Know Your Medal of Honor Recipients:
Sergeant William Wilson (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on March 28, 1872, at Colorado Valley, Texas. His citation reads:
In pursuit of a band of cattle thieves from New Mexico. SECOND AWARD Place and date: At Red River, Tex., 29 September 1872. Citation: Distinguished conduct in action with Indians, Red River, Tex.
Corporal William O. Wilson (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions in 1890, during the Sioux Campaign. His citation reads:
Bravery.
Brigadier General Roswell Winans (US Marine Corps) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on July 3, 1916, at Guayacanas, Dominican Republic. His citation reads:
During an engagement at Guavacanas on 3 July 1916, 1st Sgt. Winans participated in action against a considerable force of rebels on the line of march. During a running fight of 1,200 yards, our forces reached the enemy entrenchments and Cpl. Joseph A. Gowin, U.S.M.C., placed the machinegun, of which he had charge, behind a large log across the road and immediately opened fire on the trenches. He was struck once but continued firing his gun, but a moment later he was again struck and had to be dragged out of the position into cover. 1st Sgt. Winans, U.S.M.C., then arrived with a Colt's gun which he placed in a most exposed position, coolly opened fire on the trenches and when the gun jammed, stood up and repaired it under fire. All the time Glowin and Winans were handling their guns they were exposed to a very heavy fire which was striking into the logs and around the men, 7 men being wounded and 1 killed within 20 feet. 1st Sgt. Winans continued flring his gun until the enemy had abandoned the trenches.
Today’s Pic
I don’t believe I’ve talked about this as much as I should, but I’ve got to say I was proud of Mary Ruth this past basketball season. For playing in her first season, I thought she did a great job and improved over the season. I feel bad, because I didn’t work with her nearly enough at home… so all of her improvement was based off of playing on Saturday and practicing on Tuesday. She had great coaches, so that helped (of course). Aside from how she did, I was very pleased with her desire to win. Too often I think we downplay winning because we don’t want to hurt feelings, but winning is good. And it’s good to want to win. So I’m happy that Mary Ruth wanted to win and I’m happy she had fun playing. I look forward to watching her play in the future.
As you know, I played a little ball myself back in the day. The first year I played basketball, I was one of two white players (along with my friend Zach) in the league. It’s an interesting feeling to look around and see a lot of people who don’t look like you (kind of like how Tim Scott must feel in the Senate). Still, sports are an area where I honestly believe the only color that really matters is the color of your uniform. We had a good season that year, though I can’t remember if we won the championship or not (my guess is we didn’t, but I could be wrong). My year of basketball saw me and Zach playing in the same league, but with a team from James Island that had a few more players who looked like us. I do remember we won the championship that season. After that, Zach moved away and I decided to take my talents to Ashley River Baptist Church (because I knew they wouldn’t cut me). My first season with ARBC, we had six players on the team and only two of us had previously played basketball. We were short and couldn’t jump, but we made up for it by shooting poorly and not playing great defense. We were able to complete the season without a win and I doubt we ever got within 20 points in any of our losses. There were some games we had guys foul out leaving us with fewer than 5 guys on the court at the end of the game. In one game, we were down to 3 players and the other team kept the full court press on. Still, I have good memories from that season. You learn a lot when you go through a lot of losing like that (mainly, you learn that you don’t want to go through a lot of losing like that). After that, we got better players. But I’m proud to say that every player on our team had to attend church on Sunday or they couldn’t play on Saturday. I can’t say for sure, but I’m 99% sure we had 3 or 4 guys who only came to church so they could play basketball. To me, that means the team was successful. We also won more games after that first season. We never won a championship, but we won enough to make it fun. I started my career at ARBC as the starting point guard and ended as the starting power forward. I got better over my career, but Mary Ruth will probably be better than I ever was in a couple of years.
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