Posted on 04/30/2009 6:17:32 AM PDT by WOBBLY BOB
It's hard to figure out Clarence "Bud" Ollom's highest honor.
There's the time he was knighted by the French consul general at Minnesota's Capitol Rotunda. The 2006 ceremony marked the first time a Minnesotan was admitted into France's highest military order: the Legion of Honor.
Then there's the story of how Ollom, one of Minnesota's most highly decorated World War II paratroopers, singly charged a German machine gun nest five days after D-Day. By the time the adrenaline faded, he'd shot at least three German soldiers with his M-1 rifle and the rest had fled into the French countryside. Three fresh holes littered the folds of his uniform: marks of where bullets had whistled through without touching him.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Lord God, hear my call, as through the sky I fall. Satan you once were cast from here. My static line have hooked to hold, and then my chute to make unfold.
Suspension lines untangled be and open my canopy. From other jumpers float me clear, As safely down I persevere.
On angels wings, I hit the ground. My Father's favor, I have found. In thanks, St. Michael I do pray. For God has helped me--ALL THE WAY. __________________
What a brave man.
Now, there goes a hero.
Brave heroes as this never claim or grab glory, they give it to those who never came home.
America was a better nation because of heroes as this.
May he rest in peace knowing he served near the top of the best.
I witnessed an interesting exchange while eating lunch yesterday at a Chinese buffet in Tulsa. The waitress came to the next table to tell them their meals had been purchased by another diner. Seated at the table was a man wearing a hat that said “WWII Veterans of Tulsa” along with small metal representations of his awards. That sure made the rest of my day...
Amen!
Sadly we are losing many of these men each day as they are call home and we are all the poorer for it.
Amen. The ones who you want to talk to about it are very proud and reserved. Strong proud men who saved our country. I miss these type of men more and more.
Reminding me how young all these guys were. And how Audey Murphy who was half the size of Duke Wayne but did all the daring deeds that the Duke did in the movies. One cannot tell the book by the cover. Murphy looked like a choir boy, but was a real bearcat. I have read the story of a stunt man who said that he hated to mix it up with Murphy, who would forget himself in a movie fight and really go at it. Let him go and he would cut you to pieces with his fists.
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