Marine Awarded Medal of Honor
On June 19, 2014, former U.S. Marine Corps Corporal William “Kyle” Carpenter was presented the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony. Carpenter received the medal in recognition of his heroism above and beyond the call of duty while serving in Afghanistan with Company F, 2d Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment.
On the morning of November 21, 2010, then Lance Corporal Carpenter and Lance Corporal Nicholas Eufrazio were tasked with providing security for Patrol Base Dakota. Carpenter’s squad, a team of engineers, some Afghan National Army soldiers and an interpreter had recently established the patrol base in a small village in Marjah district.
Carpenter, who was manning a M240B squad automatic weapon, and Eufrazio occupied observation Post 1, located in the northeastern corner of the patrol base on the roof of the command operations center (COC). Their post had limited cover and concealment and was built up with sandbags. From this position, they were to observe the north, northwest and northeast sectors of the patrol base.
At approximately 9 a.m., Carpenter and Eufrazio came under sporadic small arms fire, but they were unable to locate the enemy’s position due to the thick vegetation and surrounding structures. An hour later, insurgents fired upon the patrol base again. Maneuvering in closer, they threw three grenades over the compound’s east wall. The first grenade injured an Afghan National Army soldier, while the second failed to detonate. The third one landed close to Carpenter and Eufrazio.
Realizing the danger, Carpenter positioned himself between the grenade and Eufrazio to shield his fellow Marine from the blast. Due to his actions, most of the explosion was deflected down rather than up, causing a cone-shaped hole to be blown through the COC’s ceiling. Although Eufrazio suffered a shrapnel wound to his head, Carpenter’s body absorbed the majority of the blast.
Carpenter was severely injured and evacuated immediately. He sustained a depressed skull fracture that required brain surgery, multiple facial fractures, and lost a third of his lower jaw. His right lung also collapsed and he suffered multiple fragment injuries to his extremities.
Carpenter was medically retired from the military in 2013 and has since become a full-time student at the University of South Carolina. He is the eighth living recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions occurring after the Vietnam War. His many other medals include the Purple Heart, the Navy Marine Corps Achievement Medal, and the Navy Unit Commendation Medal.
– From information released by Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps.
Korean War Hero Awarded Posthumous DSC
On March 26, 2014, former Sergeant 1st Class Robert “Cowboy Bob” Keiser was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in a ceremony held in Washington, D.C., at the office of U.S. House of Representatives Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy. Keiser passed away in 2009 so McCarthy presented the medal to his widow, Pamela.
“While serving with the 2d Military Police Company, 2d Infantry Division, Keiser approached a pass in North Korea that was blocked by disabled vehicles and fallen Soldiers,” explained McCarthy. “It was Mr. Keiser’s selfless actions to place his life in harm’s way without hesitation to clear the pass and lead his comrades to safety under enemy fire that set in motion this momentous and long-overdue occasion of honoring him. He ran to the call to save others.”
On November 30, 1950, as hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops suddenly intervened in the Korean War, U.S. 2d Infantry Division was ordered to withdraw from its dangerously exposed positions south of Kunu-ri, North Korea, near China’s border. The unit was directed to leave along the mountainous Kunu-ri-Sunchon road, which was flanked by a ravine on one side and a sheer cliff on the other. This treacherous stretch of road eventually became known as “the Gauntlet.”
“We were stopped by a roadblock, about noon or shortly thereafter, about one mile south of Kunu-ri,” said Richard Feaser, a former 2d Infantry Division fire direction operator. “That’s when all hell broke loose.”
The road had been completely obstructed, leaving the division vulnerable to attack. “The convoy had no place to go,” recalled retired Lieutenant General Jack Woodall, a former 2d Infantry Division commanding general and the current president of the 2d Infantry Division Association. “Ahead was impassable, to the right was straight down the mountain, to the left was straight up the mountain, where the Chinese enemy was.” Woodall said that approximately two Chinese army regiments raked the convoy with heavy machine-gun fire, light mortars and grenades, killing many of the Soldiers.
