Rest in peace, brave warrior..
Posted on 03/27/2005 12:54:08 AM PST by neverdem
Ernest Childers, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for knocking out two German machine-gun nests in Italy in World War II, died on March 17 in Muskogee, Okla. He was 87 and lived Coweta, Okla.
The cause was complications of a stroke and a heart attack, said his wife, Yolanda Chadwell Childers.
On Sept. 22, 1943, after securing the beaches in Salerno, Second Lt. Childers's unit, the 45th Infantry Division, began an assault on the mountain town of Oliveto Citra. When the division came under heavy machine-gun fire, he rounded up eight soldiers for a mission, despite having slipped and fractured his foot.
He told his men to lay down a base of fire to cover him while he crawled up a slope. Along the way he shot and killed two snipers. When he came to a German machine-gun nest, he shot its occupants before they could turn their weapon on him.
From his new position, he spotted a second machine-gun nest. To get its occupants to expose themselves, he lobbed rocks, hoping they would think them grenades. When two soldiers appeared, Lieutenant Childers and an enlisted man who had joined him shot and killed them. Lieutenant Childers then found himself facing what turned out to be an armed German mortar observer and took him prisoner, "the only surviving German in the entire action that day," he later said.
Ernest Childers was born on Feb. 1, 1918, in Broken Arrow, Okla., the third of five sons of a Creek Nation lawyer who reared him on a farm and taught him to shoot a rifle.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children, Elaine Childers of Tulsa, Donna Thirkell of Houston and Ernie Childers of Augusta, Ga., and a brother.
....taught him to shoot a rifle....I wonder how many dads are doing that today?.... instead of going to soccer practice.
Thank God!
Charlie Co., 180th Infantry, which is now out of Ada, OK. I almost went to this man's funeral, but couldn't make it. Damn fine soldier in a fine outfit.
God Bless
Oklahoma bump. Our scouts used to put flags and flowers at his statue on Memorial Day. IIRC, Mr. Childers was too ill to attend the funeral in 2003 (?) of another of Oklahoma's Medal of Honor winners. He was a fighting man, God bless him!
To read about Ernest Childers and other American heroes, click here:
http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm
For the most detailed account of Childers and his buddies, I recommend 'The Rock of Anzio: From Sicily to Dachau: A History of the US 45th Infantry Division' by Flint Whitlock, Westview Press, 1988.
Thanks for posting this.
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On Sept. 22, 1943, after securing the beaches in Salerno, Second Lt. Childers's unit, the 45th Infantry Division, began an assault on the mountain town of Oliveto Citra. When the division came under heavy machine-gun fire, he rounded up eight soldiers for a mission, despite having slipped and fractured his foot.
He told his men to lay down a base of fire to cover him while he crawled up a slope. Along the way he shot and killed two snipers. When he came to a German machine-gun nest, he shot its occupants before they could turn their weapon on him.
From his new position, he spotted a second machine-gun nest. To get its occupants to expose themselves, he lobbed rocks, hoping they would think them grenades. When two soldiers appeared, Lieutenant Childers and an enlisted man who had joined him shot and killed them. Lieutenant Childers then found himself facing what turned out to be an armed German mortar observer and took him prisoner, "the only surviving German in the entire action that day," he later said.
That's just it. My Dad passed away almost 3 yrs. ago, would have been 84 this month, was also in Italy during WWII, in the Army infantry. He grew up hunting (with a gun, not a bow and arrow) and fishing, camping in the out of doors, so the shock of outside living during the war was less and also being an accurate marksman and muscular strength were by products of growing up like that and working on a farm.
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