Sergeant Ross Franklin Gray (US Marine Corps) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on February 21, 1945, on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands. His citation reads:
For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as a Platoon Sergeant attached to Company A, 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, 4th Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands, 21 February 1945. Shrewdly gauging the tactical situation when his platoon was held up by a sudden barrage of hostile grenades while advancing toward the high ground northeast of Airfield No. 1, Sgt. Gray promptly organized the withdrawal of his men from enemy grenade range, quickly moved forward alone to reconnoiter and discovered a heavily mined area extending along the front of a strong network of emplacements joined by covered trenches. Although assailed by furious gunfire, he cleared a path leading through the minefield to one of the fortifications, then returned to the platoon position and, informing his leader of the serious situation, volunteered to initiate an attack under cover of 3 fellow marines. Alone and unarmed but carrying a huge satchel charge, he crept up on the Japanese emplacement, boldly hurled the short-fused explosive and sealed the entrance. Instantly taken under machinegun fire from a second entrance to the same position, he unhesitatingly braved the increasingly vicious fusillades to crawl back for another charge, returned to his objective and blasted the second opening, thereby demolishing the position. Repeatedly covering the ground between the savagely defended enemy fortifications and his platoon area, he systematically approached, attacked and withdrew under blanketing fire to destroy a total of 6 Japanese positions, more than 25 troops and a quantity of vital ordnance gear and ammunition. Stouthearted and indomitable, Sgt. Gray had single-handedly overcome a strong enemy garrison and had completely disarmed a large minefield before finally rejoining his unit. By his great personal valor, daring tactics and tenacious perseverance in the face of extreme peril, he had contributed materially to the fulfillment of his company mission. His gallant conduct throughout enhanced and sustained the highest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.
Seaman Rade Grbitch (US Navy) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on July 21, 1905, on board the USS Bennington. His citation reads:
On board the U.S.S. Bennington, for extraordinary heroism displayed at the time of the explosion of a boiler of that vessel at San Diego, Calif., 21 July 1905.
Unknown British and French Soldiers received their Medal of Honor recipients for their actions during World War I. His citation reads:
* * * By virtue of an act of Congress approved 4 March 1921, the Medal of Honor, emblem of highest ideals and virtues, is bestowed in the name of the Congress of the United States upon the unknown, unidentified British soldier and French soldier buried, respectively, in Westminster Abbey and Arc de Triomphe. Whereas: Great Britain and France, two of the Allies of the United States in the World War, have lately done honor to the unknown dead of their armies by placing with fitting ceremony the body of an unknown, unidentified soldier, respectively, in Westminster Abbey and in the Arc de Triomphe; and Whereas: animated by the same spirit of comradeship in which we of the American forces fought alongside these Allies, we desire to add whatever we can to the imperishable glory won by the deeds of our Allies and commemorated in part by this tribute to their unknown dead: Now, therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States of America be, and he hereby is, authorized to bestow with appropriate ceremonies, military and civil, the Medal of Honor upon the unknown, unidentified British soldier buried in Westminster Abbey, London, England, and upon the unknown, unidentified French soldier buried in the Arc de Triomphe, Paris, France (A.G. 220.523) (War Department General Orders, No. 52, 1 Dec. 1922, Sec. II).
We’re going to skip over what I was going to talk about today (Chick-fil-A) and go straight to the big news from yesterday. Scooby was bitten by a snake last night. It went like this…
I went to take the trash out to the street (today is trash day). There was some old wood lying around on the side of my backyard over by the gate. It’s there because it’s kind of an out of sight, out of mind type thing. Anyway, as I’m taking the trash out (in the pouring rain), Scooby and Maverick are busy searching the wood pile. I thought I saw something slither around in the wood, but in the rain it looked like a skink/skank. I told Scooby to leave it alone (he’s not the streetwise hunter Maverick is). I then took the trash can out to the street and came back to round the dogs up and get them inside. They both followed me to the door and didn’t act like anything was wrong.
We ate dinner and it didn’t seem like anything was wrong. Mary Ruth tried to feed the dogs, but Scooby didn’t want anything… but they don’t always want to eat right when we give them their food. Anyway, we ate and then went about our business. Susie was a handful so The Wife was dealing with her. I was sitting in my chair doing a little reading. The Wife then came out and told Scooby to drop the toy that was in his mouth (it seems he always has one of the kid’s toys in his mouth). The only problem was, this time there wasn’t a toy in his mouth… his mouth/nose area was so swollen it just looked like he did. So I told The Wife to take him to the animal hospital while me and Maverick went in the backyard to seek justice. By justice, I mean we were on a search and destroy mission. You know the rules… They send one of ours to the hospital, we send one of theirs to the morgue. It’s the James Island way.
So… The Wife was on the way with Scooby to the animal hospital, Maverick and I were heading out into the backyard to find what bit Scooby and then kill it while Mary Ruth took care of the little ones. Hats off to Mary Ruth for doing a great job as a babysitter.
To shorten this story a little… we went in the backyard and found the snake. I then killed the snake (a copperhead) with a hatchet (given to me as a wedding present by my brother-in-law Brent [Teresa Lynn’s husband]) while Maverick covered me. He was a great wingman for this mission. For the record, I didn’t know it was a copperhead when I was killing it. Had I known that, I might have thought twice about using the hatchet. Then again, I was pretty pissed that the snake bit Scooby… so I’d probably done it the same way. I mean, Maverick is a warrior… I know there’s always a chance something could happen to him. But Scooby is just one big golden ball of love. He’s a lover, not a fighter. Chances are he just wanted to be friends with the snake. So I was a little extra pissed about the whole thing. Anyway, after the kill we looked for more snakes but couldn’t find any. I hope they all learned a lesson.
Scooby is still in the hospital. The Wife is going to pick him up this morning around 9:00. When we left him last night, they said he was responding well to the medicine they were giving him. This is good since we had to pre-pay ($2,000 for any of you scoring at home). I tell you the price not to have you throw a benefit for us or anything like that, but to show you how much respect Scooby earned from me last night. Listen, I give him a hard time on here and there have been times early in his life when we really didn’t get along. But he has grown on me some and I really do love the big guy. And not once last night did he whine or anything like that. Had his face not swollen up, we’d never had known a snake bit him. He took it like a champ. And at 3 years old, we hope he still has a lot of life left in him. So say a prayer that Scooby is able to bounce back from this snake bite. I’m not sure what The Wife and kids would do without him.
Here are some pics from this whole thing (something this big can’t wait until Tuesday)…
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| Scooby at the hospital. You can see the bite on the right side of his mouth kind of need the end of his nose. You can't really tell, but his head and neck were real swollen in this pic. |
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| Looks like this fella messed with the wrong family. |
The I’m just sayin… Know Your South Carolina Athlete
The SC Athlete that we were going to look at today is Brett Gardner. Unfortunately, all the stuff with Scooby kept me from doing the research needed for this segment. Oh well… what can you do? We’ll try to bring it back next week.
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