On this day in 1945, a Seventh-Day Adventist engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. He would also become the only conscientious objector to receive a Medal of Honor for his service during World War II. Doss, of course, objected to the term “conscientious objector,” right from the beginning. He preferred “conscientious cooperator” or “noncombatant.” After all, he intended to help the Army in any way that his religion allowed. He worked to get himself as

On this day in 1943, a Marine receives the Medal of Honor. Joseph J. Foss is perhaps best known as the first “Ace of Aces” in World War II. He earned his Medal over the skies of Guadalcanal. Foss has been called “one of the mentally toughest aviators in the South Pacific.” That steely determination served him well, long before he became a Marine. In fact, he might never have been a Marine at all, but for his willingness to persevere and work hard. Foss was born to impove

On this day in 1945, a telephone wireman receives the Medal of Honor. Robert D. Maxwell was lucky just to be alive. Months earlier, near Besançon, France, he’d made a split-second decision, putting his own life on the line but saving the men around him. But Maxwell did more than survive. He lived so long that he was the oldest living Medal of Honor recipient at the time of his passing in May 2019. Perhaps Maxwell was an unlikely hero? His Quaker grandfather had been a hug

On this day in 1984, a Medal of Honor recipient passes away. Maynard H. Smith was not your typical recipient. Indeed, he’d grown up a bit entitled and even earned the nickname “Snuffy” because he was viewed as an obnoxious misfit. Smith’s background surely contributed to his attitude. He was the son of a local judge who’d protected Smith when he got in trouble. For instance, a young Smith was once speeding and hit a horse and buggy. He wasn’t prosecuted because of his dad

On this day in 1941, Bob Hope gives the first of his legendary shows for the USO. It was just the beginning of a 50-year effort to bring smiles to the faces of our men and women in uniform. His overwhelming success has earned him the moniker “One-Man Morale Machine.” Hope was then host of NBC radio’s The Pepsodent Show, featuring his comedic monologues along with skits and other performances. But the course of Hope’s life would forever be altered when The Pepsodent Show w

On this day in 1945, a young Marine makes a split-second decision, saving the lives of four Navy corpsmen. Elbert L. Kinser’s extraordinary bravery on this day so long ago would earn him the Medal of Honor. “He was a farm boy,” Earl Fletcher says. “He was just a good old Greene County farm boy who left the farm and went to the South Pacific in World War II.” Fletcher is executive director of the Nathanael Greene Museum, where Kinser’s Medal remains a treasured part of the

On this day in 1945, a coalition of American and German soldiers work to save the famous white Lipizzaner horses from an advancing Russian army. World War II was not yet over, but the mission united the two sides, if only for the moment. “The 2nd U.S. Cavalry put a hold on the war for two days,” one American soldier later said, “while we extracted a sliver of culture for the rest of the world.” None of it would have happened but for Luftwaffe Colonel Walter Holters. The despe

On this day in 1924, a future Medal of Honor recipient is born in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Perhaps no one expected Foster J. Sayers to achieve all that he did? His childhood had been a rough one, bouncing from foster home to foster home. “[H]e got shipped from one farm to another in the Blanchard area,” his son Foster Jr. later told the Centre Daily Times. “He got treated poorly. He would have to do the milking while the family’s sons were having breakfast. . . . Final

On this day in 1945, several soldiers receive the Medal of Honor in a ceremony at Zeppelinfeld in Nuremberg, Germany. “It was the same day we cleared the city of the last German resistance,” recipient John J. Tominac observed. “I believe the ceremony gave a psychological lift to our troops . . . .” Tominac was awarded the Medal after an action that reads like a Hollywood movie script! Would you believe he even rode atop a burning tank, leaping off just as it exploded? Ama

On this day in 1944, a United States Army Air Forces pilot participates in a mission over the skies of France—but Elmer Gedeon wasn’t just any pilot. He was also a professional baseball player who’d left his career behind to fight for his country. Gedeon would become one of only two Major League baseball players to make the ultimate sacrifice during World War II. The young athlete was nothing if not talented. He played football and baseball in college. He even ran track a

