BOISE, Idaho - David Bleak, a Korean War medic who received the Medal of Honor for rescuing a comrade amid hand-to-hand combat in 1952, has died. He was 74.
ADVERTISEMENT
Bleak died Thursday at Lost Rivers District Hospital in Arco of complications from emphysema, Parkinson's disease and diabetes, family members said.
Bleak was a 20-year-old sergeant in the medical company of the 223d Infantry Regiment, 40th Infantry Division, when he volunteered to go with a reconnaissance patrol, U.S. Army records say.
The Army's description of his actions on June 14, 1952, said Bleak killed two of the enemy with his bare hands and a third with his trench knife, and then shielded a comrade from the impact of a grenade that had fallen near the man's helmet.
Though he was wounded in the leg, Bleak began to carry the injured soldier, the medal citation said. Attacked by two enemy soldiers with bayonets, "he grabbed them and smacked their heads together, then carried his helpless comrade down the hill to safety."
Bleak returned to the U.S. soon after. In 1953, President Eisenhower awarded him the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor, at a White House ceremony.
Born in Idaho Falls in 1932, Bleak enlisted in the Army at age 18. He was singled out for medic training because he was tall and strong, said his son Bruce Bleak of Moore.
After his military service, Bleak worked as various jobs, including running a dairy farm and serving as a technician at the Idaho National Laboratory, a nuclear research compound, his son said.
He called his father a humble man who felt others had acted just as courageously but without recognition.
"He always said he carried the medal for them as well," the younger Bleak said.
Bleak is survived by his wife of 45 years, Lois; three sons; a daughter; two brothers; nine grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren, Bruce Bleak said.
According to the Web site http://www.medalofhonor.com, there are 125 living Medal of Honor recipients. In all, nearly 3,500 such medals have been awarded since the Civil War.
Full Version: R.i.p. To A True American Badass
That's inspiring but kinda saddening 
Just kidding I ain't no fucking emo
but it is inpsiring especially the whole
Just kidding I ain't no fucking emo
but it is inpsiring especially the whole | QUOTE |
| He called his father a humble man who felt others had acted just as courageously but without recognition. "He always said he carried the medal for them as well," the younger Bleak said.
VERY COOL....
we lost another one. RIP american badass.
Jose M. Lopez, 94, a retired Army master sergeant who received the Medal of Honor for engaging in a series of "seemingly suicidal missions" during the Battle of the Bulge, died May 16 at a daughter's home in San Antonio. He had cancer. Sgt. Lopez was born in Mexico, orphaned when he was 8 and worked in a series of subsistence jobs. A short but sinewy man, he boxed lightweight for many years in his youth. After a series of seafaring misadventures -- he once was stranded at sea for weeks on a cargo boat with nothing to eat but a cache of bananas -- he enlisted in the Army during World War II. He landed at Normandy a day after the June 6, 1944, invasion, and a bullet smacked into his ammunition belt, grazing his hip. "I was really very, very afraid,'' he told journalist Bill Moyers for a television special in 1990. "I wanted to cry, and we saw other people laying wounded and screaming and everything, and there's nothing you could do. We could see them groaning in the water, and we had to just keep walking.'' At dawn on Dec. 17, 1944, he and his men were outside Krinkelt, Belgium, shortly after the start of the German offensive through the Ardennes known as the Battle of the Bulge. Lugging a heavy machine gun, Sgt. Lopez climbed into a shallow, snow-covered hole that left everything above his waist exposed. He heard the rumbling of a tank, which he figured was American; an Allied soldier a few hundreds yards away had failed to signal him of approaching danger. When he saw the German Tiger tank come into sight and the horde of German foot soldiers around it, he thought of dozens of his men just a few hundred yards away. Aiming at the soldiers around the tank, he killed 10 of them. That prompted the Tiger tank to fire rather recklessly in his direction. It took three shell blasts to knock Sgt. Lopez over, and he suffered a concussion. He nevertheless repositioned himself to prevent enemy soldiers from outflanking him, resetting