Best of The History guy: Medal of Honor

hi I'm the history guy I love history and if you love history too this is the channel for you the Medal of Honor is the highest award for Valor to be offered to members of the United States armed forces it is so prestigious that President Harry Truman was famously quoted as saying that he would rather have won the Medal of Honor than been president of the United States the medal was created in 1862 but it was possible to nominate people for actions had occurred in the past and that meant there were actually Medals of Honor awarded for events that occurred before the Medal of Honor was created and so it is that the earliest event for which a medal of honor was awarded occurred before the medal was created and actually even before the Civil War for which the Medal of Honor was created and it all has to do with an event that is almost forgotten and yet still extremely important to American history and still controversial today the Medal of Honor that was awarded to assistant surgeon Bernard Irwin the first chronologically by date of action medal of honor to be awarded is history that deserves to be remembered the people is known as the Apache or are people indigenous to the southwestern United States who are part of the athabascan or as it is also called Dene language group The Language has three main groups of contiguous languages the northern the Pacific coast and the southern interestingly the northern and Pacific Coast groups are in Alaska Canada and the Northwest Pacific Coast whereas the southern language group also called apacheon which represents both the Apache and the Navajo tribal groups covers an area from northern Mexico through Arizona New Mexico and into Southern Colorado it might surprise some people to find out that the language groups identify the Navajo and Apache as having diverged from peoples of the Pacific Northwest and not from peoples of the Plains to the north and east nor from peoples who came up from Mexico from the south as those are distinguished by having different language groups the Apache were generally an independent people who lived in family clusters of extended family this was important in terms of their relationships with other peoples in that different family groups operated more or less independently and so different bands might have different relationships with their neighbors although there were many cultural distinctions between groups the Apache tended to be nomadic and made limited use of domesticated crops food was largely derived from hunting and Gathering as well as trade when part of the culture was that the Apache tended to use the practice of raiding as a way of supplementing their diet in general the Apache distinguished rating for economic purposes from writing for war they did not think of economic writing as an act of war and it usually occurred with small bands with specific purpose this would become important as the Apache came into contact with European settlers as writing was part of the Apache traditional life whereas settlers from Mexico and the United States tended to object to having their stock rated or stolen although Europeans often did not recognize the distinction Apache saw rating for War as distinct from writing for economic reasons writing for war included larger numbers of Raiders and was usually done for the purpose of Retribution and as part of that the Apache treatment of prisoners could include brutal torture Apache conflict with Spanish settlers began nearly as early as the two came into contact in the 16th century the Spanish raided the Apache for slaves and the Apache rated Spanish settlements moreover Apache from the plains were being driven West by another people the Comanche and with less access to the Bison on the planes the Apache became more dependent upon raiding as part of the long conflict the Spanish built a series of fortifications along the frontier to protect from Apache raids these are called presidios and they eventually became the centerpieces of major modern cities like San Antonio Texas Santa Fe New Mexico and Tucson Arizona the conflict continued after Mexican Independence in 1821 and by the mid-1830s Mexico took to paying for Apache scallops punitive Expeditions by the Mexicans and anglos only intensified the conflict they cost at least thousands of lives and left every Spanish settlement mine or Farmstead subject to attack conflict with Americans started with the Mexican-American War and after much of northern Mexico was ceded to the United States after the war the increasing number of American settlers traveling down the Santa Fe Trail caused conflict Promises of Peace by American officials were often not respected by American settlers conflict between gold miners and Apaches and their youth allies in New Mexico resulted in a conflict called the hickorya war between 1849 and 1854. it was amid ongoing tensions and writing for both sides that in January of 1861 a group of Apaches raided a Farmstead in Southern Arizona owned by a Rancher named John Ward taking some livestock and capturing Ward's 12 year old stepson Felix word travel to the nearby Army Outpost of Fort Buchanan and complained to the Fort Commander Lieutenant Colonel Pitcairn Morrison of the U.S 7th Infantry Morrison dispatched company C of the 7th infantry under 2nd Lieutenant George Bascom a West Point graduate to retrieve the missing boy as they picked up the trail from the Raiders it appeared to lead towards the chiricawa mountains leading past and conclude that the chirakawa Apache whose Chief was named Cochise had been responsible for the raid well Cochise and his people largely did their rating in Mexico they occasion raided in Arizona and in fact had at least twice rated livestock from Fort Buchanan again remember that reading was a common behavior for the Apache who did not see it as an act of War while bascom's assumption that tachirakawa had done the raid was understandable it was incorrect and that was a mistake that would prove critical on February 3rd Bascom and his party can't near an Overland mail station and Bascom sent a message to Cochise asking him to come in for a talk Cochise along with several members of his family came to the camp to talk at this point neither side was expecting a violent confrontation Bascom demanded that Cochise returned the kid that boy Cochise denied knowing of the kidnapping but offered to find