Another day of American heroes (AND THEY ALL LIVE!!!!!!!):
1/31/1943 - Two days after being forced to ditch his F4F Grumman Wildcat fighter in Iron Bottom Sound off the Solomon Islands, 21-year-old Marine Corps First Lieutenant Jefferson J. DeBlanc is back behind the stick of another Wildcat, flying an escort mission for 12 Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers sent to attack shipping off the Japanese-held island of Kolobangara ... and again he has problems with his plane, discovering a serious fuel leak en route to the target area and radioing home to have rescue forces alerted. Despite his fuel issue, he continues on with the mission, and arriving over Kolobangara, dives on a Mitsubishi F1M "Pete" float plane attacking the American dive bombers. Dancing about the sky, DeBlanc avoids the fire from the Japanese plane's rear gunner and explodes his first victim of the day ... but not the last. Spotting another "Pete," the lieutenant maneuvers behind his new opponent, fires into the plane's fuel tanks, and has a second victory. Night coming on, though low on fuel, DeBlanc then climbs, and looks for more targets ... finding them in a formation of Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar" fighters approaching the dive bombers. Diving in, DeBlanc has a third victory, and damages a fourth Japanese fighter. Not pleased, the Japanese fighters turn away from the bombers and attack DeBlanc and his wingman. Outnumbered, DeBlanc and his wingman immediately go into a "Thatch Weave" in which two weaving aircraft cover the tails of each other. A tactic that has saved many American lives in the Pacific War already, this time the maneuver fails when the wingman swings too wide and is shot down. DeBlanc's turn, an "Oscar" gets on the pilot's tail and is about to open fire, when he is chased off by a frontal attack compliments of another Wildcat on the mission belonging to Lt. James L. Secrest. Attempting to disengage from the fight, DeBlanc is instead confronted by two more Japanese fighters ... turning towards his opponents in a climbing attack, the naval aviator explodes the first plane, but the other gains DeBlanc's rear ... in trouble again, DeBlanc forces his fighter to abruptly slow, and as the Japanese pilot flies by, he downs his fifth enemy plane of the day. In taking his opponent out however, he has left himself vulnerable to yet another "Oscar" ... almost fatally so. Japanese bullets rip into DeBlanc's fighter, knock his wrist watch off his arm, smash the instrument panel, and set the Wildcat's engine on fire. Time to leave, the lieutenant bails out at low altitude off Kolombangara, and once in the water, discovers he has been badly wounded in the back, arms, and legs. His encounter with the Japanese has lasted roughly five minutes. Adventure not yet over, DeBlanc, supported only by his life preserver, makes a six-hour swim to shore. Wounds untended, for three days he hides from the Japanese, subsisting on coconuts he finds in an abandoned hut, until local natives find him. Instead of turning the downed aviator into the Japanese though, DeBlanc is traded to another tribe for a sack of rice ... a tribe friendly to the Allied cause which treats his wounds, feeds him, and carries him by outrigger canoe to the home of a nearby Anglican missionary, who in turn, forwards him to two Coastwatchers. Authorities notified by radio, on February 12, three days before his 22nd birthday, DeBlanc is paddled out to sea and picked up by Navy PBY Catalina patrol plane that finally returns him to base (and then a hospital stay). Safe with the war over (he will end WWII with nine aerial victories and retires from the Corps Reserve in 1972 as a colonel), for his actions on 1/31/1943, DeBlanc is given the Congressional Medal of Honor at the White House by President Harry S. Truman on December 6, 1946.
DeBlanc
Wildcats
1/31/1951 - In Korea (near the town of Subuk), tasked with taking an important terrain feature called Hill 256 as part of Operation Thunderbolt, 25-year-old United States Army 1st Lieutenant Carl H. Dodd of Harlan County, Kentucky completes two days of combat that have him exposing himself to enemy fire as he leads his platoon repeatedly in attacks against Communist defensive positions ... destroying them one by one with accurate fire from his rifle and the grenades he tosses (by himself he takes out a machine gun nest and a mortar position), plus at the front of a bayonet charge made by his men. Hill taken and held (previous to Dodd and his men, it has withstood numerous attacks), for his valorous actions, on June 4, 1951, Dodd is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman.
