The Korean War, Love and Valor Mike O "Brien fell in love with Patricia Ludlum at their high school Memorial Day assembly. The young sweethearts married in New York City in 1949. Life was wonderful; they felt they had the perfect family when Reggie was born. Little did they know that their life was about to be torn apart. This is a story of their love, the Korean war, heroism and new love found. The Korean War, 1950 to 1953, the Forgotten War, 33,665 U.S. Armed Forces members were KIA, 92,134 were wounded and 8,176 are still MIA. One million seven hundred and eighty nine thousand Americans served in the Korean War. We must not forget their sacrifice. Mike O "Brien a young New York City man served his country. His young wife received his Medal of Honor posthumously. SGreater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. (John 15:13) No one had done more to win victory, than Mike O "Brien had. Those whose lives he saved will never forget his self-sacrificing heroic actions. Mike told his wife, if anything ever happened to him, she must get on with her life. Little did she know one of the men, saved by Mike, would be the man, she would eventually marry?Please read some of the random sample paragraphs:Early one morning her worse fears materialized when she received that dreaded telegram from the War Department. The Commanding Officer of Pine Camp and the pastor delivered it. It stated, Corporal Mike O "Brien had been KIA, killed in action in Korea. He had died in the Battle of Bloody Ridge. For valor above and beyond the call of duty; he had received the recommendation for the Medal of Honor. "Corporal O "Brien refused to leave his wounded comrades, including the commanding officer Captain Jake Smith, during the Battle of Bloody Ridge on September 5, 1951. When darkness set in the survivors attempted to withdraw to US lines. Corporal O "Brien carried the wounded Captain to safety. He then made a second trip beyond the safety of US lines to rescue Corporal Dempsey the second wounded man stranded in no mans land.Upon getting to the safety of American lines, additional enemy troops attacked. Corporal Mike O "Brien sacrificed his life by using his own body to shield the three wounded men lying in the fox hole by throwing himself on a live enemy hand grenade, that had been thrown into the fox hole by enemy soldiers. "They went back into the room. Jake said to his parents, SPatricia and I have something to tell you. , and then they told his parents how they felt. Jake then said, SPatricia has agreed to marry me as soon as I "m on my feet. Both of his parents, overwhelmed with emotion, expressed happiness to have Jake on the mend, a new daughter, and a grandson. Mrs. Smith said, SThis is the best Christmas of my life! Reggie left his fire truck, went to his mom; at the same time, he stared excitedly at Jake asking, SWill Jake be my Daddy? His mother told him yes. He clapped his hands, hugged his mom, while she took him over to Jake for a hug. When Patricia set him down on the floor, he looked up at Mrs. Smith with a big smile and said, SMy Christmas is even better than yours. Last night before you put me to bed I prayed for a Daddy! Her instrument ratings allowed her to fly at night. She often spoke about the first time that she took Reg flying at night. SWe left the airport just after sunset and had light cloud cover at 3,000 feet to a height of 5,000 feet. Once we entered the clouds, it was difficult for Reg to orient himself, because he had lost sight of the ground lights. I told Reg that this time we would climb higher and higher until we found the stars hiding above the clouds. SMom, Mom it "s so beautiful, we are almost at heavens gates. I held his hand and told him that he was absolutely right. It was our moment, one that neither of us would ever forget.

Uncommon Valor from Dwight Jon Zimmerman and John D. Gresham presents a fascinating look at six of our bravest soldiers and the highest military decoration awarded in this country. Since the Vietnam War ended in 1973, the Medal of Honor, our nation's highest award for valor, has been presented to only eight men for their actions "above and beyond the call of duty." Six of the eight were young men who had fought in the current war in Iraq, Afghanistan, or both. All of these medals were awarded posthumously, as all had made the choice to give their lives so that their comrades might live. Uncommon Valor answers the searing question of who these six young soldiers were, and dramatically details how they found themselves in life-or-death situations, and why they responded as they did. For the first time, this book also provides a comprehensive history of the Medal of Honor itself—one marred by controversies, scandals, and theft. Using an extraordinary range of sources, including interviews with family members and friends, teammates and superiors in the military, personal letters, blogs posted within hours of events, personal and official videos and newly declassified documents, Uncommon Valor is a compelling and important work that recounts incredible acts of heroism and lays bare the ultimate sacrifice of our bravest soldiers.

Edited by Richard P. Hallion. Silver Wings, Golden Valor contains proceedings from a symposium on the Korean War held at the U.S. Congress on June 7, 2000. This symposium attempted to explain that Korea eas an "absolutely vital victory" in the 40-year-long history of the Cold War. The contributors discuss lessons learned from the Korean conflict and how to learn from the past and make appropriate changes in today's practices.

