A great quote from Theodore Roosevelt. Among other things the former Police Commissioner of New York City.

Striker,
every military in the world including yours has those same characters.

Check out a few stories about your folks on June 6, 1944.  You'll find the same characters -only the names will be different. (eh !)

Many and probably most are thoroughly rotten peace time soldiers/sailors.  Non-conformists, discipline problems you name it and if they didn't do it, they simply didn't think of it.
But somehow-someway when the "buggle-for-battle" sounds these same folks are transformed.
Almost as if they've finally found there purpose for "being."

Maybe one of the better examples on the U.S. side was General George (Georgie) Patton.  It is best that Gen. Patton died shortly after WWII as the peace-time military, for which he was completely unsuited, would have surely killed him - slowly.

Gunny Hathcock is truly one of our American heros.

Anybody have a candidate from the Vietnam War and Korean War as "highest decorated". It seems odd that movies have been made about WWI's Sgt York, and WWII's Audey Murphy, but no similar movie covering Korea or VN. I've heard Hathcock was highly decorated, Hackworth was "most decorated" (no CMH), but have never seen the top dog mentioned, let alone having a movie made of his expoits. The Navy's candidate for VN would be Elliot Williams - but the Army and Marines may harbor the top guy. I don't have a clue regarding Korea, except that my high school PE teacher earned a Silver Star as one of the handful who survived PorkChop Hill!

Refresh my memory USNvet, was Elliot Williams the man who led three PBR's in between two battalions of NVA infantry?

Yes, that him, but there were only 2 PBR's involved. I once saw a Gamewarden's video with an intervue of Elliot. He had been approached to make a movie but turned it down because they didn't want to tell the story the way things happened. After reading about his exploits, I don't see why anything needed to be embelished. Here's a few sites about him. The last one does mention he was the most decorated (they probably meant highest decorated) but this site has a Navy bias so I wonder if it's true.
[url]http://boats.netfirms.com/riverboat_gambler.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.pbr-fva.org/mohnc/williams1.html[/url]
[url]http://www.pbr-fva.org/mohnc/williams.html[/url]
[url]http://www.eiis.net/cmart/boatsmemorial.html[/url]

True enough, especially for brass. In my oppinion Hackworth was a medal hunter; not that he didn't earn them. And I don't think Murphy was all that innocent either. I heard of one pilot in VN who decided he wanted a CIB, so he arranged to go out in the boonies with an infantry patrol. He got the action he was looking for, but learned it was all for nothing as he had to be attached to an infantry division to qualify.

as to most decorated from vietnam,i think col.robert howard(then sfc)5th special forces(abn)gets my vote.he was submitted for the Medal of Honor three times in 13 months.he was awarded the MOH,2DSC,6 purple hearts among other awards for valor.and served multople tours in MACVSOG.

My Vietnam hero is CM-2 Marvin Shields, the only Seabee to be awarded the CMH.  You could do a story on any CMH awardee (you don't "win" anything).  His gravesite is in Gardner, WA not far from Port Townsend and sits in the middle of one of the smallest, most unkempt cemetaries in the nation.  Several Seabees from NMCB-18 and the area go out the weekend before Memorial Day to clean up Marvin's site. We've gained great insight into the hero from what his Det OIC and daughter have said about him over the years.

My WW-II hero is CAPT Don Ross from Pearl Harbor fame on the USS Nevada.  He lived up here his last years and was frequently treated by my wife at our local hospital before his passing.

I guess my votes go to those I've either known or come to know from those who did.  In every case there was a quiet strength, a zest for life, and above all, a total committment to God, family, and country.

Warm regards....