Ola Lee Mize, as he was known to his friends, was awarded the Medal of Honor for incredible valor in the Korean War as an enlisted man. He later became an officer and served in Special Forces for three and a half tours in Vietnam before retiring in 1981.
Mize was born August 28, 1931, in Albertville, Alabama as the son of a sharecropper. He was forced to leave school after just the ninth grade to help his family put food on the table as was very common throughout the United States in that era.
Mize tried several times to enlist in the Army but was rejected for being too light at just 120 pounds. He finally got in when his mother signed an affidavit to affirm his age since a tornado had destroyed all his town's records while he was young.
But once in the Army, a bigger problem was looming. Mize was virtually blind in one eye, which had been accidentally pierced with an ice pick when he was 5 years old.
The vision exam for the Army at that time involved holding a paddle over one eye and looking at the chart with the other. He passed the test by briskly switching paddles in a way that made it look as if he was switching eyes. He had practiced this bit of subterfuge with spoons beforehand.
Mize became an infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division and was about to finish up his tour and go back to finish schooling and attend college when the Korean War broke out. He re-enlisted in the hopes of getting sent to Korea.
He would get his wish and be involved in some horrific combat there. Assigned to Company K, 15th Infantry Regiment, Third Infantry Division, was helping to defend a strategic hill near Surang-ni in mountainous South Korea. The hill, called Outpost Harry by the Americans, sat between American and Communist lines, each several hundred yards away. Coincidentally, the 15th Infantry Regiment was the same unit that Audie Murphy served in during World War II.
During the previous few nights prior to June 10, 1953, Mize had observed numerous trucks behind the enemy's ridgeline bringing in men and equipment. He called for artillery strikes and air strikes but those were denied.
A Sergeant manning a listening post that night reported something amiss. Upon investigating, Mize came up and looked to the unit's front. "Where did all those shrubs come from," he asked the Sergeant? They hadn't been there before. Mize noticed one move. He crouched up and unloaded a full carbine magazine into them as Chinese soldiers, infiltrating the lines were cut down very close to the LP.
At one point, as an enemy soldier stepped behind an American and prepared to fire, Sergeant Mize killed him. At dawn, he helped regroup for a counterattack that drove the enemy away. He was personally credited with killing 65 of the enemy. In fact, it could have easily been much more. Of the 56 men on Outpost Harry, only eight survived.
When an American machine-gun nest had been overrun, he fought his way to the position, killing 10 North Korean and Chinese soldiers and dispersing the rest. He had been knocked down and wounded but not seriously three times by artillery and grenade blasts, and his men were astounded that he returned alive.
The legend that was told of Mize was that when he took back the machine gun nest, he dispatched the last of the Chinese soldiers with an entrenching tool when his weapon ran out of ammunition. There was a bronzed "E-Tool" that would hang over his desk later in his career. He did tell the local Gadsden, AL newspaper that he went "combat crazy" during the pitched part of the engagement.
"I thought I'd bought the farm," Col. Mize told VFW Magazine in an interview. "I just knew I was going to die. I knew it. I accepted it. All I wanted to do was take as many of them with me as I could."
He and the remaining Americans convinced the Chinese that there were many more Americans left on the hill but throwing grenades and shooting from one position and then leaping into other holes and firing from there.
He was recommended for the Medal of Honor but initially asked that his name be withdrawn saying the honor should go to the troops that died defending it.
"That terrible night in 1953 in Korea at Outpost Harry was one I would never want to repeat," he wrote in a foreword to "Uncommon Valor," a book about Medal of Honor recipients.
"Too many good young men, gave their lives to take or hold that miserable piece of high ground."
Eventually, in 1954 Mize did receive the Medal of Honor from President Eisenhower and recounted that he was so nervous it was obvious to everyone. He credited the President to calm him by joking about himself.
Mize remained in the Army and became an officer. In 1962 he attended the Special Forces Officers Course training and was assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group.
In late 1963, he was assigned to the 5th Special Forces Group, where he was deployed to Vietnam on his first tour as an A-Team Leader. In 1965, he was assigned to the Special Forces Training Group, where he was the Advanced Training Committee chief for SCUBA, HALO, and the SKYHOOK schools. Mize is also credited for being the officer responsible for starting the present-day Combat Divers Qualification Course in Key West, FL.
