Mary Kemper

So much owed to so few

Photo courtesy of  U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command This Medal of Honor was awarded to Navy Civil War veteran Seaman Samuel Davis for 'extreme courage' while acting as a torpedo lookout aboard the USS Brooklyn during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Aug. 5, 1864.

Photo courtesy of U.S. Naval History & Heritage Command
This Medal of Honor was awarded to Navy Civil War veteran Seaman Samuel Davis for ‘extreme courage’ while acting as a torpedo lookout aboard the USS Brooklyn during the Battle of Mobile Bay, Aug. 5, 1864.

Mary Kemper
Staff Writer
The Medal of Honor is not an award given lightly. Throughout our history, it has only been given for things that no one would ever do … normally.
When someone throws himself on a grenade to stop his brothers from being killed — when someone captures enough enemies so that his unit wins the day. These are the kinds of things for which the Medal of Honor is given.
We’re a young country, and the Medal of Honor is young as well. It was in the Civil War that the Medal of Honor was born. It is still, and will always be, the highest honor we can award.
Ordinary Americans, doing extraordinary things.
On Aug. 5, 1864, Rear Admiral Farragut — remember him? “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead”? — took his squadron of 18 ships, including four Monitors, against the heavy Confederate defenses of Mobile Bay, Alabama. Soon after 6 a.m., the Union ships crossed the bar and moved into the bay. The monitors Tecumseh, Manhattan, Winnebago, and Chickasaw formed a column to starboard of the wooden ships in order to take most of the fire from Fort Morgan, Ala., which they had to pass at close range.
But it was an ordinary seaman, Samuel Davis, who received the highest honor.

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August 7 is Purple Heart Day

080516VV purple heart 1Patrick McCallister
For Veteran Voice
“The General ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit, directs that whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry, but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential service in any way shall meet with a due reward.” General George Washington

Aug. 7 is Purple Heart Day. There are likely about 10,000 recipients of the Purple Heart living in Florida. Carl Miller, commander of the Space Coast chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, 453, is one. On Feb. 8, 1969, he was in a foxhole in Vietnam keeping watch while two others with him slept. A mortar landed in the foxhole.
“I got hit at 9:20 at night,” Miller said. “I’d just got done looking at my watch moments before it hit.”
The blast threw Miller, and ripped off his left arm. It badly mangled his right arm. His companions died in the blast. Miller was then shot by the North Vietnamese Army overrunning the camp that night. He amazingly survived and received the Purple Heart twice — one for the blast, the other for the gunshots.

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