“Come on, You Sons of Bitches, Do You Want to Live Forever?”– A Hero Rises Among Heroes
MARCH 2, 2022| CHARLEY ROBERTS
As a journalist, I met, interviewed, and wrote about an array of fascinating, sometimes scurrilous, and occasionally inspiring people. One of my favorite days in that quarter-century of reporting involved one of the least newsworthy events I ever covered: In 1984, the California Legislature sought to honor home-state heroes who had received this nation’s highest military decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor. The lawmakers presented these heroes with a California license plate with the medal’s image embossed in the plate at a ceremony at the Capitol.
About 50 honorees attended the event in Sacramento. Among them were several whose exploits were widely known. They included Jimmy Doolittle, leader of the Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo bombing raid that gave Americans hope in the dark days after Pearl Harbor, and Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, the Marine Corps flying ace who was almost as famous for his “black sheep” behavior as for his aerial victories. There were many more, however, well known only to their families and friends.
Standing next to some of these lesser-known heroes, I was struck by how average they seemed in appearance, manner, and speech. I had learned a good deal about human nature during my Army days, but getting to meet these particular men offered me fresh insight. They were not supermen but ordinary people who, in a critical moment, had performed extraordinary feats.
https://thewarhorse.org/dan-daly-wwi-medal-of-honor-marines-legend-lives-on/
