Jim Beaver Instagram – It’s Memorial Day, and I’m in France in the Alsatian town of Colmar. Nearby is the village of Holzwihr, on the outskirts of which is an open field surrounded by thick woods. At the border of these woods is a small monument dedicated to a 19-year-old boy from Texas who performed what one of his fellow soldiers called “the greatest display of guts and courage I have ever seen.” The young man, dreadfully wounded (and not for the first time), saved his outfit by conspicuous gallantry and was awarded the Medal of Honor. His name was Audie Murphy, and he received more awards for bravery than any other American. None of those awards, nor the high-profile career as a movie actor that incongruously followed, I suspect, made up for the anguish from PTSD that dogged him for the rest of his life. Read the statement from one of his men and consider not some mythical glory of war but rather what the brutalities of war require and what remarkable young souls sometimes step up to provide. Have a good Memorial Day.
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/299775 | Posted on 31/May/2022 02:24:19
