Sgt. John Baker from Moline, Illinois, passed away recently. He was in our MHS 66 classes. I remember him from gym class. His small stature made him ideal for serving as a tunnel rat in Viet Nam, an extremely dangerous assignment.
President Johnson awarded him the Medal of Honor, and Moline eventually named a bridge across the Mississippi River after him.
Three of my MHS 66 classmates died in Viet Nam. I knew one quite well, because we were in band together and always had adjoining lockers at Wharton Fieldhouse.
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| LI and and I attended the Walmart Saturday Morning Meeting where Ranger Petry talked about his special day of combat, flexing his mechanical hand. |
It’s that kind of attitude, in addition to incredible heroism, that the medal honors. In interviews this week, Petry was just as humble about his accomplishments and unbelievably upfront about the gory details. When asked, “What does it feel like to have your hand blown off?” he sprinkled in some humor. “Another weird thought went into my mind,” Petry said, “where’s the Hollywood squirt? Why isn’t this thing spraying out a country mile?” After that, he said, reality and his training kicked in. He applied his own tourniquet to his arm and continued to lead his Rangers through the fight. He referred over and over again to his “younger guys,” the young Ranger privates under his command that he saved that day.
Petry is an awe-inspiring, humble person. He talks about enjoying his robotic prosthetic hand, saying, “I thought I was going to have a hook, which I was content with,” and describes learning to write left handed helping his son prepare for kindergarten: “He was getting ready for kindergarten, so I was getting ready with him. We were doing our ABCs and numbers.” If you haven’t seen this in its entirety, please take the half hour to do so.
The news that makes veterans happy is that there may be more Medals of Honor on the horizon. There are early reports that the White House is considering honoring the first living Marine from Iraq and Afghanistan, but yesterday belonged to Petry. He handled the spotlight like he handled combat, he’s an incredible ambassador for all who’ve worn the uniform and he has thousands of us cheering in his corner.
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2011/07/13/leroy-petry-the-medal-of-honor-and-intrepidity/#ixzz2URGhanAG
PS - I taught entire classes of Marines in Yuma, Arizona, where they went for training before deployment to Iraq. I had several Navy SEALs in class, and a number of Rangers.
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| Petry impressed the Walmart audience with his great sense of humor and modesty. |