This Day in History: Robert B. Nett's Medal of Honor
On this day in 2008, America loses a World War II hero. Robert B. Nett once continued fighting despite being shot three times. He’d refused to abandon his men, even after his lung collapsed.
His extraordinary courage earned him the Medal of Honor.
Nett had been inspired by a family friend to join the military, originally joining the Connecticut National Guard in 1940. There was just one problem: He was then 17, but the minimum age was 18. Naturally, Nett didn’t let a little thing like age deter him! Instead, he reportedly folded his birth certificate, rubbing the year of his birth until it was blurred.
Don’t you know he managed to finagle his way in?!
By late 1944, Nett was serving with the U.S. Army as it struggled against the Japanese at Leyte. The Japanese had turned a municipal building into a blockhouse, and they were using their position to hold Americans at bay. It fell to Nett to lead an attack against the position on December 14.
His men used Bangalore torpedoes to make their way closer.
“[T]he NCOs would push Bangalore torpedoes under the barbed wire,” he described, “blow the barbed wire up—and it would create a little ditch, as well as blowing the barbed wire up.”
From there, the soldiers would crawl along the ditch with flamethrowers, steadily establishing a foothold from which to attack. Nett ordered artillery to begin firing on the Japanese blockhouse, but it wasn’t long before he took a hit in the neck.
“My jugular vein was just cut,” he later said. “And a little blood shot out like the size of a needle point. But, I went on. Kept going.”
It must have been brutal. Nett describes crawling on his hands and knees and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. “And as I was going from one squad to the other, I would fire, and occasionally the clip would fly out. That meant last round. And what are you going to do when a Jap jumps up in front of you? We were trained to use the bayonet.”
So that’s what our soldiers did. “The adrenaline was running real hard,” he chuckled, “and we were movin’, shootin’, and no salutin’, I guarantee you!” All the while, remember, Nett was injured, but refusing to leave his men.
As they approached the blockhouse, Nett began moving one machine gun team at a time closer and closer to the Japanese. Unfortunately, just as he was ordering one of the teams forward, he was shot again.
This time, he was hit in a lung, collapsing it.
“So I did exactly what I was trained to do in commando school,” he said matter-of-factly. “Kept going, supervising. We finally got flame into this big bunker. Burned out as much as we could.”
The Americans, led by Nett, had secured the blockhouse, but he was beginning to have trouble. He’d been losing too much blood throughout the ordeal, and he’d been injured a third time in the final assault. He’d accomplished his objective, though, so he could finally go.
“[H]e calmly made all arrangements for the resumption of the advance,” his citation notes, “turned over his command to another officer, and then walked unaided to the rear for medical treatment.”
He spent months recovering, but was back in time to help at Okinawa.
“About 86 percent [of Medals] are posthumously awarded,” Nett later told an interviewer. “So, I feel that those that are living and that are capable should be out talking to young people emphasizing the great honor that’s been bestowed upon the individual. And what that honor means.”
As for himself, he felt that he’d earned the Medal on behalf of his company.
“When we were successful in combat,” he concluded, “it was because of the teamwork. The sincerity of each individual doing his part. I share this honor with all those people, because they made it possible.”
A note for those who are interested: Some of you might know I am running an experiment in history reels. If you are so inclined, check out my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to those HERE. Don’t miss the reel I created about Baseball & the Electoral College, posted over the weekend.
Primary Sources:
Medal of Honor citation (Robert B. Nett; World War II)
Medal of Honor oral histories (Robert B. Nett; World War II)
Peter Collier, Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty (2d ed. 2006)
WWII Medal of Honor hero dies (U.S. Army website; October 21, 2008)
Nothing but respect! 🇺🇸🫡