MICHAEL WALSH: A Soldier Fights so That Others Might Live.
This was war at its most elemental. The Japanese, with no hope of help and nowhere to run, hid in caves by day and attacked by night. The Army and Marines fought the most brutal war imaginable, with flamethrowers and bayonets and bare hands, in addition to rifles, sidearms, and machine guns. The Japanese would attack in waves, kamikazes of the infantry, attempting to overrun the American positions as the GIs pressed forward.
Salomon’s mobile hospital was set up near the front lines in the early dawn of July 7, just meters between the forward foxholes and the sea. The Japanese burst out of their concealed positions and sent the Americans reeling back. The hospital was soon filled with the wounded as the fighting raged all around it.
Salomon realized his position was untenable and ordered the wounded evacuated while he stayed behind to cover them. It was at this point that his ability with guns and weaponry came into play.
“Everybody’s dead out there,” he was reported to have said. “I can do these guys more good out there than I can in here. I’ll hold them off until you get them to safety. See you later.”
When they found his body, it was riddled with bullet and bayonet wounds, many of them apparently inflicted after death by the enraged enemy. Where Saito had demanded that each of his men kill ten Americans, one dauntless American had killed more than 100 Japanese.
Salomon’s Medal of Honor was delayed by bureaucratic misinterpretation of the Geneva convention, which outlaws identified medical personnel from taking up arms; Salomon was wearing a Red Cross armband when he died. But in fact doctors are allowed to fight in defense of their wounded and so on May 1, 2002—nearly 58 years after his heroic actions—president George W. Bush officially awarded the Medal posthumously to Captain Benjamin Lewis Salomon.
The citation concludes: “Captain Salomon’s extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.” And, it must be added, upon all Americans who put their country before themselves.
Do we still have such men today?
Read the whole thing.
Related: This headline helps to answer Michael’s query. Yes, but…: Crime-Loving Liberals Keep Chasing Patriots Out of Military and Law Enforcement.