He returned to Vietnam in 1966-67 and again in 1969 as the Commander of the 3d Mobile Strike Force Command (Cambodian Troops). The Mike Forces as they were called were the quick reaction force for any of the Special Forces/CIDG (Civilian Irregular Defense Group) A-Camps in their Corps area.
In 1975 Colonel Mize was reassigned to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where he was initially the Special Forces School Chief for the Field Training Division and Resistance Division and later the Commander of the Special Forces School. At that time, the U.S. Army JFK Institute for Military Assistance, (IMA). Later this was changed to the Special Warfare Center (SWC). Mize retired in 1981.
Colonel Mize's awards include the Medal of Honor, Silver Star, Legion of Merit (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Bronze Star (with four Oak Leaf Clusters), Ranger Tab, Master Parachutist Badge, SCUBA Badge, and the Combat Infantryman's Badge (2nd award).
Colonel Mize passed away on March 12, 2014, from cancer at age 82. In addition to his wife Betty, he is survived by his daughter, Teresa Peterson; his brothers, Gary, Donald, and Johnny; his sisters, Judy Heinrich, Brenda Garza, and Della George; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Mize's citation can be found at http://www.archives.alabama.gov/tours/korea/mize.html
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The wreckage of the USS Indianapolis, the Navy cruiser sunk by an Imperial Japanese submarine 72 years ago during the waning days of World War II, was finally discovered on Saturday, reports Chris Buckley at The New York Times.
A team financed by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, discovered the warship 18,000 feet deep in the North Pacific Ocean. Kristine Phillips at The Washington Post reports the ship was on a super-secret mission to Tinian in the Northern Mariana Islands in late July 1945, to deliver the components for the "Little Boy" atomic bomb dropped a week later on Hiroshima, Japan. 
After delivering her payload, the ship was sailing in the Philippine Sea on its way to rendezvous with other ships in preparation for an attack on Japan.
Around midnight on July 30, however, Japanese submarine I-58 intercepted the ship and launched torpedoes, fatally wounding the 610-foot vessel. It only took 12 minutes for the Indianapolis to go completely under. Phillips reports about 800 of the crew of 1,197 were able to get off the ship alive, crammed into a handful of lifeboats, and floating around the ocean in life jackets. As it turned out, that was the beginning of the tragedy.
Reports of the sinking did not reach the Navy because of the ship's secret mission, and no one knew there were hundreds of men scattered in the ocean.
While Navy intelligence had intercepted a message from the Japanese submarine responsible for torpedoing the Indianapolis, the transmission was dismissed as a hoax, and over the next four-and-a-half days, the sailors had to fend for themselves.
Natasha Geiling at Smithsonian.com reports that the survivors had to tread water because their life vests weren't buoyant enough to keep them afloat. Without much food or freshwater, men slowly perished. But the worst of it was the sharks.
The sharks were drawn to the area by the explosion of the sinking ship as well as men thrashing in the water and the blood of the wounded. One by one, the survivors saw wounded men get dragged under by sharks, only to have their mutilated corpses later float to the surface.
By the time a spotter plane found the men at sea and ships were deployed to rescue them, only 317 of the roughly 800 men who went into the water remained. Up to 150 had died from shark bites, making the sinking the worst shark attack in history.
The story of the Indianapolis was brought into the popular spotlight by the movie Jaws in which the captain hunting the huge shark tells his story of surviving the harrowing shark attack.
According to a press release, the ship was located by Allen's Research Vessel (R/V) Petrel in an undisclosed location in the North Pacific. The team was able to locate the ship after new information about its whereabouts surfaced in 2016 when a naval historian was identified a landing craft that had spotted the Indianapolis the night it went down. 
Using that information, the team was able to narrow its search to a 600-square-mile section of open ocean. Using state of the art remote operated vehicles and sonar, they found the wreck and were able to identify it beyond a shadow of a doubt using insignia on the hull and other markers.
"To be able to honor the brave men of the USS Indianapolis and their families through the discovery of a ship that played such a significant role during World War II is truly humbling," Allen says in the statement. "As Americans, we all owe a debt of gratitude to the crew for their courage, persistence, and sacrifice in the face of horrendous circumstances. While our search for the rest of the wreckage will continue, I hope everyone connected to this historic ship will feel some measure of closure at this discovery so long in coming."
There are 19 survivors of the wreck who are still alive (Albert Morris, Jr. died at age 92 on August 15, 2018). Scott Neuman at NPR reports that the location of the ship will be kept secret, and the site will be administered as a war grave.
