Stay Connected“War Stories” is conversational military history hosted by Preston Stewart and Sayre Payne. Storytelling military and historical events from WWI to WWII, Korea to Vietnam, and Iraq to Afghanistan, we bring on varied guests to help continue to document our warriors, both past and present.
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Copyright: © Preston Stewart
24APR1951: Manning a defensive position near Taejon-ni in South Korea, CPL Hiroshi Miyamura and his company were hit by a large Chinese attack that threatened to overrun their lines. With the enemy already inside the wire, Miyamura quickly killed ten enemy soldiers with his bayonet before moving to one of his machine gun positions.
Once there, he administered first aid to his wounded men and coordinated their evacuation. As a second wave of the attack struck, Miyamura manned the machine gun and laid down heavy fire into the advancing Chinese troops until he had expended all ammunition. About to be overrun, he ordered his men to fall back while he destroyed the machine gun.
Moving to a secondary machine gun position, he helped that crew until his unit was ordered to withdraw. To cover his men's movement, Miyamura stayed on the gun and killed at least 50 Chinese troops before he was seriously wounded, the position overrun, and he was taken prisoner.
CPL Hiroshi Miyamura was submitted and approved for the Medal of Honor but the news was classified as Top Secret. With Miyamura in Chinese captivity, there was a concern that if it became known how much devastation he had caused in their ranks, he may not make it home from the POW camp.
Released after 28 months of captivity in August of 1953, Miyamura was presented the Medal of Honor by President Eisenhower in October of that year.
15FEB1944: Serving with Patrol Squadron 34 based out of New Guinea, LTJG Nathan Gordon and his men were regularly tasked with the challenging mission of rescuing downed American pilots in the vast Pacific Ocean.
During an attack on the island of Kavieng on February 15th a handful of A-20's and B-25's had been shot down and the call went out for a potential rescue mission. LTJG Gordon and his crew, flying the 'Arkansas Traveler' PBY Catalina, took off in hopes of saving the downed American pilots.
Escorted by a group of fighters, Gordon landed between waves nearly 20 feet tall to search the first pile of wreckage for survivors. Unsuccessful and taking on water, he took back off but was quickly notified that some survivors had been found a short distance away. Within range of enemy fire, Gordon twice landed and pulled aboard the surviving airmen. In both instances, having to shut off his engines to complete the rescue.
Taking off with a full load and low on fuel, a call came in that an additional life raft had been spotted, a mere 600m from the Japanese gun positions. Without hesitation, Gordon spun his aircraft around, buzzed the enemy position at low altitude, landed and picked up an additional six airmen. Now overweight with 24 men on board, Gordon successfully fought the plane to get airborne and not crash into the oncoming waves.
LTJG Gordon and his crew were able to save 15 downed airmen that day that would have otherwise perished at sea or been taken prisoner by the Japanese. For his incredible bravery in rescuing those men, LTJG Nathan Gordon would be awarded the Medal of Honor. Gordon would survive the war and go on to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas for twenty years.
09JAN1970: Commanding an armored personnel carrier, Spec/4 Danny Peterson and his company found themselves up against an estimated battalion sized enemy force. As the enemy opened fire, the lead personnel carrier was disabled and the men inside pinned down by machine gun and RPG fire.
To provide the disabled crew cover and time to repair the vehicle, Peterson maneuvered his APC directly between the disabled vehicle and the enemy position. Now firing point blank into the entrenched enemy fighting positions, Peterson's vehicle was soon hit and the driver wounded.
Exiting the APC, Peterson carried his wounded driver 45m across open terrain to the casualty collection point for treatment. His vehicle badly damaged and the company preparing to withdraw, Peterson could have stayed out of the fight.
