(Photo from Shutterstock)
- On Veterans Day, the stories of two Mississippians remind us that honoring those who serve requires more than words.
Most heroes don’t set out to become heroes. They are ordinary people thrust into difficult circumstances. They find within themselves a measure of courage they may never have known existed.
Sometimes that courage produces a story so remarkable it strains the limits of believability.
Such is the story of Jake Lindsey, a young man from Lucedale, Mississippi. Lindsey became known as the “One Man Army” for his extraordinary heroism during World War II.
On November 16, 1944, Lindsey found himself in a desperate situation outside Hamich, Germany. His 40-man platoon had been decimated by German forces. Only six men remained, including Lindsey, who had already suffered a wound to his leg.
Facing a German infantry company supported by five tanks, Lindsey did something that defies ordinary explanation.
Rather than retreat or surrender, he fought.
Armed with a rifle and grenades, Lindsey repeatedly repelled German attacks. He destroyed a tank, neutralized two machine gun positions, and killed at least 20 enemy soldiers.
Then he ran out of ammunition.
For most people, that would have been the end of the fight. Not for Lindsey.
Spotting another German machine gun position approximately 50 yards away, he waited for its crew to reload. Then, armed with nothing more than his bayonet, he charged.
In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, Lindsey killed three German soldiers, captured two others, and sent the remaining crew fleeing.
One wounded Mississippian stood against overwhelming odds and prevailed.
On May 21, 1945, the 24-year-old Lindsey went before a joint session of Congress. President Harry Truman personally presented him with the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military decoration.
Imagine that journey. From a small Mississippi community to the battlefields of Europe, from a desperate fight for survival to the halls of Congress.
His is a story worth telling and retelling. But it is also a reminder of something much larger.
For every Jake Lindsey whose heroism is recorded in history books, there are countless men and women whose sacrifices will never receive similar recognition.
Consider my friend Aaron Rice, a native of Sumrall, Mississippi. Aaron was attending Mississippi State University when terrorists attacked America on September 11, 2001. He put his education on hold and enlisted in the Marine Corps. On March 18, 2005, while serving in Iraq, the Humvee Aaron was driving struck a land mine. The explosion nearly severed his left leg, which doctors were ultimately forced to amputate below the knee. He was just 21 years old.
Aaron’s story did not end on that battlefield. He returned home, finished his education, earned a law degree, and built a family. He’s also made a career out of helping others to defend their constitutional rights in court. Aaron is among many generations of Americans who answered their country’s call, paid an enormous personal price, and proved the resiliency of the American soldier. Most never sought recognition or applause.
There are soldiers who endured months of fear and exhaustion without ever firing a shot. Those who carried wounded friends to safety or performed their duties under conditions most Americans will never experience.
There are those who came home with injuries that never fully healed, and others who carried wounds no one could see.
And there are those who never came home at all.
We tend to romanticize military service. We speak of patriotism, duty, honor, and sacrifice. Those are worthy words.
But I suspect that in the worst moments of combat, grand notions of patriotism often give way to something more immediate and deeply human.
A desire to survive. A determination not to abandon the man beside you. A refusal to let down people who are depending on you.
There is nothing less noble about courage born of those instincts. Indeed, there may be something particularly profound about a person who is terrified, who desperately wants to live, and who nevertheless does what duty requires.
Every Veterans Day, politicians issue proclamations. Businesses offer discounts. Social media fills with American flags and expressions of appreciation.
There is nothing wrong with any of those things. But honoring veterans requires more than gestures.
It requires remembering that the men and women who wear our nation’s uniform are not abstractions. They are sons and daughters, husbands and wives, mothers and fathers. They have families and lives they hope to return to.
When our government sends them into harm’s way, it makes a decision with consequences that cannot always be undone.
That reality should impose an enormous burden on those entrusted with the power to send Americans to war.
We should be exceedingly reluctant to expend American lives in conflicts where our national interests are unclear, our objectives are ill-defined, or our political leaders lack the resolve to see the mission through.
When military action is necessary, our service members deserve clear objectives, adequate resources, competent leadership, and a strategy designed to accomplish the mission and bring them home.
There is no virtue in sacrificing American lives simply to demonstrate resolve. In fact, a healthy respect for our military ought to make us more cautious about war, not less.
This is not an argument for weakness. There are evils that must be confronted, enemies that must be defeated, and moments when preserving peace and liberty requires overwhelming force.
Jake Lindsey’s generation understood that better than most.
But the willingness of our armed forces to fight should never become an excuse for politicians to be careless about when they ask them to do so.
There is a tendency to think of heroes like Lindsey as belonging to another era. But the qualities that made him extraordinary have not disappeared. They reside today in Americans like Aaron Rice, and in millions of others who voluntarily put on a uniform, knowing they may be called upon to do things the rest of us can scarcely imagine.
Most will never receive a medal from the President. Most will return to civilian life without the country ever knowing their names.
That does not diminish their service.
Today, we honor them all.
And tomorrow, when the parades have ended and the flags have been folded away, we should remember that the most meaningful expression of gratitude is not simply to praise their willingness to sacrifice.
It is to ensure that such sacrifice is never asked for lightly.
Happy Veterans Day. To all who have served, thank you.
