By Laura Jowdy, Director of Archives, Collections & Museum, CMOHS
The Medal of Honor has been awarded numerous times to those who dared to rescue a comrade stuck in the field of fire. The actions of these men epitomize the mantra of “leave no man behind” and demonstrate the camaraderie of U.S. forces at their best.
Some of these men you may have heard of, like Desmond Doss of WWII; Ronald Shurer II of the War on Terrorism; Thomas Hudner, Jr., of the Korean War; and William Shemin of WWI.
Here are a few others whose stories you might not know:
Sweatt refused to leave his wounded comrades when his company was ordered to retreat, instead rushing back to the front to rescue them. He was overpowered and spent time in the notorious Libby Prisoner of War Camp.
After the war, Sweatt worked for the Navy and started his own brass foundry. When he died at age 70, he left a widow and five children.
A sergeant of Company E of the 10th Cavalry was shot from his horse and fell at the base of a rock. The rest of the company had to fall back, leaving the injured sergeant behind on the field. Walley, the company cook, ran out between the lines to carry the injured man back to the safety of his regiment.
Walley survived that enlistment and went on to serve over 30 years in the U.S. Army. After his retirement, he returned to his hometown of Baltimore, MD, and died there at the age of 82.
After five men were buried by an explosion of enemy artillery, Gonzales crawled through 15 yards of devastating enemy fire to dig them out. As the enemy continued firing at him, he stood up and dug with his hands and an entrenching tool and managed to free three of the entombed men before being killed himself.
Gonzales left behind a young son.
Okubo was assigned as a medic to the famed 442d Regimental Combat Team. Over the course of three days in heavy combat, he repeatedly crawled or ran through heavy enemy fire to pull back the wounded from the battlefield. In one case, he ran through fire for 75 yards (or about 2/3rd the length of a soccer field) to pull a wounded soldier out of a burning tank.
Okubo went on to get his degrees in dentistry from the University of Detroit and went into practice in Michigan. He also continued to teach at the University, enriching the lives of numerous dental students.
As a corpsman assigned to a Marine unit, DeWert’s job was to triage and treat the wounded. He went above and beyond that. When a fire team was pinned down under intense enemy fire, he dared to face that intense fire head-on to pull the wounded back to friendly lines. He was seriously wounded many times, but kept heading back out, refusing medical aid for himself. He was killed while providing aid to yet another Marine.
He was the namesake for the USS DeWert (FFG-45), which was decommissioned in 2014. Today two medical clinics and a scholarship at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, CA, continue his legacy.
Baker’s unit was en route to assist another unit when they came under enemy attack. Baker remained in the forefront of the fight, taking out four enemy bunkers, numerous snipers, and evacuating six wounded soldiers from between the lines, all while dodging gunfire and explosives.
After the war, he worked numerous jobs, including a stint at the Veterans Administration, helping other veterans qualify for benefits.
Jackson was the pilot of a C-123, a larger transport aircraft, primarily used to transport supplies and the wounded. He volunteered to attempt the rescue of three Special Forces men at a camp overrun by enemy forces. The camp’s airfield was littered with debris, disabled aircraft, and explosions. In addition, the runway was blocked with one of the disabled aircraft, making it shorter than typically needed to land and take off in a C-123. Nonetheless, Jackson successfully maneuvered his plane, landing amid intense enemy fire and artillery. The trapped men ran from the jungle along the airstrip and launched themselves into the plane as Jackson turned the plane around and took off again.
Jackson was a veteran of WWII and the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force in 1973 and is remembered as the developer of several techniques still used by pilots.
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