Instead he ran right back in and began laying down covering fire for his men as they attempted to exit the kill zone. Alone and taking fire from three sides, Spec/4 Danny Peterson was shortly killed as he manned the position. For his selfless act that day, Peterson would be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
03OCT2009: Waking up to an overwhelming enemy assault, then SPC Ty Carter and his men found themselves on the receiving end of a deadly Taliban attack. With 300 fighters covering the nearby hillsides, looking down into COP Keating, the Taliban began the attack at dawn, laying down a not-before-seen volume of fire into the American outpost. Quickly recognizing the severity of the situation, then SPC Carter gathered ammunition and twice moved through a hail of gunfire to begin delivering the much needed supplies to the heavy weapons crews. Once at the fighting positions, Carter never stopped engaging the enemy fighters as they moved down the hillsides in an attempt to overrun the base. Soon, SPC Carter learned that one of his men was wounded and stranded in the open. Without regard for his own safety, Carter ran through the same withering enemy fire in order to reach the Soldier. Once there, he provided immediate first aid to stop the bleeding and moved the Soldier to a more covered position. Carter then picked up the wounded Soldier, and moved over 100m to the aid station under devastating, close range enemy fire. Once the wounded Soldier was delivered the to aid station, SPC Carter went right back out into the fight where he spent the next few hours pushing the Taliban fighters back and retaking COP Keating. For his heroic actions that prevented the enemy from overrunning the outpost and helped to save the lives of his fellow Soldiers, SPC Ty Carter would be awarded the Medal of Honor.
07JUL1944: Serving as a regimental dentist during the deadly Battle of Saipan, CPT Ben Salomon was tending to wounded Soldiers when the Japanese launched the largest suicide attack of the war.
At dawn, 4,000 enemy fighters charged forward in a last ditch effort to stop the American advance. The large force surged through the American lines and engaging in fierce hand to hand combat. With his aid station a bit behind the front lines, CPT Salomon quickly saw men coming his way for treatment. As he was working on the casualties, Salomon looked up to see a Japanese soldier in the tent bayoneting the wounded Americans. Picking up a weapon, Salomon shot the man dead then went back to treating his patients.
Shortly after, enemy soldiers began crawling under the tent. CPT Salomon noticed and repelled their assault before ordering the wounded, at least those who could, to evacuate the aid station. As the wounded began to move, Salomon stood his ground to cover their movement. Seeing a nearby machine gun crew that had just been killed, CPT Salomon got behind the weapon system and opened up on the attacking Japanese.
Later that morning, the attack died down and the Americans rebuilt their lines. CPT Salomon was found at the machine gun position, with 98 dead enemy soldiers laid out in front of him. For his valiant effort in holding the enemy at bay, CPT Ben Salomon would be awarded, posthumously, the Medal of Honor. Salomon is one of only three dental officers to have received the award.
01JUN2007: As they were conducting a route clearance patrol just outside of Baghdad, Iraq, SSG Travis Atkins and his unit were notified of a group of possible insurgents nearby. They changed course to interdict.
Arriving on scene, Atkins noticed two men acting strangely and stepped from his vehicle to approach them on foot. Moving towards the men with three additional Soldiers, SSG Atkins began yelling directions and closed the distance to search the two men. The two men were giving signs of resisting from the start and as the Soldiers closed the distance, they became aggressive. As the encounter began to turn violent, SSG Atkins noticed one of the men reaching for something under his clothing. Alarm bells went off.
Recognizing the man was reaching to trigger a suicide vest, SSG Atkins acted. He bear hugged the man and tackled him to the ground away from his Soldiers. Once on the ground, Atkins pinned him down to shield his men from the potential danger. At that moment, the vest detonated, killing Atkins instantly but saving the lives of his three men.
During that momentary chaos, the second man attempted to detonate his vest but Atkins' men, on high alert, gunned him down before he could complete the act.
For his incredibly selfless action that saved the lives of three of his men, SSG Travis Atkins would be awarded, posthumously, the Medal of Honor.
29JUN1966: On a patrol with his platoon in the jungles of Vietnam, SSG Charles Morris thought there may be enemy in the area, so he pushed ahead to confirm. During the course of his recon, Morris came within 20m of an enemy machine gun position when it opened fire and wounded him in the chest. Morris quickly returned fired and killed the enemy troops before returning to friendly lines to pass along what he'd seen.
Just then, his entire platoon came under heavy fire. Refusing medical aid so that he could help in the defensive efforts, Morris organized his men for what would end up being a deadly 8 hour fight.
With so many wounded in the initial engagement, the platoon couldn't leave the area without abandoning many of their own. Instead, they called for reinforcements and did their best to hold on. SSG Morris was instrumental in this effort, and despite an enemy grenade nearly destroying his hand, continued to move among his men offering encouragement, treating the wounded, and delivering deadly fire into the enemy ranks whenever the opportunity arose. Realizing an enemy machine gun team was moving behind his men, SSG Morris assaulted and destroyed the position, despite only being able to use one hand to fire his weapon.