the boy assuming that cotis was being evasive Baskin tried to take Cochise and his party hostage until the boy and the cattle could be returned but Cochise managed to escape by pulling out a knife and cutting a hole in the tint which they're eating and running away the rest of his party however was taken hostage Bascom and the 65-man returned to the Overland mail station which they fortified using wagons and Grain and flower sacks Bascom noted with dismay that more Apache seemed to be arriving and he was besieged well they had food water from the spring was more than a half mile away Cochise managed to capture some Overland male employees and offered to trade them for his captured family members but Bascom refused unless they returned the kidnapped boy the problem was that Cochise did not have the boy who had been kidnapped by a different group of Apaches on February 7th a group of cochise's Apache attacked a group of bascom's men who were taking their meals to the spring for water one Overland male employee was killed and most of the meals were taken Bascom came to the conclusion that he was surrounded by as many as 500 Apache and was in danger of attack and so he decided to send out two Scouts to sneak through the lines and seek help from Fort Buchanan The Messengers arrived at Fort Buchanan on the evening of the 8th an assistant surgeon Bernard John Dowling Irwin offered to take the only troops available 11 men of company h of the seventh infantry to assist basket on the way Irwin and his small group encountered some Apache with stolen cattle and managed to capture three Apache Braves and several cattle when Irwin's party arrived at bascom's camp on the 10th the cattle provided much-needed beef Irwin would later be presented the Medal of Honor for his actions volunteering to lead the party and capturing the apachean cattle despite having such a small Force by date of action it is the earliest medal of honor to have been awarded eventually 70 more men of the first lagoons arrived as well and the group may have been helped in that accompany of the eighth infantry marching 15 miles away and apparently unaware of bascom's predicament may have been interpreted by the Apaches planning to attack their flank somewhere between February 14th and 16th the Apaches Slipped Away killing their prisoners and leaving them for Bascom to find in a decision that is controversial to this day the American officers decided to execute their hostages the three Braves that Irwin had captured and the three that Bascom had taken although they did release the women and children from cochise's party this turned out to be a grave error as the three Apache that Bascom had captured were cochise's brother and nephews the decision to execute those men turned the Apache Anger from Mexico to the United States and sparked the Apache Wars which would last for more than two decades and cost thousands of lives one of the most controversial aspects of the so-called Bascom Affair was how much Lieutenant Bascom had to do with the decision to execute the Apache prisoners Bascom is usually presented as a villain whose miscalculation started a bloody war but actually of the four officers that were there two from the first dragoons assistant surgeon Irwin and Bascom Bascom was the junior of the four and Records discovered since suggests that he was the only one of the four to raise objections to the execution in fact the order for the execution seems to have come from assistant surgeon Irwin the records from the the Bascom Affair have largely been lost as Fort Buchanan was abandoned at the start of the Civil War and bascom's original report was apparently destroyed George Bascom himself died leading a company of the seventh infantry in the Battle of Valverde in February of 1862 part of the Far Western theater of the U.S Civil War assistant surgeon Irwin served throughout the Civil War and eventually achieved the rank of Colonel before retiring he received the Medal of Honor for actions that occurred in February of 1861 33 years later in 1894 shortly before his retirement Cochise turned out to be one of the Army's most skilled adversaries but eventually he did agree to live peacefully on a reservation and he died of natural causes in 1874. one of the most surprising turns in the Bascom Affair has to do with the captured boy Felix Ward Long thought to have been killed it turns out that he had been captured by a group of Pima Apache with whom Cochise was unrelated and raised by them he later served with the US Army as an Apache Scout using the name Mickey fee the Bascom Affair was one of many examples where inexperienced officers on the frontier made missteps that resulted in conflict and that nearly forgotten event on the border between the United States and Mexico in February of 1861 which sparked the bloody Apache Wars which actually continued clear into the 20th century is a good example of what can happen when there is a clash of cultures and possibly the inevitable result of American westward expansion it is history that deserves to be remembered foreign [Music] a military career a young man so intent on serving the union during the Civil War that he lied about his age and enlisted at just the age of 16. a Young Man Who as a private served in the center of the line in the deadliest major battle of the Civil War a young man who over the course of the war Rose and rank enlisted as a private and by the end of the war was a brevit major a young man who through acts of exceptional heroism was awarded not one but two Medals of Honor the first soldier in the United States Army to be so honored you would think that such a soldier would be famous might be one of the most famous soldiers of the Civil War and yet there was such a soldier and his name is barely remembered for a very simple reason it was overshadowed by the name of his much more famous older brother and that is too bad because the military career of Thomas Ward Custer deserves to be remembered Emmanuel Custer and Maria word Kirkpatrick from rural Ohio had seven children together but the first two died in infancy Thomas Custer born in 1845 was the third boy to survive infancy after his older brother Nevin born in 1842 and his oldest brother George Armstrong Custer born in 1839. a younger brother Boston and a Sister Margaret would be born later George Custer who the family called auti over his first attempts to pronounce his middle