Valor Tales

Philip Conran https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/04/17/should-this-airman-receive-the-medal-of-honor-for-laos-battle-a-congressman-thinks-so/ A congressman from California, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D), has introduced legislation authorizing the president to upgrade Air Force Colonel Philip Conran’s Air Force Cross to the Medal of Honor. Let’s explore what the colonel did that has garnered the Congressman’s attention. Enlisting in the Connecticut Air National Guard in 1953, Conran served as a motor pool dispatcher until receiving a commission through the ROTC program at Fordham University in 1958. Trained as a pilot he received his wings in 1960 and then was trained in flying helicopters. He was serving in Bermuda in 1962 when he was deployed for the Cuban Missile Crisis. In November 1968 he was deployed for a year to Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai AFB, Thailand where he flew CH-3 Jolly Green Giants in the 21st Special Operations Squadron. It was here, in the span o...

Garlin Murl Conner, known generally by his middle name, was not unlike many of his generation, the appropriately named “Greatest Generation.” He was part of a big family, the third of eleven children. Also like many his age, he was born and died in the same county. In this case, Clinton County, Kentucky, which has a population that’s hovered around 10,000 since the Great Depression. He also was called to serve during the Second World War. Born in 1919 and raised in rural Kentucky, Murl’s formal education ended at the 8th grade. When World War II started, he was of prime military age and was enlisted on March 1st, 1941. Four of his brothers also served during the war. Assigned to Company K, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment (part of the 3rd Infantry Division), he underwent basic training with his unit at Fort Lewis in Washington. From there, the division was sent to Camp Ord, California and then Fort Pickett, Virginia. The division left the US, headed for Europe in Octob...

One of the most heart wrenching moments in the movie Titanic is when the band, playing soothing music in an attempt to calm the panicking passengers as the ocean liner sinks, realizes they have no hope to get off the boat. They sit back down and play the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee” in their final moments before they go down with the ship. This scene is a fairly accurate recreation of what actually happened. The eight members of the ship’s band, led by Wallace Hartley, did in fact play music in the first class lounge during the evacuation. Their last song played as they fell into the frigid North Atlantic was reported to be “Nearer, My God, to Thee” (and Hartley had told a friend he’d play that hymn if ever on a sinking ship). Whatever they played, it undoubtedly brought some peace to those in their final moments and some order to the chaos for those going to the lifeboats. Today’s tale isn’t about these musicians. Today’s tale is about another group of men who were on a sink...

The US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado can lay claim to having many heroes and notable men and women among their alumni. For example, the USAFA has commissioned 403 people who later became general officers, 36 graduates became prisoners of war who were later repatriated, 39 have become astronauts, and two became combat aces. However there has only been one USAFA graduate who has been awarded the nation’s highest honor, the Medal of Honor. His name is Captain Lance Sijan. The child of Serbs who had immigrated to the US after World War I and settled in Wisconsin, he attended the Naval Academy Preparatory Course right after high school. From there he was able to secure appointment to the US Air Force Academy (USAFA). At the USAFA he played football for three of his four years, graduating in 1965. Newly commissioned a second lieutenant, Sijan was sent to pilot training and by the summer of 1967 was flying in F-4 Phantoms over North Vietnam as a first lieutenant. ...

Let’s compare America to British, Canada, and Australia when it comes to military medals for combat valor and performance. The British system was used in Commonwealth countries (including Canada) up to and through World War II. This began to change as countries such as Canada, Australian, and New Zealand started to create their own systems of honors in the 1960’s.  The year 1993 saw a major change in all Commonwealth countries’ honors. The formerly overseas territories, such as Canada and Australia, fully created their own system of military awards separate from that used by Britain. Further, in Britain, the military awards system there removed distinctions of rank within the awards. Now enlisted and officers would receive the same award for the same performances. Previously, there were separate awards for officers and enlisted.  COMPARATIVE AWARDS British and Continental countries have long, complicated histories. This can make it hard for Americans (such as myse...

AMERICAN AWARDS - A Brief History America, fiercely against many European military traditions, did not have a formal system for any awards or decorations for decades after its forming. In fact, they were so anti-European, that the US Navy didn’t have the rank of admiral until the Civil War (nearly 100 years after the country’s founding) because it was too Imperial. There were two Revolutionary War-era awards however. Both were awarded in exceptionally small numbers (three awards each) and neither were awarded beyond the end of the war. The oldest, and first, American award was the Fidelity Medallion. It was awarded to the soldiers who captured British Major John Andre. Andre was famously the British point of contact for Benedict Arnold (a disaffected American general who turned traitor and gave Britain intelligence in exchange for a British generalcy). Only three men of the New York Militia received the award and it was never bestowed again. Often referred to (incorrectly) as A...

Everyone who’s served in the Air Force knows of the perpetual screw up “Airman Snuffy”. Snuffy is the foul up who can’t get anything right, forgets to salute officers, and is often found slacking in their duties. He’s our version of Private Pyle or Beetle Bailey I guess you could say. So it was with some surprise that I found out there was an airman known as “Snuffy”. True to the legend that’s been passed down, he was in fact a recalcitrant screwup with a severe attitude problem. He was also the first enlisted airman to receive the Medal of Honor. Sit back for a wild ride. S/Sgt Maynard "Snuffy" Smith receives the Medal of Honor from Secretary of War Henry Stimson Maynard Smith was 31 when in 1942 he found himself before a judge for failing to pay child support. The judge gave him the choice of jail or the Army. Smith took the Army.  Already a belligerent personality, he bristled at taking orders, particularly from those several years younger than him. ...

As we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the largest amphibious assault in human history, I’d like to highlight one man amongst the 150,000+ there on June 6, 1944. Of the tens of thousands of Americans that fought on D-Day, 12 received Medals of Honor. Nine of those awards were made posthumously. The subject of my article is one of those posthumous awards. Most people will have heard the name Theodore Roosevelt, I mean he is a legendary American historical figure. His face is one of only four on Mount Rushmore, and the only one from the 20th Century. He influenced American military and foreign policy all through today. He was a staunch conservationist and we have many national parks and the entirety of the US Forest Service due to him. He was also a true badass, surviving an assassin’s bullet to his chest, but not before giving a 50 page speech over the course of 90 minutes before seeking medical help. However, President Teddy Roosevelt’s contributions to today’s subject are purel...