Dodd
1/31/1968 - 28-year-old United States Army Chief Warrant Officer 3, Frederick E. Ferguson, a member of Company C of the 227th Aviation Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) has a dangerous day, in and above the enemy-controlled Vietnam city of Hue. Monitoring an emergency call from a downed American helicopter, Ferguson volunteers to take his Bell UH-1 Huey (its official name is the Iroquois) supply helicopter into the city on a rescue mission. Revved up to the max, the pilot takes his Huey on a low-level, maximum speed flight over the Perfume River, through intense enemy fire from boats and buildings, to a tiny South Vietnamese Army compound in the city where the downed aviators have taken refuge. There, Ferguson lands in an extremely confined area in a blinding dust storm while under heavy mortar and small-arms fire. Disregarding the heavy damage his Huey has taken, once the five wounded soldiers are aboard, he lifts off, and flies his crippled helicopter back to base through the same gauntlet of galling fire. For his actions, Ferguson is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor ... the first U.S. aviator to win the award during the Vietnam War.
Ferguson
Hueys
1/31/1970 - Serving a second tour of duty in Vietnam (the first is as a jet helicopter mechanic), 22-year-old U.S. Marine Corps Private Raymond M. Clausen, Jr. of New Orleans, Louisiana is part of a helicopter mission by HMM-263 to rescue an American squad trapped in a minefield, and under fire. Guiding the helicopter pilot (their ride is a Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight) to a spot cleared by several mine explosions, Clausen leaves the helicopter six times (during one trip, while carrying a wounded soldier, a mine goes off killing a nearby corpsman and injuring three others) and makes his way through the minefield and enemy fire to help treat and move eleven wounded Americans and one dead soldier ... only when everyone is out of the minefield does Clausen signal to the helicopter pilot that is okay to liftoff. In a White House ceremony that takes place on June 15, 1971, Clausen is presented the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Richard M. Nixon.
Clausen
Sea Knight
1/31/1970 - As a member of Company C, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 199th Infantry Brigade, 22-year-old Sergeant Richard A. Penry of Petaluma, California is helping set up a night ambush position in the Binh Tuy Province of Vietnam, when his unit is itself ambushed, hit with mortar, rocket, and automatic weapons fire that leaves many in the company wounded, and results in a scattering of the men into small, isolated groups. Leadership in action, Penry makes his way through enemy fire to the company command post, where he treats the wounded company commander and others, and begins organizing a defense. A crucial element of that defense will be radio communications back to base, and discovering the radio at the post has been destroyed, he runs outside the defensive perimeter to recover another ... and survives the shots sent his way only to discover it also does not function ... so he goes out again and comes back with two more radios! Next, he crawls back to the perimeter and recovers weapons and ammo which he distributes around the defensive perimeter he has created. Ready, when an assault on the company is made by 30 hostiles, Penry takes the most vulnerable forward position and beats back the attack by himself, using accurate pistol and rifle fire, and standing to shuck grenades at the enemy. Then he learns that none of the radios are working again, so once more he leaves his lines and finds a fourth radio ... which he uses to contact headquarters and call for rescue. While waiting for American helicopters to arrive, he continues to help with the wounded, readjusts his lines, and braves sniper fire to go out and lead five wounded soldiers back to the perimeter. But he isn't there long ... when the rescue helicopters approach, Penry leaves the perimeter again to set up a guide beacon for the coming landings, sets priorities for the evacuation, and then successively carries 18 wounded soldiers to the extraction site. More than enough for most, but not Penry, once all the wounded personnel have been evacuated, he then joins another platoon to go in pursuit of the enemy. Incredible stuff, for his actions saving his company, Penry is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Penry
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