Was hoping I wouldn't have to make this warning, but jesus christ you guys just can't help yourselves, can you?!? I'm disappointed, but not surprised.
Anyways...
This thread is about this particular act/individual, and doesn't need to turn into a flame fest about the merits of the war, wars in general, or to bash nations.
On September 19 2011 10:37 JiYan wrote: its strange to me because you always hear about people getting punished for subordination. i mean even though what he did was admirable without a doubt, he still disobeyed orders.
On September 19 2011 10:19 Krehlmar wrote: Against the wars, against idealizing people who go to war, don't enjoy it and I think it's sad that people need medals for doing what should be right from the very start.
Fact of the matter is that people don't do what's right, the vast majority of the time in fact. Most of the time it's all about self preservation instead of selfless acts of heroism or kindness. And you know that. In fact, and I'm rather ashamed to say this, but if I was in his position and the result looked grim I wouldn't have done what he did and I doubt that the majority of people would either.
And you should idealize some people that go to war. Do you look down on a WWII veteran from Britain, the US, Canada, Russia, and so on, someone that stopped a madman from committing further audacious acts of genocide and conquering Europe? Exactly.
I'm replying to this but please anyone who is only here to give honors to a person they think did the right thing, ignore it. Don't want to start drama here just want to give my reply. + Show Spoiler +
So? My grandfathers brothers hjumpt into the tracks of german tanks when France was invaded. Not because of nationalism, they were forced to fight with WW1 rifles because they were from Tunisia (of which they were force-conscripted). Out of a 1000 batallion my grandfather was the only survivor because he didn't charge when asked. His friends who managed to stop some tanks with their own godamn bodies, didn't get medals. Because the tunisians, togheter with all the other force-conscripts, had no rights.
In my opinion World War 2 was a great thing for the entire world other than Europa since it taught the french and english that being the bitch in a conflict isn't fun. Without it we'd probably still have colonialism, no voting for blacks in the US and the standard of thinking in the world would still be Social Darwinism of which enabled the French, German, Italien, Belgium, Spanish, Netherlands etc. to commit thousands upon thousands of atrocities across the entire globe. (Newflash; Just about everyone was a racist back then.)
Colonialism killed more innocent lives than Hitler did. So did I think it was great that Hitler invaded Russia and thus killed his own expansion? Yes. Am I thankful for the French, English or Americans? No. The world isn't black and white, people who go to war never do it for the right reasons.
I find it interesting that the people who are all bad mouthing America war and so on are on a website that is based on a war strategy game just saying.
God this guy is a total boss, don't know what else to say. I hope this inspires other people to act upon what they believe is right, instead of what is spoon fed to them.
On September 19 2011 10:37 JiYan wrote: its strange to me because you always hear about people getting punished for subordination. i mean even though what he did was admirable without a doubt, he still disobeyed orders.
I agree. For some reason, while this guy has balls of steel, I feel somewhat bothered by this story. I mean, I'm sure the CO had a good reason for telling him not to go back into the line of fire. Had the story been different and he got shot right off the bat, this wouldn't be reported in the news and would just be a footnote saying a marine died from insubordination.
I guess he exorcised good judgement if it was clear enough for him to make multiple trips and fire on (and take out) enemies on the way. But I almost feel like this should be more cautionary. Yeah, he did the right thing, but don't ordinarily disobey orders.
Impressive feat, and congrats to him for recognition of his acts. Even better that he was able to visit the white house and meat the President of the United States.
The Medal of Honour is similar to the Victoria Cross - however the track record for the Vic Cross pretty much means the solider often is awarded posthumously.
ok i just wanna state first that this guy is indeed a true hero and deserves the medal and its awesome he had a beer with obama
i just wanna say you gotta think about what the Commanding Officer said. He did disobey an order but he saved lives
What if he didnt tho which is prob how his CO thought it would turn out
heavy machine gun fire, lost 36 men(they are pinned down CO prob didnt think they could be saved without excess of casualties and now 2 more want to risk their lives and lose 2 jeeps during(only one broke during). That would be an even worse lose already so I think the CO was doing the right thing
Glad it turned out good which in most wars is not the case
oh and EDIT: What if a german soldier wanted to disobey ordered during WWII. He prob would have been shot
one more edit. After watching the youtube video it puts it in a completely perspective to me
pretty epic glad he acted "you either get them out alive or you die trying, and if you didnt die trying you didnt try hard enough" pretty fucking savage
On September 19 2011 11:26 No_Roo wrote: In the spirit of TL, the moderation approach of this thread so far doesn't feel particularly 'international'. A bit disappointing to see. :\
TL is a privately owned site and they don't really have any obligation to be "international", whatever that means. The perspective is, a man is being awarded a prestigious award by his country for his valiant actions during a conflict. Pay no attention to which country or what conflict, because that is inconsequential. After all, if it were each poster's own respective country they would likely have no qualms with it, but it's much too easy to hate and criticize another.
I can respect the action of putting oneself in danger in order to save others, politics aside. Sometimes I feel like people don't quite understand what being a soldier entails- they place their lives in the hands of their superiors (and politicians) in the belief that whatever orders they dictate will serve and protect their country. This topic is not a platform to spout one's own convoluted opinion on war, but to honour a medal of honor recipient.
If people want to discuss anything other than this man's actions, that belongs elsewhere.