Please visit this site to hear a first-hand account of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis by survivor and TWS Member Edgar Harell. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Yhm_xBTOI
At the height of the Vietnam War, up-and-coming commo guys who wanted to learn the art of radio operation would walk into a classroom and see a huge number five written on the chalkboard.
Inevitably, someone's curiosity would win out, and they'd ask what the big number meant. The instructor would then calmly tell them, "that's your life expectancy, in seconds, in a firefight. So, listen up, and you might learn something that'll keep you alive."
That number wasn't some outrageous scare tactic. During the Vietnam War, the odds were tremendously stacked against radio operations - and that 5-second life expectancy was, for some, a grim reality.
In all fairness, that number was on the more extreme side of estimates. The life expectancy of a radio operator in the Vietnam War ranged between five to six seconds all the way up to a slightly-more-optimistic thirty seconds, depending on your source. If you look at all the things the radio operators were tasked with, it becomes abundantly clear why commo guys weren't expected to last long.
The first and most obvious tally in the "you're screwed" column was the overall weight of the gear radio operators were expected to carry into battle. The PRC-77 radio system weighed 13.5 lbs without batteries. Toss in batteries, some spare batteries, and the unsightly, large encryption device always called the NESTOR, and you’re looking at carrying 54lbs on your back. Now add your weapon system onto that and try to keep up as you fight alongside your unencumbered brethren. It took a lot of getting used to - but they managed.
If the weight wasn't problem enough, next comes the antennae. They weren't all too heavy, but they were extremely uncomfortable to use and would often give your position away to the enemy. The three-foot version was easier on the radio operator, but it wouldn't work in thick jungles. 
For that environment, the radio operator needed a ten-foot whip antenna to stick out of their back, which was a great way to draw unwanted attention.
The Viet Cong knew what it meant to take out a guy with a giant, ten-foot antenna sticking out of their back - you might as well have painted a bullseye on them. You take out the radio operator, and you effectively avoid dealing with air support. Additionally, it was well known that a radio operator's place in the marching order was at the heels of the officer-in-charge - two high-priority targets in one spot.
And it wasn't just the bullets that radio operators had to watch out for. The large antenna also acted as a targeting point for mortars and other explosives. All they had to do was aim for the antenna, and they could wipe out anyone near the radio operator. As terrible as it sounds, this meant that the radio operator would sometimes move in isolation, away from the rest of the squad.
It is unclear exactly how many radio operators lost their lives during the Vietnam War. While many radio operators were fulfilling their MOS, others just had a radio strapped to them in times of need. One thing is for certain, though: Being a radio operator back in the Vietnam War puts you among the most badass troops the military has to offer.
Pfc. Arthur Joseph Holmes enlisted in the United States Marine Corps one month after the United States entered World War II. He spent over two years of his young life in the island-hopping campaigns of the Pacific with the 1st Marine Division. Holmes participated in many of the battles that took place in the Pacific during the war. He never returned home.
Holmes was born in New York on December 11, 1923. He lived in Manhattan with his mother and two siblings and worked as an errand boy in 1940. In January 1942, Holmes left for Parris Island and trained to become one of over 200,000 Marines that served in World War II.
He joined Company C, First Battalion, First Marine Regiment in April 1942. After his unit assignment, his military career moved quickly. By July 11, 1942, he arrived in New Zealand and began preparations for the Guadalcanal Campaign.
On August 7, 1942, Holmes and 11,000 other Marines landed on the island of Guadalcanal. Only 6 months after leaving New York for the Marines, Holmes participated in some of the heaviest fighting that the 1st Marine Regiment experienced during the entire war.
On the night of August 21, 1942, the Japanese launched a massive counter-offensive against the Marines to retake the islands. Between 41 and 43 Marines were killed during the Battle of Tenaru. Despite the heavy fighting, the Marines held their positions against nearly 1,000 enemy soldiers.
It was just the beginning of Holmes's experience of the war. He participated in one battle to another for the next two years. From September to December 1943, he fought alongside the Australian 9th Division on the Huon Peninsula. In January 1944, Holmes's unit participated in the Battle of Cape Gloucester.
In September 1944, the Battle of Peleliu began. Within 10 days, the First Marine Division lost half of its fighting force. Over 2,000 Americans lost their lives during the fighting. Pfc Arthur J. Holmes Jr. was among them. He was killed in action on September 19, 1944, at the age of 20. 
He spent the last two years of his life at war, and never returned home.