Wendell Fertig is a true WW2 American hero who deserved the Medal of Honor. Please look him up on Wikipedia. The Pacific, World War Two novel is historical fiction, losely based upon American guerillas who refused to surrender, when the Phillipines fell in 1942. Pearl Harbor, December Seventh 1941. The American Pacific Fleet is in ruins. U.S. troops surrender in late spring of 1942. American POW "S are beaten like animals by Japs on the infamous Battan Death March. Thousands are murdered with hands tied behind their backs. Some refused to surrender and they fought a successful jungle guerilla war for the next three years. This is their story. They retreated into the jungle gathering Fillipno men and woman to form a Guerilla Army. As a group, they made lightening attacks on the Japanese Imperial Army. By V.J day 1945 they had killed over 6,600 Jap troops wounding thousands more. They fought their own style of warfare, without remorse, but those who surivied came out mentally or physically scarred for life. The powerful impact of the horrors of war are described as though you were fighting along side these heros. They experience ultimate victory, yet death, horrific injuries and torture awaited some of them. Their youth was lost as they did things beyond their wildest nightmares to fight an unrelenting, sadistic Japanese enemy. This novel shows American patriots, whose love of country galvanized them to do remarkable deeds; it is a tribute, well deserved.Sample paragraphs from The Pacific, World War 2.Maxwell was a very angry man, so obsessed with hatred, he could snarl at himself. He needed to release it, so he volunteered for every patrol. On each patrol, he would share the names of five men butchered during the sinking of the Hell Ship. He still had his files; he had taken from the Hell Ship.After an attack, he would go around to the wounded Japs saying; SThis is for Sergeant Charlie Frank from California, you helped murder on the Sinyo Maru . Then he would cut out one of the Jap "s eyes. After, he would go to the next Jap and say the name of the next man on his list. The Japs would scream in terror for mothers, many of them pissed themselves as he slowly moved the bloodied knife from one Jap "s eyeball to the next Jap "s eyeball. He left them one good eye so they could share each comrade "s pain while drowning in agony of torment and suffering. Then he would go around the circle once again to each one and slit their throats. SThe Japanese Army conquered parts of China in the 1930 "s. They took the capital city of Nanking in 1937, murdering over 500,000 Chinese POW and non-combatants in the worst atrocity of the Pacific War. They took the POW, tied them to poles, and used them for bayonet practice. The idea was to give the greenhorn Jap soldiers the first taste for blood. Then, they would decapitate them and display the heads on bayonets as though they had a trophy. Sometimes they got jollies by tying the soldiers up, pouring gasoline on them and setting them on fire. Next, they went after the women and little girls, gang raped over 50,000, killing most of them. Some of the girls, under the age of ten, so badly damaged by continuous rape, had hips dislocated, so they could not walk.The remaining guards herded one-hundred and fifty Army and Marine POW into a tunneled air raid shelter; they poured gasoline from several 45-gallon cans into the shelter, and then set the shelter on fire. The men in the front became screaming human torches, forcing those of us at the back to the end of the shelter. We could not breathe. Some tried to escape out the front entrance. Only to be machined gunned by Jap guards.

A Vietnam War battalion commander with the 199th LIB recounts the intense combat he saw during the Tet Offensive and NVA attacks in this candid memoir. This visceral combat memoir chronicles the height of the Vietnam War from the nervous period just before the Tet Offensive through the defeat of that campaign and into the lesser-known yet equally bloody NVA offensive of May 1968. On January 30, 1968, Saigon and nearly every provincial capital in South Vietnam came under assault by the Viet Cong. Author Robert L. Tonsetic writes not only from his personal experience as a company commander, but also from extensive research, including countless interviews with other soldiers of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. The book ends with a brief note about the 199th LIB being deactivated in Spring 1970, furling its colors after suffering 753 dead and some 5,000 wounded. This fascinating book will help to remind us of the sacrifices made by all Vietnam veterans.

Valor is the magnificent story of a genuine American hero who survived the fall of the Philippines and brutal captivity under the Japanese, from New York Times bestselling author Dan Hampton. Lieutenant William Frederick “Bill” Harris was 25 years old when captured by Japanese forces during the Battle of Corregidor in May 1942. This son of a decorated Marine general escaped from hell on earth by swimming eight hours through a shark-infested bay; but his harrowing ordeal had just begun. Shipwrecked on the southern coast of the Philippines, he was sheltered by a Filipino aristocrat, engaged in guerilla fighting, and eventually set off through hostile waters to China. After 29 days of misadventures and violent storms, Harris and his crew limped into a friendly fishing village in the southern Philippines. Evading and fighting for months, he embarked on another agonizing voyage to Australia, but was betrayed by treacherous islanders and handed over to the Japanese. Held for two years in the notorious Ofuna prisoner-of-war camp outside Yokohama, Harris was continuously starved, tortured, and beaten, but he never surrendered. Teaching himself Japanese, he eavesdropped on the guards and created secret codes to communicate with fellow prisoners. After liberation on August 30, 1945, Bill represented American Marine POWs during the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay before joining his father and flying to a home he had not seen in four years. Valor is a riveting new look at the Pacific War. Through military documents, personal photos, and an unpublished memoir provided by his daughter, Harris’ experiences are dramatically revealed through his own words in the expert hands of bestselling author and retired fighter pilot Dan Hampton. This is the stunning and captivating true story of an American hero.

