Posted on 11/06/2014 11:30:29 AM PST by Fenhalls555
because they did not cut and run when the air war with the Germans got tough................................................. Tough? 1944? Not too many of the tough guys were around anymore. Those tough guys, or what was left of them, were mostly in the east or north western Europe where most of the bombers were coming from. As for fighter pilots in 44’ most of the Germans had fewer hours in training than the Americans. They weren’t sent up to engage in fighter combat, they were sent up to shoot down the bombers. That was their primary mission, the one they were trained for. Our losses in 42-43 made that obvious. Getting back to the Civil War Cushing is in the history books, he should have received the medal, he probably deserved it more than the Custers.
The family in WI drove the process. Did you read the story?
Sine I don’t live in Vermont, I cannot be specific about what the state did. I know that four direct relatives fought for the Union for three years in just about every engagement. A couple of them were wounded. So I guess they were “heroes.”
My point was that this man was awarded for action 151 years ago that was not documented beyond the fact he was there, in front of Pickets charge, and whatever stories the family handed down.
How much time and money did we spend on this?
As I stated in my original post, I am not diminishing his efforts or actions. But it just seems that we can spend our efforts on more recent events. No wrong was righted here. No offense was cured. This was pure politics.
And no, I don’t think the world revolves around us here on the east coast.
And, I appreciate the history lessons, but they are not necessary. And the heroism wasn’t the point. It was the way this was brought to the attention of Congress. It is the fact that during all wars there are acts of incredible bravery that go unrewarded.
It’s because of the courage of this young man and others like him on that day that we’re waving The Stars And Stripes and not The Stars And Bars’’.
Cushing is in the history books, he should have received the medal, he probably deserved it more than the Custers.
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Or Dougout Doug MacArthur..
I get your concern, but I can’t share it. Simply put, honoring him will cost little, should have happened, and it is a step in honoring all who give their lives for this nation. When most would have done the smart thing, get medical help, he kept fighting. We will never know how much that meant in the course of the battle, and ultimately the war.
Above all, we can’t forget what it means for someone to die fighting for this country. Every hope and dream he had was gone. And the last part of their life is usually in bad conditions, or hell on Earth.
Exactly...
O’bozo couldn’t get a tee time...
He doesn’t really give a Sh!t.
Obama has bestowed more MOH than any President ... Bubba Clinton being a close second. Both of these ‘rat low life types didn’t serve day one in the military. Clinton a draft dodger and Obama (whose draft status was obscure ... like most of his record) apparently have been told by their handlers that handing out these baubles (their viewpoint) to the military somehow establishes them as Commander-in-Chief. Going all the way back to the Civil War simply means they are getting short on recipients.
My god, triple canister at 10 feet?!
That says volumes about the intensity of the fighting that an officer would give an order to fire triple canister. I’m surprised that the discharge didn’t ruin the cannons or kill Union soldiers handling the guns.
Speaking of canister, the Union used it to great effect at Malvern Hill in 1862. By all accounts, the blasts of canister literally opened lanes as the Confederate infantry surged forward. Another spectator described the effect of canister hitting the Confederates as something to the effect that body parts and broken rifles were flying thru the air.
I’m certain I’d have barfed after witnessing something like that.
I have toured many of the battle sites in Virginia, Antietam in Maryland, and Gettysburg. Another cool place to visit is Cold Harbor, a few miles east of Richmond. The Reb commanders has the killing field perfectly gridded out. There was no escape for the charging Union troops. After losing several thousand troops in with three consecutive frontal assaults on artillery positions, Grant gave up. He called it murder, not war. I found my youngest son’s name on a monument for a Connecticut unit that saw its’ first action and got decimated. It was uncanny. KIA aged 18.
Don’t think this exempts his descendants from their reparations debt. Don’t think that for one second.
Don’t get me started on the Custers. George was a self-promoting braggart. Monroe Co., MI honors him,but he should have been disciplined posthumously.
Alonzo Cushing deserves the recognition no matter the year.
Now, how about MOH recognition for the Spanish American War actions of Lieutenant Newcomb and crew manning the HUDSON?
I’m well acquainted with the battle of Cold Harbor. Like Fredericksburg, it was a case of insane frontal assaults against entrenched defenders, as though simply throwing bodies at the enemy’s line would eventually overwhelm him.
Staggering in its brutality and the sheer waste of human life.
Yep. Exactly. One warm fuzzy in a field of cold pricklys.
George Armstrong Custer never received the Medal of Honor.
His brother Thomas, also killed at the Little Bighorn, did. But not for his actions there.
Pretty obvious he was looking for three hearts and out because the swifties had had their mission changed to brown water and had gone up river.
The Confederacy was fighting a war of secession, the Union was fighting the war of conquest. The union would have kept its flag.
An uninformed dare say stupid comment, then again look who it is from. Anyone who reads this with a shred of US historical knowledge realizes the South never intended to conquer any land North of the Mason - Dixon. That supposition is PREPOSTEROUS.
A lesson still unlearned by 1918...well after the advent of the machine gun.
Standing on Marye’s Heights where the cannons were, overlooking the sunken road, It is hard to imagine. I am in awe every time I visit there. I spent the last three months of my Army service at A.P Hill and got to know the area pretty well.
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