New Jersey man deemed oldest Medal of Honor recipient dies
 

CRESSKILL, N.J. –  A World War II veteran and the nation's oldest living Medal of Honor recipient has died in New Jersey.

Nicholas Oresko, an Army master sergeant who was badly wounded when he single-handedly took out two enemy bunkers during the Battle of the Bulge in 1945, died Friday night at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, hospital officials announced Saturday. He was 96.

 

 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/10/05/new...latestnews

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Wants to join the "cereal box" dating service. I've dated enough flakes and nuts...all I want is the prize now.

I will raise a glass to this man's service and legacy this evening.  May he RIP...

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May he RIP. Tom Brokaw was right, Nicholas Oresko's generation was indeed our greatest.

 

He took out two bunkers by himself. Just think on that. Incredible.

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If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
- Bob Marley


 

I do think of that ... there were more than likely several 17, 18, 19ish year old aged kids in those bunkers that more than likely weren't there fighting because that is what they really wanted to do, or believed in. Most of these kids were scared to death, and had no sense of the evil they were forced into combat to defend. In the vast majority of cases there were no options for these kids, and the closer the allies came to Berlin, the younger, and older the defenders became. It would be really hard to kill a 14 year old kid, but somebody had to do it "IF" it came down to it.
 
Nicholas Oresko is an American Hero that I could not have been, I would have died.
 
Thank you, Nicholas Oresko ... May you RIP.

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I read his story. His troops refused to go forward.  They were all scared, so he went forward alone.  He was a sergeant.   And it struck me: that's what sergeants do.  Lead.   It makes me  wonder, how many Medal of Honor recipients were sergeants.   How many sergeants die in battle compared to other ranks.   I'll bet its a disproportionate number.  

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I watch some of those documentaries and find it utterly amazing that people jumped out of planes near the coast of France and other places in Europe, Vietnam, etc right into enemy fire.

 

5,000 miles away from home, in the middle of nowhere, armed with only a gun and a few allies.

 

... just amazing.

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<div>I do think of that ... there were more than likely several 17, 18, 19ish year old aged kids in those bunkers that more than likely weren't there fighting because that is what they really wanted to do, or believed in. Most of these kids were scared to death, and had no sense of the evil they were forced into combat to defend. In the vast majority of cases there were no options for these kids, and the closer the allies came to Berlin, the younger, and older the defenders became. It would be really hard to kill a 14 year old kid, but somebody had to do it "IF" it came down to it.
 
Nicholas Oresko is an American Hero that I could not have been, I would have died.
 
Thank you, Nicholas Oresko ... May you RIP.
 

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My grandfather served during the Battle of the Bulge, and expressed these same thoughts. So many of the enemy bodies he saw, or prisoners captured, were teenagers, haggard and hungry. Later he helped liberate a concentration camp, I forget which one, and said at first his sympathy for the enemy evaporated. But after thinking of his own blind loyalty, thankfully to a much more righteous cause, his anger channeled to those that marched so many men and boys to their death to further their evil agenda.

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If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.
- Bob Marley