name when he was a toddler was a charismatic handsome and athletic boy and he set his mind on a career in the military he secured an appointment to West Point and graduated as an officer in the U.S Army in 1861 just a few months after the first shots of the Civil War well naturally the brothers who all looked up to George who was the leader of the pack all wanted to follow him into the service Nevin tried he enlisted but he had an ill-timed bout of rheumatism and was mustered out after only a couple of weeks and Thomas the next oldest was just 16 two years too young to sign up for the Army but that didn't stop him from trying he tried he was refused due to his age he tried again and lied about his age and in September of 1861 was mustered in as a private in company h of the 21st Ohio volunteer infantry the 21st Ohio was part of the 45 000 strong Union Army of the Cumberland under the command of Major General William Rose Kranz in December 1862 they faced the Confederate Army of Tennessee commanded by General Braxton Bragg in front of the Tennessee town of Murfreesboro along a freezing narrow waterway on the Stones River 17 year old private Tom Custer and the boys of the 21st Ohio were smack in the middle of the line for three days bragged through his army at Rosecrans the union lines were thrown back they bent but they did not break into massive attacks Bragg was unable to dislodge Rosecrans realizing that Rosecrans would continue to get reinforcements brag withdrew the battle was a tactical draw but the union held the ground and the Confederacy lost the hope of controlling Central Tennessee a critical event in the campaign in the West of the 76 400 soldiers who participated in the battle on both sides twenty four thousand six hundred and forty five were killed or wounded it was proportionally the highest casualty rate of any major battle of the Civil War the 21st Ohio who captured an artillery battery in a counter-attack took 159 casualties after the battle of Stones River Tom managed to secure a position as an orderly for a succession of Brigade and division commanders until he was eventually on the staff of General Ulysses S Grant and promoted to the rank of Corporal it was in that role that he saw some of the most vicious battles in the west including Missionary Ridge and Chickamauga but in October of 1864 Otti who was by then a brigadier general of Cavalry managed to secure Tom a commission as a lieutenant in the sixth Michigan Cavalry in a position as his brothers Aid to Camp the final phase of the U.S Civil War occurred in the spring of 1865 when the forces of Ulysses S Grant finally broke through Robert E Lee's defense works and ended the 10-month siege of Petersburg but Lee and the army of Northern Virginia managed to escape and Lee realized that his only hope of continuing the war was to reach North Carolina and join up with the Confederate Army there under the command of General Joseph Johnston Grant knew that if he could prevent Lee from getting to North Carolina he could end the war the Appomattox campaign was a series of running battles between Grant's Advanced forces and Lee's rear guard and Custer's Cavalry was in the thick of the fight time and again Thomas distinguished himself in the Chase he was given brevit promotions a private rank could mean a couple of things but in Tom Custer's case it meant a worth giving a commissioned officer a higher rank title as a reward for gallantry or meritorious conduct but without conferring The Authority precedence or pay of a real rank such promotions were common during the Civil War Tom was a brevit major by April he had a horse shout out from under him at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1st on April 3rd Custer's Cavalry engaged three regiments of Confederate Cavalry near a place called namazin church it was part of Lee's rear guard and in a short sharp action between Cavalry units Tom led the charge he jumped over a hastily built Confederate breast work and they are captured three Confederate officers 11 Confederate soldiers and the battle flag of the second North Carolina cavalry for his Gallant action that day Tom Custer was awarded the Medal of Honor the decisive battle of the Appomattox campaign came just three days later on a hill in front of a little creek that was called Sailors Creek Grant had finally caught up to Lee and two of Lee's Three core were forced to engage in the desperate action at the Battle of sailors Creek the army of Northern Virginia was literally fighting for its very life and in the brutal combat when the union infantry could not force the rebs to break the Cavalry was ordered to charge Tom Custer was the first cavalryman to get across the second line of Confederate breastworks where he grabbed a hold of yet another Confederate Battle Flag but the flag bearer drew his pistol and shot Tom Custer point blank in the face so close that it caused powder burns the bullet entered under his cheek skimmed along his skull and exited behind his right ear and Tom Custer in one motion still hanging onto the flag drew his pistol and killed the flag bearer his face bleeding profusely he triumphantly rode back with the battle flag of the second Virginia Reserve Battalion he rode up to his brother and proudly proclaimed Armstrong the Damned rebs have shot me but I got my flag he tried to return to the fight his brother had to have him forcibly restrained to be taken to the surgeons to treat his wound astoundingly Tom Custer had captured his second Confederate Battle Flag and earned his second Medal of Honor in a period of just four days he was the first soldier in U.S history in one of only a handful to receive two Medals of Honor the desperate brutal Battle Of Sailors Creek was the death blow of the Confederacy Lee lost more than 8 000 soldiers killed or wounded Lee surrendered to Grant three days later after the war Tom Custer stayed in the Army he had the regular rank of Lieutenant but the brevit rank of Lieutenant Colonel awfully good for someone who signed up as a private he followed his brother's career in the west and the Indian Wars and was with his brother on the Black Hills expedition in 1874 that discovered gold and he was with his brother on that fateful day June 25th of 1876 when the seventh Cavalry faced off against a force of Sioux and Cheyenne Warriors in what has become known as the battle of the Little Bighorn after the battle Tom's