Keiser, who was in charge of physical security for the division’s headquarters, was about two miles away from the front of the convoy. After realizing what was going on, he ran to render help. According to witnesses, he single-handedly cleared the route while under continuous machine-gun and small arms fire, using the vehicles that were in working order to push inoperable or damaged vehicles over the side of the road. Although wounded, Keiser ensured that all the convoy’s vehicles cleared the contested area before he eventually rejoined the division’s headquarters later that night.
“The division’s convoy would have lost all of its equipment and suffered even greater causalities if it had not been for Sergeant Keiser,” said Feaser. “He was responsible for most of us getting out alive and the bravest man I ever saw.”
Following the Korean War, Keiser held various duty positions throughout the world as a military policeman and Criminal Investigation Division special agent until retiring from active duty in 1965. He then returned to his prewar life as a cowboy in California, where he lived until his passing.
– From a story by Colby Hauser.
K Rations Fueled GIs’ Liberation of Europe
On August 29, 1944, Soldiers of U.S. 28th Infantry Division paraded from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées as the final act in the liberation of Paris from over four years of German occupation. One of those Soldiers, Corporal Julian H. Aull, a member of the division’s 110th Infantry Regiment, had come ashore at Normandy a month earlier. A few months after the parade in Paris, he was captured in Luxembourg by German forces. He was held in a prisoner of war camp at Mühlberg, Germany, until freed by advancing Soviet units during the Red Army’s final offensive that overran Germany to the Elbe River in April 1945.
The K ration featured here once belonged to Corporal Aull. K rations first were issued in the winter of 1941 and colored packaging appeared in 1943. Each K ration breakfast, dinner and supper unit came in a 7-by-4-inch box weighing 1.2 pounds, and the combined meals provided an individual Soldier with about 2,830-3,000 calories for a day.
The label on the front of this meal reads: “Supper Ration Type K. Open inner bag carefully. It may be used as a waterproof container for matches, cigarettes and other items. For security, hide the empty can and wrappers so that they cannot be seen.” The label on the back reads: “Meat: eat cold or after heating by boiling can in water, or after frying in its own fat with added biscuit crumbs. Assorted biscuits. Bouillon: add to two-thirds canteen cup of hot or cold water. Confection. Cigarettes. Chewing gum.” And on the bottom appears this warning: “Notice – Mosquito bites cause malaria. If you are in a malaria zone, keep your shirt on and your sleeves rolled down, use mosquito repellent when out of doors between sunset and sunrise.”
A K ration supper unit included a canned meat product, biscuits, bouillon powder, confections, gum, soluble coffee, granulated sugar, cigarettes, and a can opener and spoon. The biscuits, beverage, sugar, confections, gum and spoon were packaged in a laminated cellophane bag, while the canned meat and cheese product were put in a chipboard sleeve-type box. The two components were then assembled and sealed in an inner waxed carton enclosed in a non-waxed outer carton labeled with the K ration design and color.
In May 1942, the first million K rations were ordered, followed by many millions more. Over 105 million K rations were procured by 1944, the peak year of production. By the end of the war, however, K rations were eclipsed by the superior C rations, and in 1946, an Army Food Conference recommended discontinuing K rations. In 1948, the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps Technical Committee declared the rations that had fueled GIs’ liberation of Europe obsolete.
Corporal Aull’s K ration is part of the U.S. Army historical collection held in the 82d Airborne Division War Memorial Museum at Fort Bragg, N.C.
– Submitted by Colonel (Ret.) Robert Dalessandro and Dieter Stenger, Curator, U.S. Army Center of Military History.
For information about the National Museum of the U.S. Army, slated to open in 2019, visit armyhistory.org.
