HERO OF THE DAY-PAST OR PRESENT-SOMEONE WHO MATTERS TO YOU.

[RENCORP]

This idea started as a post about Doolittle's Raiders.

They achieved the impossible, knowing that their chances of survival were slim to none.

They never got a book deal, movie rights, or big money for what they did.

I want you to post your own hero of the day here, past or present, military or civilian, doesn't matter.

Just some one who quietly made the world a better place, and exemplifies human excellence in their lives.

Some one who you can live your life using theirs as something to measure up to.

And, no objections, arguments, sniping, peanut gallery, just examples of human excellence, please.

[quantsuff]

Mstr Sgnt Leroy Arthur Petry. I had the honor of shaking his bionic hand.
http://www.army.mil/medalofhonor/petry/remarks.html

Last edited by quantsuff on Fri Apr 03, 2015 8:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Free Boer]

SFC Billy Parker, I owe him my life. And if not for Munchies dad, I'd have never met Bill. So I'd guess they're both heros in a way.

[golddigger14s]

Remember when they made a movie about the "Memphis Belle" that completed 25 missions? I told my dad about that, and he was like big whoop de do. "After we hit 25 missions, the rest just became classified." He did 52 missions. He could have gotten a purple heart, but he did not want to claim a piece of flak in his ass. (CPT. US Army Air Corp WWII (Pilot))

[Old Jim]

Sgt Billy DeePickle U.S. Army, Infantry
Captain Arthur Stockburger, U.S. Marine Helicopter Pilot
Both my classmates in high school.
Both KIA VietNam
Brothers, I salute you.

[golddigger14s]

SGT Maggart:
http://thefallen.militarytimes.com/army ... rt/4755720

[usrifle]

My uncle Dave. He was with Carlson's 2nd Raider's, but that obituary only scratches the surface of his service.
His roll of "short snorter" bill's is in my collection and shows many countries....and it's over 30 feet long.
Look at his DOB....he enlisted at 15 years old to fight in WWII.
He was one tough old bastard.
I miss him.

http://bonneywatson.com/obituaries/detail.html?id=3158

[RENCORP]

I am putting Audie Murphy up in the spotlight today.

Do some Google Fu on this guy - there isn't enough room on Wa Guns to list all of his accomplishments.

[kf7mjf]

You can thank this man for teaching himself ceramic, glass and electrical engineering. Because without him, the western world would have been much slower to electrify and would not be as industrialized. It is no small stretch to claim that a hard headed telegraph operator from Victor, New York spearheaded modern electrification. We know of Edison and Tesla and Westinghouse, but their genius was worthless without Fred Locke building the fragile little insulators that were the weakest point in getting power from generator to end user.

Many of Locke's design principles remain in use today, he directly was responsible for training up many future innovators in the industry, and thus lead the US to becoming a hotbed of industrial ceramic research and production unrivalled anywhere on earth. His later research into borosilicate glass gave us the windows of the space shuttle and Pyrex Flameware baking dishes. Fred Locke assured that the stumbling efforts to electrify factories and mines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries could happen.

[kf7mjf]

General Sherman for breaking the shit out of the Confederate States of America and keeping Johnston busy instead of reinforcing Lee.

Taking his army unsupported through the heartland of enemy territory and crushing everything in his way took balls.

[TINCANBANDIT]

We could not possibly leave out Sgt Alvin York, the unlikely hero of the Great War

Also my ancestor Col. Samuel Herrick, who commanded a unit within the Green Mountain Boys known as "Herrick's Rangers" fighting under Seth Werner and Ethan Allen in the Revolutionary War.

[deadshot2]

My "hero" was never famous. Still he was my hero because first of all he was my dad. He also was my hero because he was among the first Americans to enlist BEFORE we entered WWII. While everyone else was sitting back saying "we don't want to get involved" he enlisted in the Navy and was already at his first duty station when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

I wish I got to know him better as he died in 1962 when I was just entering adulthood.

[quantsuff]

I am putting Audie Murphy up in the spotlight today.

Do some Google Fu on this guy - there isn't enough room on Wa Guns to list all of his accomplishments.

most of to hell and back movie was filmed in Yakima.

[golddigger14s]

Audie Murphy is almost like cheating. He's a given.

[RENCORP]

My dad was a gun nut, and gun smith - air force, machinist by trade. We lived in a town back east that had a 24 pound British naval gun once used to defend the river mouth from Indians back in the day, mounted in a concrete gun carriage replica up on a hill park mid town.

My dad convinced the town council to allow him to clean off the graffiti, remove all the crap that had been shoved down the barrel over the years, re-paint and restore it to it's former glory. As compensation for his efforts, he would be allowed to ceremonially fire the cannon on Memorial Day.

Well, that pumped me and my brothers up, I can tell you that much! Memorial Day arrives, and my dad and his equally gun nutty buddy had got hold of authentic Scottish Fusileers uniforms, and had a brace of guys playing bagpipes march them up the hill to the cannon for the firing party.

We had done our part as kids, gathering up partially spent railway signal flares from trackside to "spice up the powder mixture a bit" as my dad put it. He loaded the cannon with cotton 5 pound bags of black stumping powder dosed with railway signal flare powder, rammed it home, added a big 24 inch 'shell" of styrofoam for wadding, spiked the powder load bag bag through the touch hole, and primed it with regular granular black powder for ignition.

After a minute or two of blathering about the history of the occasion, he set a long match to the touch hole, and, instant glory - in the eyes of all the kids there. That cannon bellowed, spat out a flame of stumping powder and railway flare innards mixed with styrofoam confetti about 20 - 30 feet long! It was fucking awesome!

Not one to rest on his laurels, dear old dad doubled the load for the second shot, and it was even better - louder, and with a spectacular plume of flame coming from the barrel. It did, however, drain color from some of the older spectators, who, I am sure, were looking for more of a PG 13 event rather than the Armageddon being delivered.

The event was proclaimed a success, however, and my dad had at her again the following year as well. His ambition in the load factor department that year however, resulted in a number of broken windows in homes down hill that year, and the town council shut his "event" down. It was glorious while it lasted, though.

My dad is my hero, mentor, and firearms tutor. I owe him a lot.

Thanks, Dad, you are the best...