body was found a few feet away from that of his more famous brother nearby with the body of his younger brother Boston also on the battlefield was the body of his brother-in-law James Calhoun husband of his sister Margaret and the body of their nephew Henry Armstrong Reed who had accompanied his uncle's Expedition as a civilian and was just 18 years old that iconic battle was a bad day for the Custer family Tom's remains were removed to the Cavalry Cemetery at Fort Leavenworth Kansas and the stone can still be seen there today Thomas Custer was a brilliant Soldier but he lived his life in his brother's Shadow George Armstrong Custer was a larger than life personality and a bold and gifted commander of cavalry but in 1865 when he was asked about his brother in a moment of honesty he said do you want to know what I think of him Tom should have been the general and I the lieutenant Thomas Ward Custer a hero of the Union was an extraordinary soldier who deserves to be remembered hi I'm the history guy I have a degree in history and I love history and if you love history too this is the channel for you [Music] the Medal of Honor the United States highest award for Valor was established by the United States Army in 1862 to recognize those soldiers who distinguish themselves by gallantry and intrepidity in combat with an enemy of the United States since that time 3459 Medals of Honor have been awarded and only one has gone to a woman Dr Mary Edwards Walker and hers is a story worth remembering Mary Edwards Walker was born In 1832 in Upstate New York the youngest of seven children her parents were farmers and free thinkers the free thought movement was a movement that challenged Authority and tradition and thought that truth should be derived from logic and reason and it was that upbringing that not only allowed her to escape traditional gender roles of her time but to develop a fierce sense of Independence and justice Mary's parents were determined to give all of their children a good education and she studied at Valley seminary in Fulton New York she always had an interest in physiology and anatomy and so she worked as a teacher in order to earn enough money to be able to attend Medical School graduating with honors from Syracuse Medical College in 1855 the only woman in her class she struggled though to build a successful practice as female doctors were very rare in that time and often not trusted when the war started she volunteered with a Union Army seeking a commission as a field surgeon but the Union Army didn't hire female surgeons and so she was only allowed to serve as a nurse which is how she served after the battle of first Bull Run she then started volunteering her Services as a field surgeon and treated soldiers after the battles of Fredericksburg and Chickamauga but finally in 1863 she was hired as a Contracting acting assistant surgeon the first female surgeon in the Union Army with the pay of a lieutenant although she was still a civilian she didn't much care about rules or the enemy line she would go where she needed to go to treat people and she would frequently travel Behind Enemy Lines to treat civilians in need say to deliver a baby or treat someone that was sick and that's what she was doing in April of 1864 when she was captured and arrested by the Confederate Army as a spy she was held as a prisoner of war until August of that year when she was finally exchanged she continued in federal service and was made acting assistant surgeon to Ohio's 52nd Infantry Regiment she also managed a hospital for female prisoners and later managed an orphanage she was recommended for the Medal of Honor by General William Tecumseh Sherman and General George Henry Thomas the rock of Chickamauga there's no record of the original nomination but when the medal was awarded by President Andrew Johnson in 1865 it commended her because she dedicated herself with patriotic Zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers both in the field and in the hospital to the detriment of her own health she always said that she got the award because she was the only doctor brave enough to go Behind Enemy Lines to treat people throughout her life she showed the independent thought of her upbringing and one of her great causes was dress reform she believed that women's fashion of the day was injurious to health she complained that corsets were restricting and that large skirts with multiple petticoats were not only uncomfortable and restricting but they also collected dust and dirt she wrote two books on the subject of dress reform complaining that women's fashion was not just dangerous to the health but also expensive she would often dress in a mid-length skirt and men's trousers which she felt was much more practical and protected the woman's modesty but later in life she would often give speeches in full men's formal dress attire she said I don't wear men's clothes I wear my own clothes while she was passionate about that cause it was one of many she was also part of the temperous movement she was an abolitionist and she was a suffragette and she testified before Congress several times on the issue of woman's suffrage in 1917 the Army did a review of their medal of honor rolls and removed 911 names including Mary Edwards Walker the reason they revoked her medal was that she was actually a civilian at the time and that her Deeds were not in combat but her medal was returned posthumously by Jimmy Carter in 1977. in her life she had so many causes for example during the war she realized that there were lots of women who were coming to Washington DC to visit injured soldiers brothers or husbands and so she started a society to help women who were visiting the capital find a safe place to stay and to find their loved ones in all the many area hospitals and after the war she passionately advocated to provide pensions to Civil War nurses and argued that they should be given the right to vote in gratitude for their service all her life she had to struggle to make a living she was never able to establish a successful Medical Practice because sadly in her time people just did not trust female Physicians she finally passed away on the Family Farm in 1919 at the age of 86. even in her time she was more known for her eccentricities than her accomplishments and she's largely forgotten today and that is just wrong because her accomplishments were astounding especially