Sergeant Fred S. Hay (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions during September 9, 1874, at Upper Wichita, Texas. His citation reads:
Gallantry in action.
Private Joe Hayashi (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on April 20 and 22, 1945, near Tendola, Italy. His citation reads:
Private Joe Hayashi distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 20 and 22 April 1945, near Tendola, Italy. On 20 April 1945, ordered to attack a strongly defended hill that commanded all approaches to the village of Tendola, Private Hayashi skillfully led his men to a point within 75 yards of enemy positions before they were detected and fired upon. After dragging his wounded comrades to safety, he returned alone and exposed himself to small arms fire in order to direct and adjust mortar fire against hostile emplacements. Boldly attacking the hill with the remaining men of his squad, he attained his objective and discovered that the mortars had neutralized three machine guns, killed 27 men, and wounded many others. On 22 April 1945, attacking the village of Tendola, Private Hayashi maneuvered his squad up a steep, terraced hill to within 100 yards of the enemy. Crawling under intense fire to a hostile machine gun position, he threw a grenade, killing one enemy soldier and forcing the other members of the gun crew to surrender. Seeing four enemy machine guns delivering deadly fire upon other elements of his platoon, he threw another grenade, destroying a machine gun nest. He then crawled to the right flank of another machine gun position where he killed four enemy soldiers and forced the others to flee. Attempting to pursue the enemy, he was mortally wounded by a burst of machine pistol fire. The dauntless courage and exemplary leadership of Private Hayashi enabled his company to attain its objective. Private Hayashi's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
Private Shizuya Hayashi (US Army) received his Medal of Honor for his actions on November 29, 1943, near Cerasuolo, Italy. His citation reads:
Private Shizuya Hayashi distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism in action on 29 November 1943, near Cerasuolo, Italy. During a flank assault on high ground held by the enemy, Private Hayashi rose alone in the face of grenade, rifle, and machine gun fire. Firing his automatic rifle from the hip, he charged and overtook an enemy machine gun position, killing seven men in the nest and two more as they fled. After his platoon advanced 200 yards from this point, an enemy antiaircraft gun opened fire on the men. Private Hayashi returned fire at the hostile position, killing nine of the enemy, taking four prisoners, and forcing the remainder of the force to withdraw from the hill. Private Hayashi's extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of military service and reflect great credit on him, his unit, and the United States Army.
Happy 12th Birthday to my niece Ansley!! We love you very much and hope you have a great birthday!
I wrote the following a couple of years ago in regards to 9/11. I've updated it a little... but everything I said then I still feel now. So I'll just let you read what I wrote then...
Now on to the other thing September 11 is known for. I can remember hearing people talk about certain events (for my Mom, it’s when President Kennedy was assassinated... for KC, it’s when Pearl Harbor was bombed) and saying they remember exactly where they were when the event happened. It’s not that I didn’t believe these people... it’s just I couldn’t understand what they were talking about. I mean, I have trouble remembering something that happened two days ago... much less years and years ago. Then came September 11, 2001. Now I understand. Today marks the 11th anniversary of that day. I assume the History Channel will be focused on this event as it has been in previous years. I remember it like it just happened. I was about a month into my second senior year at Winthrop University, living in an apartment at Mallard Point with Jeremy and Thomas. I got up and headed to my Tuesday morning class, just like always. Back then, I would usually listen to John Boy & Billy on the radio as I headed to class but on this day I was listening to a Bon Jovi CD (on one of those portable CD players that you had to connect to the car via a cassette tape that had a wire running from it to the CD player). I got to my class (a Business Writing class) and sat down. A couple minutes later a guy in our class walks in and says that he heard that two planes collided in New York City around the World Trade Center. It seemed, at the time, like it was two small planes... and while it was sad to hear, it wasn’t earth shattering news. After class I was walking out to meet/hangout with The Girlfriend. I had a break between my first class and my afternoon class (with The Girlfriend) so I liked to have lunch with her on those days. Rumors were starting to pick up about what was going on, so we headed back to her place for lunch (which I don’t think we ever ate that day) and to watch the news. We sat and watched as smoke poured out of the windows of the towers. By then, I believe, one of the towers had already fallen. As we were watching the news live, the second tower came