For the next few hours, SSG Morris, wounded four times, led his men in the defense of their small, surrounded position until reinforcements arrived and put a stop to the fight. For his brave and valiant leadership, SSG Charles Morris would be awarded the Medal of Honor in 1967. He would stay in the Army until 1981 reading the rank of Sergeant Major and would pass away in 1996.
07DEC1941: Mess Attendant 1st Class Doris Miller was below deck working when he heard alarms sound. Rushing to his battle station, he found his designated anti-aircraft battery had been destroyed in the initial Japanese attack that morning on Pearl Harbor. Without hesitation, he rushed forward and offered to help in any way he could.
With the commanding officer mortally wounded, Miller was tasked with pulling him from the bridge to a more secure location. Despite the challenges of moving the seriously wounded man, Miller completed this and was then sent to assist two officers in getting machine guns up and firing back into the attacking Japanese planes.
The two officers expected Miller to help load ammunition since he had never been trained on the .50 caliber weapon system (or any weapon for that matter, black Sailors were considered support rather than combat troops and didn't go through the same training). Instead, as one officer turned around briefly, Miller jumped on the machine gun and started laying down fire into the attacking Japanese. In the non-stop action of the next fifteen minutes, Miller is estimated to have shot down between 2-5 Japanese aircraft.
As he expended the last of his ammunition, Miller began to evacuate wounded Americans from the craft. Regularly moving through waist deep water and oil, Miller saved countless lives before he himself was ordered to evacuate as well.
For his actions that day, Doris Miller would be awarded the Navy Cross, the first black Sailor to receive the award. Continuing service through the war, Miller would unfortunately be killed two years later when his ship, the USS Liscome Bay was sunk during the Battle of Makin.
30MAR1967: Serving as a platoon leader with I Co. 3/9 Marines, 2ndLt John Bobo and his men were on a routine patrol near the North Vietnam border when they set in for the night on Hill 70. As the platoons moved out from the main company element, a larger enemy force watched and prepared their attack.
Soon, the NVA soldiers attacked the now dispersed Marine force. Using the tall elephant grass as cover, they were able to get within close range as their mortars and machine guns kept the US forces pinned down. Recognizing the immediate risk to his men, Bobo began moving around the lines, setting in a hasty defense and leading his men in pushing back the enemy force.
As he was moving among his men, an enemy mortar round landed nearby and severed his leg just below the knee. Refusing to be evacuated, Bobo had the medic tie a tourniquet with a web belt, pushed his stump into the dirt to slow the bleeding and was propped up against a tree. With weapon in hand, he aimed to provide a rear guard action as his men moved back to a more defensible position.
Firing point blank into the attackers, Bobo is credited with killing at least five enemy fighters before he was hit once more and killed on the battlefield. His selfless act of covering his men at risk of this own life, allowed his Marines to consolidate and hold on through the rest of the deadly fight. For his brave act, 2ndLt John Bobo would be awarded, posthumously, the Medal of Honor.
21JUN2006: Setting in with his team on a mountaintop in Nuristan province Afghanistan, SFC Jared Monti and his men were tasked with serving as a forward observer for a large operation in valley below. Hiking to the top of the mountain to avoid enemy detection, Monti and the 16-man team set in on the peak and waited for the operation to kick off. However, as the mission was delayed, Monti and his men soon ran low on critical supplies. A resupply helicopter was sent in but would in turn, give away their position to enemy fighters nearby.
Just before dusk, the sky lit up with enemy fire. A force of at least 50 hit their position from an elevated position taking deadly aim on the American Soldiers below. Quickly recognizing the severity of the attack, Monti, a forward observer, got on the radio and began coordinating air and artillery strikes to push back the enemy attackers. Despite the heavy, accurate barrage of fire, Monti passed along missions that would be designated 'danger close' due to their proximity to friendly forces.
As the Soldiers fell back to a consolidated position, PVT Brian Bradbury was hit by enemy fire and fell, wounded. Recognizing that Bradbury was on the brink, his fellow Soldiers began calling out, trying to keep him talking until the MEDEVAC aircraft arrived.
SFG Jared Monti sprang into action, despite the overwhelming volume of enemy fire, he began to push forward to rescue his wounded brother. Twice he tried but was quickly pushed back. Finally, Monti went for it and as he neared Bradbury was hit and killed by enemy fire.
For his incredibly brave and selfless act, giving his life to try to save a brother, SFC Jared Monti would be awarded the Medal of Honor.
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