Saturday, February 16, 2013

A REAL HERO

Recently I watched the president present the Medal of Honor to a young soldier who obviously showed extraordinaire bravery in the face of a tenacious enemy. From having served in combat and seen bravery close up, I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that scores of heroic soldiers who should have been awarded the Medal of Honor didn't get it. This is certainly not to take away from the brave young soldier just given the MOH. Something as simple as paperwork snafus can derail a well deserved medal. I remember a medic named Smitty who during a battle under enemy and rocket fire inched his way for a hundred meters plus, to save several soldiers. We put him in for the Medal of Honor. The paperwork was lost. It bothered me and others and we resubmitted the paperwork. We don't know what happened but it never made it--time passed and everybody moved on. Not good.

Quite serendipitously, I talked to this WW ll vet, an extraordinary hero anyway you cut it. He made me think of the wonderful heroics of soldiers that never get recognized. Monti Nachman is one of those. His story is a movie. At least as interesting and maybe more so than "Saving Private Ryan." Monti was a young 17 year old when he enlisted in the Army. He didn't know what he wanted. He decided that the Army Air Corp sounded good. In good Military fashion, they socked him in the Infantry. He ended up in Germany in some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Seventh Army was routing the Germans and soldiers like Monti were on the chase. One morning, Sergeant Nanchman and his squad of soldiers came upon Camp 6 which was one of the overflow camps from the infamous Daucha. It was horrible beyond description. Human beings stacked up like cord wood and men walking around like skeletons. His unit did what they could, rounded up every blanket they could find for these pitiful souls. The sadness and pity turned to anger and when their captain sent his squad after some fleeing Germans they were more than ready for a fight. When they caught the Germans, they immediately surrendered. "It was very tempting to kill them but we were Americans and so we took them prisoner", said the Sergeant. "I will never forget that day. The experience has stayed with me all my life. I think all of us from that time were 'shell shocked.' That was what it was called then. Now they call it Post Stress or something like that. Over the years, I've met Holocoast victims. How they survived is way beyond me."

Yes, Sergeant Nachman received twelve medals, to include two purple hearts but nothing could suffice for that day. "The horror of what we experienced." Thank you Sergeant Nachman, you are a hero.

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