with what she had to face in her day and darn it the the only female winner of the Medal of Honor deserves to be remembered [Music] it was September 1942 and the United States was in the second month of its grueling campaign against Imperial Japanese forces over the island of Guadalcanal the Guadalcanal campaign represented a trial by fire for the United States Marine Corps United States Navy but there was another Branch represented on the island as well that of the United States Coast Guard and the coast Guardsmen would well demonstrate the courage of their service in a little remembered small but desperate action on September 28th near the Botanical River it is history that deserves to be remembered U.S Marines landed on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands on August 7th taking the Japanese by surprise Marines decide to take the smaller Islands nearby fought difficult actions but the landing on Guadalcanal was almost unopposed and quickly took part of the island including an Airfield under construction that they renamed Henderson field realizing the importance of the island the Japanese Imperial General headquarters would eventually send some 36 000 Japanese soldiers tasked with recapturing the island starting with the vital Airfield the campaign to take and hold Guadalcanal was a desperate six-month-long battle between forces of the land sea and air and marked the end of Japanese expansion in the Pacific but the battle came at a terrible toll and brutal learning experience for the Americans the first attempts to retake Henderson field took place on September 12th to 14th when six thousand Japanese troops of the 35th infantry Brigade engaged in a series of frontal assaults on U.S positions around Henderson field in the confused night action that included brutal hand-to-hand fighting the Japanese forces nearly broke through but were finally repulsed brave action by the first Marine Raiders under Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Edson along a narrow Ridge gave the battle its name the Battle of edson's Ridge it was a significant victory for the Marines in the first Japanese defeat for a unit this large in the war two weeks later the Allies decided it was time to counter-attack Japanese forces were regrouping in the area of the Botanical River a series of ridges and Ravines stretching Inland from the coast Lieutenant Colonel Lewis B chesty puller of the first Battalion seventh Marines planned an operation to advance along the northern slopes of Mount Austin and to the west of the Botanical River to investigate the territory the idea was to keep the retreating Japanese off balance to wrap up stragglers to deny the river's position for the Japanese to regroup and launch more attacks polar's Marines ran into stiffer resistance than they had anticipated and though inflicting proportionally more casualties on the Japanese forces his Marines were unable to make it across the river the night of September 26th they devised a new plan two battalions of Marines who are supposed to tack across the river and assuming that they were successful then three companies of the first Battalion seventh Marines would be landed at a beach to attack the Japanese forces from the rear Douglas Monroe was born in 1919 in Vancouver British Columbia to an American father and a British mother the family moved back to the United States to the small town of South Cle Elum Washington when Douglas was three he spent two years at the central Washington College of Education at nearby Ellensburg but in 1939 with war on the horizon he left College enlisted in the United States Coast Guard a decision he told his sister because the Coast Guard's primary mission was saving lives because he had such a slight build Monroe had to stuff himself with food the week before he enlisted in order to meet the Coast Guard's weight requirements in training he met 18 year old Raymond Joseph Evans Jr and the two became fast friends as apprentice Seaman in the Coast Guard they earned 21 a month the two volunteered for service aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Spencer they trained this signalman putting them at the junction between the Coast Guard and the Navy as they were trained to communicate with navy ships via light signals and running Flags in June 1941 as the OSU was gearing up for what appeared to be an inevitable War the Coast Guard was asked to provide Crews for three Navy attack transports hearing that the USS Hunter Liggett needed signalman they volunteered only being allowed to go according to Evans after many days of pleading with the Spencer's executive officer attack transports were built to land troops during amphibious operations and carried their own landing craft while the coxswains were supposed to operate those crafts were Navy men there was a shortage and the two friends volunteered to be trained to operate the small 36-foot lcvps or landing craft vehicle personnel that put them in the thick of the fight on August 7th Evans landed on Guadalcanal while Monroe Ferry troops in the battle to take the nearby island of tulagi both were then assigned to a signal station on Guadalcanal part of a group intended to facilitate communication between the troops on Shore and the Navy on September 27th Evans and Moreau were put in charge of the eight Higgins boats and two larger lct's or lening craft tank that would be dropping off the three companies some 500 Marines from polish Battalion who were supporting the attack across the Botanical River The Landing was supported by the gleaves-class Destroyer USS Monson The Landing didn't go quite as planned shallow water forced the crew of the Higgins boats to drop the Marines off in a different point than the one plant Monroe took control of a group of landing craft that were going back to base but Evan stayed behind and won lcvp with navy Cox and Samuel Roberts assigned to evacuate any immediate casualties of the landing as they waited the boat came under Fire from a Japanese machine gun and Roberts was hit Evans rushed the boat back to base Roberts was evacuated by plane but died from his wounds at the same time the three companies of Marines were in trouble in fact they never should have gone the two other battalions had very poles trying to cross the river and Retreat it but the message had not gotten through due to a Japanese air raid on Henderson field the Japanese were now throwing