his gun and killing 25 more Germans. Allowing time for his comrades to retreat to a safer position, he then dashed through the dense and protective forest and avoided contact with a cascade of enemy small-arms fire. Eventually, the Americans fell back to Krinkelt and held out through the night. The Germans bypassed the town. A few months later, Gen. James A. Van Fleet presented Sgt. Lopez with the Medal of Honor. The citation recognized the "seemingly suicidal missions in which he killed at least 100 of the enemy . . . [and which] were almost solely responsible for allowing Company K to avoid being enveloped, to withdraw successfully and to give other forces coming up in support time to build a line which repelled the enemy drive." Jose Mendoza Lopez was born July 10, 1910. He never knew his exact birth town but was raised in Veracruz. His father was gone; his mother said he had drowned. She died of tuberculosis. With other relatives dead or unable to support him, he made his way to Texas and settled in the Rio Grande Valley town of Mission. There, a family let him sleep in their shed and fed him. His Medal of Honor citation lists Mission as his birthplace. He spent time hooking rides on freight trains, and at 17 found himself in Atlanta. Standing 5 feet 5 inches and weighing 130 pounds, he nevertheless fought and pummeled a much bigger man. A boxing manager who witnessed the beating trained the newly named "Kid Mendoza" and saw him through 52 victories and three losses. Sgt. Lopez once said the greatest moment of his boxing career was meeting Babe Ruth, who attended one bout in Atlanta and shook hands with the contenders before the first bell. In 1936, he joined the U.S. Merchant Marine and held other maritime jobs. After his World War II service, he fought in Korea until a ranking officer heard that a Medal of Honor recipient was in battle. He was ordered to the rear and spent months picking up bodies and registering them for burial. He later was a recruiter, mowed lawns and plowed snow. He was placed in charge of a motor pool and oversaw large crews of maintenance personnel. He retired in 1973. To maintain his physique, Sgt. Lopez jogged until age 88. He also saw a trainer three times a week, a regimen that ended three month ago as his illness worsened. His wife of 62 years, Emilia Herrera Lopez, died in February 2004. Survivors include five children, Candida "Marie" Pieratti of Mahopac, N.Y., Virginia Rogers of Ogden, Utah, Beatrice Pedraza of Lima, Peru, and John Lopez and Maggie Wickwire, both of San Antonio; 19 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
WE HAVE A LOT OF RETIRED MILITARY PEOPLE THAT LIVE OUT THEIR LIVES HERE, IT'S A VERY MILITARY ORIENTED CITY.
AT LEAST MR. LOPEZ IS WITH HIS WIFE NOW. THAT'S SAD.....I DON'T WANT TO DIE BEFORE MY WIFE BECAUSE I WOULDN'T WANT HER TO GO THROUGH THE LONELINESS.......ON THE OTHER HAND, I WOULDN'T WANT TO GO THROUGH IT EITHER.
""I was really very, very afraid,'' he told journalist Bill Moyers for a television special in 1990. "I wanted to cry, and we saw other people laying wounded and screaming and everything, and there's nothing you could do. We could see them groaning in the water, and we had to just keep walking.''
At dawn on Dec. 17, 1944, he and his men were outside Krinkelt, Belgium, shortly after the start of the German offensive through the Ardennes known as the Battle of the Bulge. Lugging a heavy machine gun, Sgt. Lopez climbed into a shallow, snow-covered hole that left everything above his waist exposed. He heard the rumbling of a tank, which he figured was American; an Allied soldier a few hundreds yards away had failed to signal him of approaching danger. When he saw the German Tiger tank come into sight and the horde of German foot soldiers around it, he thought of dozens of his men just a few hundred yards away. Aiming at the soldiers around the tank, he killed 10 of them. That prompted the Tiger tank to fire rather recklessly in his direction. It took three shell blasts to knock Sgt. Lopez over, and he suffered a concussion. He nevertheless repositioned himself to prevent enemy soldiers from outflanking him, resetting his gun and killing 25 more Germans." THAT'S A HUGE PAIR OF NUTS, IF YOU ASK ME.
amen SUAD... thats why i wanted to honor these people somehow... so i thought that i would show my respect at the tomb.
GOOD IDEA MAN, I'M DOWN WITH IT. KEEP IT UP, I LIKE THE STORIES, BRO.
To quit out of "lo-fi" mode and return to the regular forums, please click here.
|