- Reaction score
- 1,471
- Points
- 1,260
gillbates said:That would be Col Alvin York, right? What a man.
Sgt. York, actually.
There was also a Mess Attendant ( what we would call a Steward ) at Pearl Harbor who won the Navy Cross:
"When directed to assist in loading a pair of unattended Browning .50 caliber anti-aircraft guns, Miller took control of one and began firing at the Japanese planes, even though he had no training in operating the weapon. He fired the gun until he ran out of ammunition. Japanese aircraft eventually dropped two armor-piercing bombs through the deck of the battleship and launched 5 × 18 in. (457 mm) aircraft torpedoes into her port side. Heavily damaged by the ensuing explosions, and suffering from severe flooding below decks, the West Virginia slowly settled to the harbor bottom as her crew—including Miller—abandoned ship."
There was also in the movie "12 O'Clock High" a Padre who flew a mission aboard a B-17 as an Air Gunner, but I don't know how true that is.