all their forces at the three companies who were trapped on a ridge their Commander Major Ortho Roberts had been killed by a Japanese mortar round their radio equipment loss the Marines use their undershirts to spell out the word help on the side of the ridge the message was seen by a Navy plane and polar Board of the Bronson to direct the evacuation of the man puller asked Monroe and Evans if would take the tiny Fleet of LC TVs back over to help Evacuate the Marines it was a Dangerous Mission but according to Polar their answer was hell yes Evans described the mission matter of factly we were asked to take them over there and we were asked to take them back off of there and that's what we did that's what the Coast Guard does we do but we are asked to do the Japanese had moved to cut off the Marines on the ridge but polar directed fire from the five-inch guns of the monsen slowly blasting a path of Escape the retreating Marines fought their way to the beach but came under Fire from the Japanese and the ridge they just evacuated there weren't enough boats to take them all home and Monroe and Evans had to direct the boats in several ships the Higgins Boats were lightly made of plywood and armed with two 30 caliber machine guns they were driving with one hand and firing with the other using machine guns to suppress the Japanese fire as Japanese troops started moving into the beach Monroe positioned his little boat in between them and the retreating Marines drawing the enemy fire and using the boat's two machine guns as a floating Machine Gun Nest it was a near suicidal act but it worked the Marines including their wounded made it to the boats but then another problem one of the boats full of Marines had grounded on a sandbank Monroe directed another lctp to a fix a line and pull them off once again placing his small boat in the line of fire to protect the Marines from Japanese fire as they pulled away Evan said Doug was facing forward and I was standing by the coxson facing back and I saw this line of water spouts coming across the water and I yelled at Doug to get down but he couldn't hear me over the engine noise and it hit him it was one burst of Fire and that's how he died Doug Monroe took one shot to the base of his skull he was knocked unconscious but came to as they approached Shore according to Evans Monroe asked simply did we get them off and seeing my affirmative nod he smiled with that smile I knew and liked so well and then he was gone their Victory on September 28th was a rare bit of good news for the Japanese on Guadalcanal but the Marines would return in October and inflict heavy casualties on the Japanese 4th Infantry Regiment the loss of the ground meant that the Japanese had to take more arduous route in their next offensive and that contributed to their defeat in the Battle of Henderson field later in October the battle for Guadalcanal will continue into February Douglas Monroe was one of the more than 7 100 Americans to lose their lives in the Guadalcanal campaign and one of the 1918 U.S Coast Guardsmen to die during the second World War helping to save his Marines Colonel puller recommended Douglas Monroe for the Medal of Honor it was approved by Admiral William Halsey and was awarded to Monroe's parents by President Roosevelt in the White House the following May to date Douglas Monroe is the only U.S Coast Guardsman to have been awarded the nation's highest award for Valor the citation read by his outstanding leadership expert planning and dauntless Devotion to duty he and his courageous comrades undoubtedly saved the lives of many who otherwise would have perished he gallantly gave up his life in the defense of his country Douglas Monroe's remains are interred at Laurel Hill Memorial Park in Cle Elum Washington Raymond Evans was awarded the Navy cross for the action he was later commissioned [ __ ] with the rank of Commander he passed away in 2013 at the age of 92. numerous facilities and awards are named after the two friends as well as two Coast Guard Cutters the legend class USCG Monroe and the Sentinel class USCG Raymond Evans [Music] 75 years ago United States Marines and soldiers from the Imperial Japanese Army were engaged in one of the largest battles of the Pacific Campaign of the second world war the battle over the island of Iwo Jima some 110 000 Marines soldiers Navy corpsmen and Seabees were engaged with about 21 000 Japanese who were well entrenched and intent and fighting to the death but the story of Iwo Jima is in more than the size and scope of the battle it's in the young men who fought there often oblivious to the larger plans of generals and Admirals they were fighting for their country and for the man next to them the story of one young Marine from North Carolina Jack Lucas who came to Iwo Jima itching for a fight and yet didn't even make it through a full day of that epic battle well illustrates the sometimes surprising Human Side of War his is a story that deserves to be remembered Jacqueline Harold Lucas was born in North Carolina the son of a tobacco farmer his father died when he was just 10 years old the loss left him bitter and he was a troublemaker in his youth he wrote with no father to guide me I stayed in trouble a lot I would fight anyone or anything his mother had difficulty handling the rebellious Youth and sent him to the Edwards Military Institute in Salemburg North Carolina there he continued to be a scrapper but also showed a propensity for leadership recalled standing up for a young kid dad that was being abused by a Cadet leader he said I came from tough stock if I inherited my propensity to fight for my father perhaps I inherited the role of protector from my mother he was a Cadet Captain when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th 1941. he said of that day something powerful was pushing me taking control of me I did not know at the time but that's something was my destiny calling at The Institute Jack was an all-around athlete captain of the football team he also participated in baseball basketball wrestling Boxing trap and skeet shooting the following August just eight months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the five foot eight inch 180 pound athlete did what so many other young men did he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps he recalled thinking I wanted to fight to make a difference to my country to avenge the wrong