Worthy Causes
The Lee & Penny Anderson Defenders Lodge is a free hotel for military veterans who are undergoing medical care at the VA hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. Dedicated to those who have served America in uniform, the Defenders Lodge is a $17 million public-private partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon Federal Credit Union Foundation (penfed.org/ Pen-Fed-Foundation/). Visit defenderslodge. org to learn more or to make a tax-deductible donation. The Purple Heart Foundation is the fund-raising engine of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, raising money to support programs and services dedicated to helping all veterans and their families. In addition to making direct contributions to veterans facing exceptionally difficult financial challenges, the foundation lends support to other organizations that align with its mission. For more information or to make a tax-deductible donation to this worthy cause, visit purpleheartfoundation.org.
Doolittle Raiders Honored With Congressional Gold Medal
I would like to thank Armchair General and its many readers for their help and support in promoting information via the magazine and online article with regard to the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders and obtaining the Congressional Gold Medal for them for their historic accomplishment. This long-overdue honor for the 80 brave U.S. Army Air Forces airmen who took off on April 18, 1942, in 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in a daring first strike against Japan is now a reality.
In November 2013, the Senate passed bill S.381 and by the end of 2013 we had the required number of co-sponsors for House bill HR.1209. In early May 2014, I received word that the House bill would be brought to the floor for a vote on Monday, May 19. I traveled to Washington, D.C., and was present in the gallery to watch HR.1209 pass the House. This had been a long and involved process and it was exciting to see such an important and historic piece of legislation go from a concept to actually making it through both the Senate and the House.
Shortly after the bill was completed in Congress, I received word that it would be signed into law at a White House ceremony on Friday, May 23. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Richard Cole represented the Raiders, and along with Cole’s son, Richard, and Tom Casey, the Raiders’ business manager, we passed through security and by 3 p.m. were in a reception room outside the Oval Office.
We were assigned a spot in line, and then all of a sudden the door was opened by President Obama. He greeted each one of us and invited us into the Oval Office. We gathered around his desk and watched as he signed the bill into law. It is now officially P.L.113-106. How thrilled and excited we were to be able to witness this historic event honoring the 80 brave airmen known as the Doolittle Tokyo Raiders.
This mission is now almost complete. The next phase will be working with the U.S. Mint to design the gold medal and planning the medal presentation ceremony.
– Submitted by Brian “Bear” Anderson, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doolittle Raiders Association. Visit doolittleraider.com.
Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley
Readers who have the chance to travel in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and vicinity also have an opportunity to visit three Civil War battlefields featured in our Shenandoah Valley Campaigns of 1864 Battle Studies trilogy: John W. Mountcastle’s “‘Put the Boys In!’: The Battle of New Market” (March 2014 issue), Ralph Peters’ “Rebels at the Gates!” (July 2014 issue) on the Battle of Monocacy, and Peters’ “The Battle of Cedar Creek” (this issue, p. 30). We recommend that readers take along copies of these articles and refer to the text and maps to enhance the experience of touring the historic battlefields.
Virginia Museum of the Civil War (vmi.edu/vmcw/) is located in New Market, Va., about a mile off Interstate 81, the Shenandoah Valley’s main thoroughfare. The museum presents the story of Virginia during the Civil War and interprets the May 15, 1864, Battle of New Market, during which 257 teenage cadets of the Virginia Military Institute played a key role in the Confederate victory.
Monocacy National Battlefield (nps.gov/mono/) is located two miles south of Frederick, Md. It is the site of the July 9, 1864, Battle of Monocacy and is administered by the National Park Service. Although General Jubal Early’s Confederate force defeated General Lew Wallace’s outnumbered Union troops during the Monocacy battle, the crucial delay that was inflicted on the Confederates saved Washington, D.C.
Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park (nps. gov/cebe/), which is also administered by the National Park Service, is located adjacent to Strasburg and Middletown, Va., near the intersection of interstates 81 and 66. Within the park boundaries is the site of Union General Philip Sheridan’s decisive victory over Early’s Confederates at the October 19, 1864, Battle of Cedar Creek.
Originally published in the November 2014 issue of Armchair General.