On this day in 1942, the United States Navy records its first sinking of a German U-boat during World War II. USS Roper wasn’t the biggest or the newest of our ships. To the contrary, she was a destroyer originally commissioned in 1919. Naturally, she got the job done anyway. U-boats were then a constant threat, and Roper was among those patrolling the waters along America’s eastern coast. Her crew had not yet spotted any German submarines. “Have sighted lots of wrecke

On this day in 1945, a soldier engages in an action that would earn him the Medal of Honor. Perhaps no one expected Dexter Kerstetter to step up as he did? For starters, he was “too old” to be joining the Army. “He joined the Army when he was 37 years old and they called him ‘pops,’” his daughter explained. Kerstetter began as a cook’s helper in the mess hall, but then, as he would say, he “got tired of being a cook.” He wanted to be in the fight. So, when his company lan

On this day in 2021, a hero passes away. Charles H. Coolidge had endured a four-day ordeal during World War II. It earned him the Medal of Honor, although he then barely even knew what the Medal was! He’d heard of it only because Sergeant Alvin York had grown up about 100 miles away from his hometown in Tennessee. Coolidge’s heroism came as Allied forces worked their way across France late in the war. On October 24, 1944, he was with his platoon of machine-gunners. They’d b

On this day in 1939, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp is launched. She is perhaps best known for her stunning end—and the inspired rescue that followed. Nearly 2,000 sailors and aviators were pulled from the water as she went down nearby. Wasp was with about a dozen other warships on September 15, 1942. She was escorting transports for the Seventh Marine Regiment, then headed to Guadalcanal. She’d been at general quarters all day even as her planes flew antisubmarine patrol mi

On this day in 1945, American soldiers and Marines land in Okinawa. They couldn’t then know it, but that campaign would stretch on for three long months, ultimately becoming the last and the biggest of the Pacific island battles during World War II. It would also prove to be among the deadliest. The war in the Pacific had been a grueling one. Americans employed a strategy of “island-hopping,” systematically taking tactically important Japanese islands, one at a time. Okin

On this day in 2014, a former Army nurse passes away. Lille Margaret Steinmetz Magette was among those who heroically served in military hospitals during World War II. These women didn’t experience a particularly dramatic battle, earning a place in history books. Instead, they simply served, making sacrifices day after day. The accumulation of their contributions was vital to victory. Lille was just your prototypical American girl, born and raised in small town Missouri.

On this day in 1945, a prisoner of war is liberated. But Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds wasn’t the only man freed that day. Because of his heroic actions, hundreds of other prisoners were liberated alongside him. Do you remember this American hero, who received the Medal of Honor earlier this year? Then-Master Sergeant Edmonds was among those serving with the 106th Infantry Division, 422nd Infantry Regiment at the Battle of the Bulge. Unfortunately, he was also among those cap

On this day in 1945, Allied forces determine that “organized resistance has now ceased” in western Germany. Just one day earlier, Allied forces had conducted World War II’s largest single-day airborne drop, a mission codenamed “Operation Varsity.” The drop might not have been needed but for the Rhine River, a huge natural obstacle protecting Nazi Germany from Allied forces to the west. How could the Allies get across the river and deal a final blow to the Nazis? British

On this day in 1943, an unusual sort of hero is born. Just six months later, he would go on to save the lives of at least 100 people during a fast-moving World War II campaign. Wait. What? Just six months after his birth? Yes. You read that right. The hero in question was a homing pigeon named G.I. Joe. His stunning flight would make him the first American recipient of the PDSA Dickin Medal. Impressively, he remained the only American recipient of the Medal for more than

On this day in 1945, the aircraft carrier USS Franklin is miraculously saved. Just one day earlier, a Japanese Judy dive bomber had dropped two bombs on the American vessel. Franklin then had dozens of planes, fully gassed and armed, sitting on her flight deck or in her hangar. Those planes became fuel for the firestorm that would rip through much of the ship. [See yesterday’s story .] USS Santa Fe alongside the burning USS Franklin “It was like looking into hell,” AMM3/c Gle