The word "hero" comes with a lot of emotion behind it. Heroes are men and women who, when forced in extraordinary circumstances, end up doing absolutely incredible feats of strength, virtue, and bravery.
The bravery that some of our men and women have kept, the steadfast resolve as bullets angrily whizzed by their heads, that willingness to continue forward into the keep once more has always captivated the American mindset: the war hero.
In the gallery below you'll see the faces of men who laughed in the face of death and did everything they could to defend our freedom, in spite of the odds.
Please SHARE these incredibly brave men if you're thankful for our brave soldiers and proud to be an American!
1. Alvin York: World War I
Ordered to take out a machine-gun nest filled with German, the gunners began to open fire on York's team, cutting down nine of his men. Left alone, York entered "the zone," using his rifle he took out 3 of the Germans as they were shooting at him. A counter-attack was attempted on this one man army, but to no avail. York killed another 20 germans before taking 132 German soldiers prisoner. When asked how many prisoners he had taken, the Tennessee native looked at the large group and simply replied, "Honest, Lieutenant, I don't know."
2. Roy P. Benavidez: Vietnam
After hearing that his friends were in trouble deep in the jungle, Benavidez volunteered to go on a rescue mission. He was in such a rush that he didn't bring his gun, and in a firefight of 12 American's versus 1,000 enemy soldiers he had only a knife to defend himself. After running across open ground he had been shot 4 times, twice in the leg, once through both cheeks, and a bullet bounced off his head. He began to administer first aid to injured soldiers. He managed to get some of the injured aboard a helicopter to escape, but once they took flight the pilot was killed and they crashed. Benavidez pulled his friends from the wreckage before he was shot in the thigh and an enemy soldier clubbed him in the head causing fractures to his skull. Benavidez decapitated the enemy soldier with one swing of his knife, and then he began to pull the wounded to the other helicopter. He shot two more enemies and went to make sure all classified documents were safe before boarding the helicopter and blacking out. When they arrived at the base they came to realize that in his haste, he had accidentally brought two dead enemies on board the rescue chopper. He somehow survived.
3. Audie Murphy: World War II
Originally turned away from the Marine Corps, the Navy, and the Army for being too short, too thin, and too young he ended up lying to the Army about his birth in order to get in. During a battle against the Nazi's, Murphy's unit was down to 19 men out of its original 128. Making a strategic withdrawal his unit fell back in order to regroup and rearm. Murphy stayed behind; knowing he was going to die, he began to shoot at the Germans until he ran out of ammo. As a final act of defiance he jumped onto a burning enemy tank and started using its machine gun to kill an entire squad of Nazis. When American reinforcements arrived Murphy led them on an attack… Murphy survived and fought on for the rest of the war.
4. Michael J. Fitzmaurice: Vietnam
During an intense firefight in the jungles of Vietnam, Fitzmaurice selflessly jumped onto an enemy grenade to save his fellow soldiers. Severely wounded and partially blinded from the explosive, he continued to fight the enemy. After his gun had gotten destroyed from a second nearby explosion, he fought a Vietcong enemy in hand-to-hand combat, defeating him and using his enemy's gun to continue the attack… all while refusing to receive medical attention until the battle was over.
5. Leonard A. Funk, Jr: World War II
Funk and 4 of his men encountered a group of 80 Nazi soldiers. As a German officer put a gun in Funk's stomach Funk began to laugh. As the officer began to yell at Funk in German, he laughed even harder. The Germans began to laugh as well and that's when Funk whipped out his machine gun and managed to kill 21 of them before they all surrendered to the 5 laughing Americans.
6. Tony Stein: World War II
Armed with a homemade .50 cal machine gun salvaged from a downed American aircraft, this Marine charged across the volcanic plains of Okinawa, killing as many Japanese soldiers as possible. He would often stand upright, to draw fire away from pinned down Marines. Whenever he ran out of ammo he would run back to the beach, carrying an injured Marine, rearming himself before returning. After 2 weeks of face to face combat he was finally given permission to leave the island, but he came back when he heard how many of his friends were dying. It was only then that an enemy sniper killed him.
7. Robert L. Howard: Vietnam
After taking shrapnel to the fronts of his legs and arms from a grenade explosion, he was left defenseless because his rifle was blown to pieces right from his hands. He noticed his platoon leader was injured, and somehow managed to crawl through machine gun fire to administer first aid. He continued to get hit as he directed men where to fire for three hours. He didn't leave a rescue helicopter until everyone else was aboard. He was wounded 14 times in a period of 54 months.
8. Matt Urban: World War II
Urban was nicknamed "The Ghost" by his German enemies. After being shot in the leg with a gun that was meant to destroy tanks, being hit full on in the chest with shrapnel, and being shot in the neck, he continued to fight the Nazis; he was then forced to go to a hospital, where he quickly escaped to rejoin the fight. Using a cane to limp back to rejoin his men, he manned a machine gun to cover his men so they could enter the safety of a tank.
9. William D. Hawkins: World War II
Wounded by shrapnel, he led his platoon to destroy six Japanese machine gun nests. Wounded a second time, he refused to retreat. By the end of the day he destroyed 7 Japanese pillboxes by himself. Medics tried to force him to seek medical help, but he continued to refuse. He was throwing another grenade to destroy another pillbox when a gunner shot him dead. Of his conduct it was stated: "To say that his conduct was worthy of the highest traditions of the Marine Corps is like saying the Empire State Building is moderately high.”
10. Kyle Carpenter: Global War on Terrorism
Carpenter upheld the long standing tradition of putting their brother's lives above their own. He used his own body to shield a fellow Marine from a grenade blast. Both Marines managed to survive the explosion but suffered major injuries. Carpenter lost his right eye and most of his teeth. His jaw and right arm were shattered from the blast.
11. Thomas A. Baker: World War II
Faced with a final Japanese banzai suicide attack, he dug into a foxhole and began to fire until he had run out of ammo. By that point he had already been shot in the stomach, and began to kill enemies by swinging his gun as if it were a club, killing a dozen or so enemies. A Marine tried to approach Baker, but Baker only demanded his .45. The fellow Marine handed him his gun with eight bullets inside and propped Baker against a tree. When they found Baker's body the next morning the pistol was empty and 8 dead Japanese soldiers were around him.
12. Ernest E. Evans: World War II
Leading his lone Destroyer, the USS Johnston, straight into the face of a huge Japanese naval fleet, he managed to use his small 5-inch guns to knock out the upper decks, causing some of the ships to catch fire. Meanwhile, he directed his ship to "zigzag" in the water to avoid being destroyed by the Japanese 18-inch guns. The Johnston fired all its weapons, and used torpedoes to attack the much bigger ships. Eventually, his luck ran out, and the Johnston was hit. Refusing to withdraw, he slugged it out with titanic battleships and even managed to drive 4 Japanese destroys away. Evans didn't give the order to abandon ship until all rounds had been fired. When Japanese sailors passed survivors floating in the water, they threw food, water, and supplies at them, saluting and screaming, "Samurai!" Evan's body was never found.
Please SHARE these heroes' stories of bravery with your American-loving friends and family!