down. At first, I thought maybe they were showing a replay of the first one... but then I realized it was the second one. I must admit to being a bit naïve that day because I was thinking at the time well surely everyone had evacuated from the building by then. Have you ever tried walking down 80 flights of stairs (or even 30 flights, for that matter)? Me either. It did hit, pretty quick, that even if everyone else had gotten out... there were still all the firefighters/policemen/EMS people who had been running in. I remember we sat there kind of stunned just watching TV. I remember having this numb feeling for a while (days/weeks?) after that and just wanting to sit and watch the news. We finally had to get up and go to our afternoon class because Winthrop (at least back then) wouldn’t cancel a class for anything. I remember just going through the motions in my afternoon classes... waiting for a chance to get back in front of the TV to watch the news. Back then I was working as a Manager Trainee at Rack Room Shoes in Carolina Place Mall (in Pineville, NC). I was scheduled to work that night, but I got a call from Peggy (my boss) telling me not to worry about coming in. She said she was pretty sure they were going to close the mall early, but even if they didn’t, nobody was there. Because of my class schedule, I worked almost every night and most of the time on the weekends... so this gave me a rare night off to spend with The Girlfriend. We went to Ryan’s for dinner. Her dad called me on my cell phone because he hadn’t been able to reach her. I remember this was perhaps the longest period of time in my life when I just didn’t feel like laughing. I remember walking around campus and noticing how quiet it was. Winthrop is close enough to Charlotte that there are almost always planes in the sky... but not that day. Even the roads were light... it seemed everyone was staying home watching TV. I think the mall was closed for a couple of days (though I could be mistaken). I do remember going back to work and the place being like a ghost town for the first week or two. I mean, there was NOBODY in the mall. NOBODY. Nobody shopping. Nobody “just looking”. Nobody out walking around. Even the shoplifters were staying home. It was very strange. I remember me, Peggy, and Maureen (my friend from Long Island who was a part-time worker at our store, who has since passed away) would just stand there and talk. Every now and then we’d walk around the store and clean/straighten up... but with no customers there wasn’t much to clean. I do remember standing in the back corner of the store straightening up some shoe boxes when I heard “Leaving on a Jet Plane” (Leaving on a jet plane, don’t know when I’ll be back again) being played and thinking, “Hmmm.... I don’t think this is the best time to be playing a song like this”. As time went on, things started to get back to “normal”. We had work and classes and The Girlfriend was busy planning “our” wedding. Before long sports picked back up and the little things that we learned weren’t really all that important started to become important again. Before you know it, 1... 2... 11 years have gone by and here we are. Since then, I’ve lost two grandmothers (well, I didn’t really “lose” them... they died... I know where they are) and gained two daughters and a son. I’m sure this event hit some people harder than it did me. Some for obvious reasons, some maybe not. Make sure you checkout the History Channel off and on today in between football games. The programming they have on 9/11 is just incredible. Some of the programs have “home video” type footage that really gives a great perspective on how things were that day. Some of it is hard to watch. Most of it will probably bring tears to your eyes (it did mine), but all of it is worth watching.
Time is running out… don’t wait until the last minute, go here to donate to my Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
Picture Tuesday
This next video is of Daniel dancing at the table… you can’t really hear the music in the background, but don’t worry… after seeing him “dance” I’m not so sure he could hear the music either.
 |
| Some ducks we decided to feed while on our walk one day |
 |
| The girls LOVE feeding ducks |
 |
| There is a chance that not all of the food makes it to the ducks... |
 |
| Some turtles came to see what we were doing |
 |
| A picture of the Daniel chair dance |
 |
| As the great Arn Anderson once said, "I don't want to toot my own horn but... TOOT! TOOT!" The Wife called and told me to feed the kids and this was what I came up with. |
 |
| I even cut the hot dog for Daniel so he wouldn't choke... Looks like I'm in the lead for Daddy of the Year Award... |
 |
| Happy boy after a nap |
 |
| Family Movie Night |
 |
| An alert I'm just sayin... reader sent this picture to me. Like you, I am shocked (SHOCKED) that someone would dress like this for a football game. I mean, really dude... RED shorts!? Really?! How about do some real shopping and find some garnet shorts? Or some black shorts? Anyway, I will be going up to Columbia this Saturday to find out if this was just a one time thing or if a lot of people dress like this for college football games. |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment