ater dragging him to saety, Howard then led

his men to establish a deensive perimeter,

and repulsed attack ater attack or three

hours while severely wounded and sufer

ing a second injury when an ammunition

magazine on his belt exploded. Despite his

injuries, Howard was the last man to leave

the battleield when American helicopters

inally evacuated his orce.

Because many o his missions were part

o the berclassiied Military Assistance

Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG), two o his Medal

o Honor nominations were downgraded to

the Distinguished Service Cross, though they

were no less heroic moments. Wounded 14

times (though he received only eight purple

hearts), Howard also earned a Silver Star and

our Bronze Stars or valor, making him the

most decorated soldier since WWII. M&F

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