that had been done his decision was not uncommon in the first hours after the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor 600 young men volunteered for service at recruiting offices in Birmingham Alabama The Washington Post reported that the line of young men seeking to enlist their recruiting officers in Boston had a wait of several hours by December 10th the New York Times was reporting that all U.S recruiting records had been shattered for all services in 1941 the U.S Marine Corps had roughly 54 000 personnel by the end of 1942 the ranks had 12 to 142 000. some 600 000 men would serve the corps during the war while Jack Lucas was not at all unique in his desire to enlist in order to avenge the attack on Pearl Harbor Jack had a problem he had been born in February of 1928. in August of 1942 Jack Lucas was just 14 years old he recalled my father never would have supported my decision to fight at such a young age and he was the only one who could have stopped me the Patriotic Drive was so strong that many young men sought to enlist despite being too young for service most returned away but if you lied about their age and were accepted in service being athletic enlarged for his age when Jack forged his mother's signature and said he was 17. he was taken at his word and became a Rifleman in the United States Marine Corps the war was in full swing by then the day after he enlisted August 7 1942 U.S Marines began landing on beaches in the first significant Battle of the Pacific Campaign Guadalcanal despite his age Jack's experience at military schools had him ahead of the pack at Paris Island he successfully completed boot camp and served in several U.S locations where he excelled at Marine training but also often got into trouble the result of both his cantankerous nature and his immaturity he also was insistent on going to war he was so successful in heavy machine gun school that he received orders to remain at the school to train new machine Gunners but he didn't want to be left behind so he simply ignored his orders and shipped out on the train with the rest of his unit he got away with it when they arrived in California he simply feigned ignorance as to why his name wasn't on the roll call list his Lieutenant assumed that it must simply have been an error and added him back to the list his training completed he shipped out for Pearl Harbor in November 1943. although he had a reputation as a tough Marine he was in fact only 15 years old and the young man so ready for a fight looked like he would have his chance his unit was going from Hawaii to fight in the battle of Tarawa the Battle of Tarawa or Tarawa atoll that began on November 20th 1943 was the first time in the Pacific Campaign where the U.S faced a serious Japanese opposition to an amphibious Landing of the 18 000 U.S Marines evolved in the battle a thousand were killed and two thousand wounded all in a period of just 76 hours but Jack was not there to see it when his unit shipped out he was left behind male into Pearl Harbor was not censored but he did not know that mail going out was the military sensors had read a letter he sent home that revealed his age knowing that he was just 15 Marine command had not allowed him to ship out with his unit when they were sent to terawa his Co threatened to discharge him but he said he would just join the Army and give them the benefit of my excellent Marine training he wasn't discharged but was kept from combat tasked instead with driving a garbage truck at a Pearl Harbor Depot Jack enjoyed Hawaii but his goal was to get into combat so I developed a plan he said I noticed Marines getting sent to combat areas if they got into trouble or caused problems to the military and he thought I can do that it's something in which I am truly gifted he said over my next 17 Liberties I got into 17 fights and was locked up 17 times eventually Jack was sent to the brig for 45 days to wake Court martial over a fight with another Marine the court martial gave him 30 days of bread and water when he got out he celebrated so hard that he wound up back in the brig for another 45 days he certainly did excel at getting into trouble but he had not as he had hoped gotten himself into combat and so he changed strategies Jack knew that the fifth Marines where his cousin served were anchored off of Hawaii and that they were likely to ship out soon on January 10 1945 the 16 year old put on a set of fatigues carried his boots under his arm and went to the harbor he followed a group of Marines and just stacked it like he knew what he was doing he managed to board a transport the Haskell class attack transport USS duel by sheer coincidence it was the boat his cousin was on with the help of his cousin he managed to hide the fact that he was a stowaway he had no bunk assignment he slept on deck and managed to hide among all the Marines but he knew that after 30 days missing in Hawaii he would be classified as a deserter on day 29 he turned himself in the Colonel's response was young fella you're causing me a lot of administrative trouble but I sure wish that I had a whole boatload of man that wanted to fight as bad as you do Jack was assigned to his cousin's unit the first Battalion of the 26 Marines he celebrated his 17th birthday on board the duel when a marine was taken off the ship with appendicitis Jack was issued the man's weapon and gear back in Hawaii Jack was listed as a deserter it would take some time before the paperwork for this new assignment would catch up and correct his record Jack and the rest of the Marines of the first 26th we're headed for Iwo Jima Iwo Jima is a volcanic island some 750 miles from Tokyo the approximately eight square mile island is unusually flat with the exception of the 520 foot Mount suribachi at the southern tip the US saw the island as strategically important as a staging area for bombers that would be attacking the Japanese home Islands in preparation for a U.S invasion Iwo Jima and its two airfields were close enough to Japan to serve as a base for fighter aircraft close enough that it would be able to escort bombers all the way to Japan moreover Iwo Jima was the site of radar installations that were able to warn Japan of incoming raids to the Japanese Iwo Jima was a part of an inner ring of defenses seen as essential for protecting the whole island General taramichi kurobayashi given command of the island was told by prime