Holmes was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He was buried at sea and his name can be found on the Walls of the Missing in Manila American Cemetery.
Last year, the Veterans Legacy Program partnered with the University of Central Florida to learn about Veterans memorialized at Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. Holmes was among the Veterans that students conducted research on. One student discovered Holmes's story and wrote a biography for him to share his legacy.
You can read Holmes's biography at:
https://vlp.cah.ucf.edu/biographies/BMD-0-31-F.html
When Clarence Smoyer is assigned to the gunner's seat of his Sherman tank, his crewmates discover that the gentle giant from Pennsylvania has a hidden talent: He's a natural-born shooter.
At first, Clarence and his fellow crews in the legendary 3rd Armored Division thought their tanks were invincible. Then they met the German Panther, with a gun so murderous it could shoot through one Sherman and into the next. Soon a pattern emerged: The lead tank always gets hit.
After Clarence sees his friends cut down breaching the West Wall and holding the line in the Battle of the Bulge, he and his crew are given a weapon with the power to avenge their fallen brothers: the Pershing, a state-of-the-art "super tank," one of twenty in the European theater.
But with it comes a harrowing new responsibility: Now they will spearhead every attack. That's how Clarence, the corporal from coal country, finds himself leading the U.S. Army into its largest urban battle of the European war, the fight for Cologne, the "Fortress City" of Germany.
Battling through the ruins, Clarence will engage the fearsome Panther in a duel immortalized by an army cameraman. And he will square off with Gustav Schaefer, a teenager behind the trigger in a Panzer IV tank, whose crew has been sent on a suicide mission to stop the Americans.
As Clarence and Gustav trade fire down a long boulevard, they are taken by surprise by a tragic mistake of war. What happens next will haunt Clarence to the modern-day, drawing him back to Cologne to do the unthinkable: to face his enemy, one last time.
Reader's Response
A band of brothers in an American tank. Makos drops the reader back into the Pershing's turret and dials up a battle scene to rival the peak moments of Fury."
~The Wall Street Journal
From the New York Times, bestselling author of A Higher Call comes the riveting World War II story of an American tank gunner's journey into the heart of the Third Reich, where he will meet destiny in an iconic armor duel - and forge an enduring bond with his enemy.
~The New York Times
"The tension, death, and courage that were everyday experiences for American tankers fill the pages of Makos's book. This moving story of bravery and comradeship is an important contribution to WWII history that will inform and fascinate both the general reader and the military historian."
~Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Spearhead is "a compelling, exciting adventure. An in-the-moment re-creation of the Allied breakthrough of the West Wall into Nazi Germany by a remarkable cadre of tank crewmen of the 3rd Armored Division."
~Kirkus Reviews
I had to order this great book after seeing a review about Spearhead in The Wall Street Journal. As I thumb through my copy, I know I will not be disappointed! I am a student of history, and keenly appreciate reading about WW II, especially American actions in France and Germany. For me, much of this is very personal in a familial sense. Author Adam Makos is a gifted writer with much more to offer in the future. The typeset makes this edition easy to read. The colorized photo on the cover brings the past to life. The notes, index, sources, etc. are complete. Well done, Random House, and a special thanks to Adam Makos!! WELL DONE!!
~Ronald English
This is the best book I have read since Adam Makos' 'A Higher Call.' It is an intense and emotional journey through the end of WW II. I remember watching the film on the duel with the Panther as a kid and always wanting to know more, now you can. This book will leave you saying wow and probably rubbing your eyes a bit at the end.
I was sitting on the edge of my office chair on numerous occasions, glued to the pages reading as fast I could to see what would happen next. I can't believe the things these boys went through to defeat the Third Reich. I love WW II history, and I now have a much stronger appreciation of our WW II tanker veterans like Clarence Smoyer and his armored infantry comrades.
All I can say is Clarence's story should be a movie! Do yourself a favor and read this book!
~Dom
About the Author
Hailed as "a masterful storyteller" by the Associated Press, Adam Makos is the author of the New York Times bestseller 'A Higher Call' and the critically acclaimed 'Devotion.'
Inspired by his grandfathers' service, Makos chronicles the stories of American veterans in his trademark fusion of intense human drama and fast-paced military action, securing his place "in the top ranks of military writers," according to the Los Angeles Times. In the course of his research, Makos has flown a World War II bomber, accompanied a Special Forces raid in Iraq, and journeyed into North Korea in search of an MIA American Airman. He lives in Denver.