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Posted By: warshawlaw

Barney Ross won a Silver Star in the Pacific for defending his platoon of wounded soldiers singlehandedly against a Japanese onslaught. He was in his late 30's and at the end of his career when he volunteered for the Marines after Pearl Harbor. His platoon was all but wiped out, leaving him to fight off the assault by himself, which he did while praying in Yiddish the whole time. When relief arrived they found a wounded Ross and 20+ dead or wounded Japanese soldiers surrounding the position. As a result of his wounds, he was treated with morphine to which he became addicted, forcing him to later go cold turkey in rehab. His hair also turned gray from the trauma. A book and movie were made of his life.


Of course, my favorite war heroes were my uncles, Seymour, David and Harold. Seymour was a genuine spook in WWII Europe (Army Intel--very secret as to what he did; we have no idea, but we know he had an army-issued 8 mm movie camera because he brought home footage of the liberation of Belgium); David was a captain in the US Army and part of the force involved in the liberation of France. Harold ran off at 17 to join the Coast Guard and served on the Atlantic coast.

Then there is my Dad, who was drafted during Korea at 22 despite flat feet, deafness in one ear, a steel plate in his wrist (basketball injuries) and no cartilage in one knee (ditto). He was from a small town in NY, and the MD who approved him said to him: "Son, you're the bottom of the barrel, but we need bodies." He was not approved to serve overseas so he spent his tour at Walter Reed Army Hospital in DC as a librarian. Ironically, while there he contracted a rare throat disease and lost the use of one vocal cord, which killed his career as a radio newsman and led him to a partial disability status.