minister Hideki Tojo that the eyes of the nation were focused on the defense of Iwo Jima that he was to defend Iwo Jima to the last knowing that American bombardment would likely destroy any Beach defenses kirbyashi had had the island riddle with an extensive network of caves bunkers and tunnels designed to allow a prolonged defense of the island and withstand U.S naval and Air bombardment Jack Lucas and the Marines of the fifth amphibious Corps were headed into a terrible battle against a dug in and determined enemy the massive more than 70-day air and Naval bombardment intended to prepare the island for the Marine Landings actually had little effect on the dug in Defenders the day before the battle Lucas considered the mess line and board The Duel I looked up and down the rows of young men wolfing down their Chow for some this would be their last morning for the remainder every morning Hereafter would be forever changed still he wrote I Was Not Afraid I came here to kill not to be killed he wrote a small note on a piece of cardboard torn from a ration pack and put it in his wallet that was in his backpack asking that if he were killed the wallet be mailed back to his mother on D-Day February 19th the beach was littered with equipment and landing craft stuck in the black volcanic sand as a beach filled with Marines who saw Little Resistance Curry biashi sprung his trap bombarding the beach with artillery and mortars Jack and his company landed in an area designated as red Beach due to the Carnage all around Jack noted that the beach was true to its name Under Fire from machine guns and artillery Jack and his fellow Marines struggled through the black sand of an island that did not appear to be of this world he described the advances from one Foxhole to the next we ran in a crouching position inching our way to our objective a Marine Fire team consisted of four men Senator Dorado Browning automatic rifle or bar the approximately 22 pound nearly 50 inch bar fired 30 aux 6 ammunition at a rate of more than 500 a minute in a fire team one would anchor with the bar while the other three would carry the M1 grand semi-automatic carbine that fired the same 30-06 round Jack and the rest of his team spent the night in a shell hole keeping watch in one hour shifts in the morning his platoon was sent North to try to capture the Island's airfields he and his team advanced in heavy fighting around noon they took cover in a trench waiting for a nearby Sherman tank armed with a flamethrower to attack a nearby pillbox such tanks could spew Nepal jelly gasoline up to 150 feet and proved an effective tool against enemy strong points nearby Japanese anticipated the attack and began retreating running right into the trench where Lucas and his team were hiding that resulted in a fight so close that the length of their rifles almost exceeded the distance between them Lucas shot two enemy but then his gun jammed a result of the dust and dirt of the island but it was the gun Jam that saved his comrades as it caused him to look down to try to clear the jam where he saw what the others had knocked the Japanese had thrown two grenades into the trench right at the foot of private first class Allen Crossen the man with the bar realizing the grenades would likely disable all of them Lucas threw himself on the first grenade and with his right hand grabbed the second and also brought it under his chest not only had he thrown himself on two grenades he also had six more in the webbing on his own chest it was an act of supreme sacrifice the culmination of a life that included both the need to fight and the need to protect others his act was described fully in a citation October 5th 1945. when he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his courage the citation read private first class Lucas unhesitatingly hurled himself over his comrades upon one grenade and pulled the other one under him absorbing the whole blasting force of the explosions in his own body in order to Shield his companions from the concussions and murderous flying fragments by his inspiring action and Valiant Spirit of self-sacrifice he not only protected his comrades from certain injury or possible death but also enabled them to Route the Japanese Patrol and continue the advance at 17 years and six days Jack Harold Lucas was the youngest serviceman of the second world war to be awarded the Medal of Honor the young man so intent on reaching combat had been on the island less than a full day between the time his Higgins boat hit the beach and when he made the sacrifice that saved the lives of the other three men of his team but by far the most surprising part of Jack Lucas's Medal of Honor is that it was not awarded posthumously of the eight grenades two and told by the Japanese and six on his own chest only one exploded it threw him up in the air or as he later wrote in his autobiography one moment I was laying prostrate on the ground and the next I was floating upward he landed on the ground unconscious and grievously wounded his companions convinced that he was dead moved on he was later found by some other Marines saved by a Navy corpsman sent to a hospital ship and then on to San Francisco in fact he got there ahead of the paperwork that had been filed aboard the duel it was still at the time listed as having deserted from Pearl Harbor the Marines had asserted that the battle for Iwo Jima would last about three days in fact the Buddy Battle of Iwo Jima will carry on for more than a month of hard fighting the US took more than 26 thousand casualties in the Battle of the 21 000 Japanese Defenders only 216 survived to be taken prisoner Jack Lucas underwent 21 surgeries to repair the damage from the grenade although so much metal was left in him that he set off airport metal detectors all his life he was discharged due to his injuries acquired a business degree and eventually reenlisted in the US Army as a paratrooper reportedly to overcome his fear of heights he died in June 2008 of leukemia at the age of 80. in September 2016 the secretary of the Navy announced that a new Arleigh burke-class Destroyer laid down last November would be named the USS Jack H Lucas and his honor

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 74,078

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy

Id: MGh7sVD9brQ

Length: 50min 22sec (3022 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 02 2023