Medal of Honor Reg O "Brien dreamed of being a Navy Pilot. He achieved his dream and flew directly into the Vietnam War, in his Phantom F-4B fighter. Shot down over North Vietnam by a Surface to Air Missile S.A.M., he fights for survival in the jungle while aiding his wounded Radar Intercept Officer. Will they survive or die in a fight to the death? In the Vietnam War, young men went to the other side of the world to fight in a small county most Americans had never heard of before the daily news started to report American soldiers killed in battle. Those that survived came back either physically or mentally scarred for life. The Medal of Honor is a portrayal of ordinary Americans, doing their duty, under extraordinary circumstances; some survive. The description of the intense horror of their experiences and unflinching courage to duty, for both their country and their fellow man is outstanding.Sample random paragraphs follow: SMAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY! Saber Tooth hit! Right wing damaged! Fire indicator is on! Feet wet in Halong Bay, ETA twelve minutes!" Chuck transmitted continuously in a clear calm voice that did not exemplify his true inner turmoil. SEJECT, EJECT! shouted Reg. He waited for Chuck to clear the plane. He gripped his ejection seat handle and pulled. Everything happened in a flash as the canopy flew off. The seat shot up the rail. At that speed, the force threw his body back into the seat. The screaming air blocked out all other sounds. His eyes bulged! His vision blurred as he tried hard to focus. Dizzy, from a momentary blackout, he had trouble isolating a focal point.Reg climbed the tree, secured Chuck "s chute with his own harness; he then cut Chuck "s parachute cords with his survival knife. The combined chute harnesses allowed him to lower the semiconscious Chuck from the tree. Chuck had a slash across his cheek through the eye area into the scalp. Flies gathered around the wound area; seeing that made Reg nauseous. Blood from the face injuries had solidified into a scab, which would help protect the wound. Reg "s main concern was Chuck "s eye. He applied first aid bandages from his first aid kit.The Indianapolis "s mission was secret; therefore, no one knew that she had gone down. Nine hundred men went into the water, most of them with only life jackets; many were nude not having time to put on their clothing. They floated for five days locking arms together in a square. Every few hours each man had to work his way to the outer edge of the square to act as shark bait.The Tiger sharks had a weeklong feast. One hundred and eighty men survived but none of them would ever forget the horrors they went through. Every sailor gets the chills when you mention the sinking of USS Indianapolis in 1945, and how the sharks disseminated the crew piece by piece. Reg felt he was going to die as he looked into the barrel of the rifle, seeing the abyss of death, just as a blurred image caught his peripheral vision, hitting the soldier from behind, knocking him off balance, as his finger pulled the trigger. The bullet creased Reg "s forehead, causing him to drop his weapon and fall backward onto the deck. Reg then saw a young, black pajama clad adolescent, who was on all fours beside him. He heard the soldier cursing the kid. It had been the youngster who had rushed the soldier a moment before.The soldier turned his gun toward Reg, just as Chuck screamed from between the two boats. The VC soldier looked down for a split second, giving Reg the opportunity to reach for his Colt. The soldier saw Reg move and pointed the rifle at him. Reg "s reaction was a split second faster as he shot the Vietcong soldier pointblank in the face. Part of the face disappeared in a gruesome spray of bloody grey matter that flew from the top of the soldier "s head.

Written by a knowledgeable film critic and Korean War scholar, this is the only guide exclusively devoted to the study of Hollywood and television films based on the Korean War, 1950-1953. It opens with eight short essays, discussing the appeal of the war film genre, government and filmmaker cooperation, the isolation of Korean War films from other war films, why John Wayne didn't make a Korean War film, the other actors who did, the plots of Korean War films, television and Korean War films, and the myths resulting from films. Eighty-four films are then discussed in alphabetically arranged entries. The entries include production unit, color status, producer, director, screenwriter, actors and actresses, movie length, and the author's numerical rating of the film. The commentary places each film within the context of other war films, the Korean War, trends in Hollywood, and the social and political realities of the United States. The films also are listed chronologically. Producers, directors, screenwriters, actors, and actresses are indexed by responsibility and are included in the general index. The book also provides a list of 109 documentary films available for public viewing.

The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress. It is published daily when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record began publication in 1873. Debates for sessions prior to 1873 are recorded in The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States (1789-1824), the Register of Debates in Congress (1824-1837), and the Congressional Globe (1833-1873)

Somewhere on the periphery of Seoul, between the modern metropolis and the traditional farming communities, lies a "distant and beautiful place," the neighborhood of Wonmi-dong. Here, a young couple from the city struggles to make a home for themselves; a hapless "salary man" is forced into door-to-door sales after losing his job; a precocious seven-year-old questions the meaning of friendship and community. Everyone seems to be chasing the intangible dream of a better life. Set against the backdrop of South Korea's breakneck drive for industrialization and economic development in the 1980s, these compassionate and often humorous stories capture the essence of modern South Korean life-including the ubiquitous atmosphere of violence and fear that clouded the country prior to democratization in 1987. They also depict the Korean people's unfailing optimism and love of life. A Distant and Beautiful Place first appeared as a series of linked stories in literary journals between 1985 and 1987. It was published as the collection Wonmi-dong saramdul in 1987 and quickly became a best seller. Yang Kwija, one of South Korea's most respected and popular authors, has since published dozens of novels and shorter pieces.