palebluedot
Active Member
While sitting beside the fire with 6 inches of snow outside (rare for south MS), I was rummaging through some photos I took last summer on one of many motorcycle day rides. One of those rides took me through Clara, MS, a rural community in the southeastern part of the state. I happened to stop next to a small cemetery for a butt break after riding for several miles.
It was a nice sunny day and I decided to tour around the cemetery while off the motorcycle. I wonder what the lives of the people buried there might have been like. There were many very old graves dating back to the Civil War era, but many that were much newer.
Then I happened upon a grave that I never expected to find in such a remote place, WWII Medal of Honor winner Jake W. Lindsey Sr. He is buried less than 50 miles from where I have lived for 63 years, but I had never heard of him and we don't have many war heroes that near. Returning to the motorcycle I promised to find out more about him, but had let it slip my mind until running across the photo again.
He was awarded the 100th Medal of Honor in WWII. It was awarded by President Truman before a joint Session of Congress, the only time it was ever done. The citation (below) reads like nothing Hollywood could ever perceive. If that was not enough, he then saw duty in the Korean War. This guy was the REAL Rambo. He died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 67.
Thank you Jake, I wish that I could have met you.
Technical Sergeant Lindsey assumed a position about ten yards to the front of his platoon during an intense enemy infantry-tank counterattack near Hamich, Germany. By his unerringly accurate fire he destroyed two enemy machine gun nests, forced the withdrawal of two tanks, and effectively halted enemy flanking patrols. Later, although painfully wounded, he engaged eight Germans, who were reestablishing machine gun positions, in hand-to-hand combat, killing three, capturing three, and causing the other two to flee.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/gravesites/states/pages_go/lindsey_jake.html
It was a nice sunny day and I decided to tour around the cemetery while off the motorcycle. I wonder what the lives of the people buried there might have been like. There were many very old graves dating back to the Civil War era, but many that were much newer.
Then I happened upon a grave that I never expected to find in such a remote place, WWII Medal of Honor winner Jake W. Lindsey Sr. He is buried less than 50 miles from where I have lived for 63 years, but I had never heard of him and we don't have many war heroes that near. Returning to the motorcycle I promised to find out more about him, but had let it slip my mind until running across the photo again.
He was awarded the 100th Medal of Honor in WWII. It was awarded by President Truman before a joint Session of Congress, the only time it was ever done. The citation (below) reads like nothing Hollywood could ever perceive. If that was not enough, he then saw duty in the Korean War. This guy was the REAL Rambo. He died of a heart attack in 1988 at the age of 67.
Thank you Jake, I wish that I could have met you.
Technical Sergeant Lindsey assumed a position about ten yards to the front of his platoon during an intense enemy infantry-tank counterattack near Hamich, Germany. By his unerringly accurate fire he destroyed two enemy machine gun nests, forced the withdrawal of two tanks, and effectively halted enemy flanking patrols. Later, although painfully wounded, he engaged eight Germans, who were reestablishing machine gun positions, in hand-to-hand combat, killing three, capturing three, and causing the other two to flee.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/gravesites/states/pages_go/lindsey_jake.html
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