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Memorial Day

I've previously blogged on the experiences of my father and uncle in WWII; my father, Albert "Bud" Hardy, served in the Army Air Corps, my uncle, George Ferguson, chased U boats across the frozen North Atlantic, where ships often went down with all hands. (Other ships were forbidden to rescue, since that'd make them a stationary target for a torpedo, and life vests just meant you froze to death in a few minutes).

This year, it's appropriate to give a special mention to Joe Foss, Medal of Honor in the skies over Guadalcanal, later governor and NRA President. At his funeral in Phoenix, the Air Force sent a missing man formation over the church, he'd done that much.

I had a friend at Interior Department whose father had served as a Marine infantryman on Guadalcanal and who went to an NRA convention in Philadelphia just to see Foss, whom he hadn't laid eyes on since WWII. I asked my friend, what did a man have to do to earn the MoH on Guadalcanal, to have his courage stand out among all the others? He related a story his father had told. The Japanese had the airfield under artillery fire, and infantry were in their foxholes. His father saw Foss on the wing of a plane with a gas can and a hand pump, draining the gas. Foss had figured that if he drained the gas out of the other fighters and put it in his, he'd have just enough gas to go up and fight. Alone. One man against however many planes the Japanese could send over. Pumping gasoline under artillery fire so he could have the privilege of making a one-man stand against an Air Force, and one flying superior planes. I said now I understood. My friend added that the infantrymen worshipped Foss, he was their god of war.

I played a role in an incident mentioned in Wikipedia. I was flying to an NRA board meeting, connecting in Phoenix. When I got off at National Airport, I saw Joe Boss; hadn't noticed him on the plane. He was quite irate, and explained that at airport security in Phoenix he'd been searched three times, had to take off his boots. And they'd checked out his Medal of Honor, saying it had points on it, and wasn't allowed. He asked them if they knew what it was, nope. That was when they had National Guardsmen in airports (none allowed to magazines in their rifles) and he called three guardsmen over. One was a lieutenant and he told the officer to tell the security people what this was. The LT answered that he didn't know. Foss said he gave him a serious dressing down, in front of his men and the public, and the LT wisely took it.

On arrival in Washington, I called someone who knew some national press, and they came over to the Key Bridge Marriott to interview Foss. It was a good thing the LT took the dressing down, since from the NRA meeting Foss was flying to give the main speech at the West Point graduation ceremony, and would be on the stand with the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, etc. Their rage might not help an LT's career.