RED WHITE & BLUES

01/24/2026

Medal of Honor Monday: Army Sgt. Gordon Yntema
By Katie Lange

Army Sgt. Gordon Douglas Yntema, a Green Beret, fought until his last breath to make sure the Vietnamese troops with whom he served could withdraw in the face of a firefight they couldn't win. His selflessness and dedication to the cause earned him a posthumous Medal of Honor.

Yntema was born June 26, 1945, in Bethesda, Maryland, to Dwight and Cynthia Yntema. He had a brother named David.
When he was a little more than a year old, the family moved to Holland, Michigan, so his father could work as a professor of business administration at Hope College, according to The Grand Rapids Press.

After first going to public school, Yntema attended two preparatory schools, Culver Military Academy in Indiana and Fountain Valley School in Colorado. His military education must have stuck with him because in July 1963, shortly after he turned 18, he enlisted in the Army.

Around the same time, Yntema married Peggy Brown, also from Holland. They had two daughters, Elizabeth and Jane.
After graduating from airborne school, Yntema was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, where he learned helicopter mechanics. After deploying for four months to the Dominican Republic in the summer of 1965, Yntema decided he wanted more of a challenge. He then went to U.S. Army Ranger School, qualifying in 1966, before joining Special Forces in January 1967, earning his green beret.

By this time, the U.S. military presence in Vietnam was building, so Yntema was sent to the country in October 1967 with a detachment assigned to Company D of the 5th Special Forces Group, 1st Special Forces. That same month, he received a Purple Heart for wounds he suffered while stationed in a Special Forces camp west of Saigon.

By mid-January 1968, Yntema was serving as an advisor to a Vietnamese reconnaissance platoon at Camp Cai Cai, along the Cambodia border. On Jan. 16, 1968, his team and another platoon were sent to block enemy movements near the village of Thong Binh when a firefight broke out with the Viet Cong.
The group's friendly South Vietnamese commander was seriously wounded, so Yntema assumed control of the platoons and moved them forward to within 50 meters of the enemy's bunkers. After 30 fierce minutes of fighting, they were forced to pull back to a trench for better protection so they could still carry out their blocking mission.

The situation went from bad to worse. A company of enemy soldiers moved into a position that pinned the platoons down on three sides before unleashing a mortar barrage that inflicted heavy casualties on exposed soldiers. Yntema's remaining platoonmates were low on ammunition, so many of them chose to flee.

Yntema was seriously wounded and also ordered to withdraw, but he refused to leave his fallen comrades. As enemy fire continued, the sergeant carried the wounded Vietnamese commander and another mortally wounded U.S. Special Forces advisor to a small gully about 50 meters away to try and give them some form of protection.

He then continued to push back the attackers, who were trying to overrun the position, until he ran out of ammunition and was surrounded. The enemy gave him the opportunity to surrender, Yntema's Medal of Honor citation stated, but he refused. Instead, he used his rifle as a club to fend off about 15 Viet Cong. His resistance was so fierce that the enemy was forced to shoot him.
Despite insurmountable odds, Yntema refused to give up, instead giving his life to make sure his surviving platoonmates could escape.

For that supreme sacrifice, Yntema received a posthumous Medal of Honor from Vice President Spiro Agnew Nov. 18, 1969, during a White House ceremony. His wife, Peggy, accepted it on his behalf.

Yntema's body was eventually returned home and buried in the Pilgrim Home Cemetery in Holland.

His sacrifice has not been forgotten. A dining facility at the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, is named in Yntema's honor. In 2011, a section of highway near his hometown was designated the "Medal of Honor Recipients Highway" in his honor and that of three other Michigan recipients: Army Sgt. Paul Chambers, Army Lt. Col. Matt Urban and Army Cpl. John Essebagger Jr.

01/07/2026

Medal of Honor Monday: Army Air Corps Brig. Gen. Kenneth Walker

By Katie Lange

Army Air Corps Brig. Gen. Kenneth Newton Walker participated in dangerous bombing missions alongside his air crews during World War II because he wanted to understand how to beat the enemy. Walker never came home from his last mission. He received a posthumous Medal of Honor and is credited with helping to create the blueprint for the modern Air Force.

Walker was born July 17, 1898, in Cerrillos, New Mexico, to Wallace and Emma Walker. His parents separated shortly after he was born, so Walker's mother raised him alone. At some point in his youth, the pair moved to Denver, where Walker became a Boy Scout and took an interest in several sports, including football, wrestling and boxing.

According to Air University Press author Martha Byrd, Walker's maternal grandparents lived in Omaha, Nebraska, so Walker also lived there for a few years before graduating from Omaha High School of Commerce in 1915. However, by 1917, he had returned to Denver, eventually enlisting in the Army on Dec. 15 of that year. He remained in the service for the rest of his life.

Walker became a pilot just as aerial warfare was being established. He trained at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Military Aeronautics and then at Mather Field, California, earning his commission and his wings in the Army Air Service in November 1918. He received a commission in the regular Army July 1, 1920.

Over the next few years, Walker served as a flying instructor in Texas, then in Oklahoma, where he met Marguerite Potter in 1920. The pair married in 1922 and eventually had two sons, Kenneth Jr. and Douglas.

That same year, Walker graduated from the Air Service Operations School before being sent to the Philippines to command the Air Intelligence Section at Camp Nichols. When he returned to the U.S. in 1925, he continued his education and rose through the ranks, serving as an operations officer, bomb squad commander and instructor at various installations.

By January 1941, then-Maj. Walker found himself serving in Washington in the high-level position of assistant chief of the Air War Plans Division. Prior to the Pearl Harbor attacks, Walker was one of four Army Air Corps officers who created the blueprint of how to attack Japan and Germany from the air, according to a 2017 profile of Walker in the San Angelo Standard-Times. That strategy was later considered a key component of the Allied victory.

In July 1942, as the war raged, Walker was promoted to brigadier general and sent to the Pacific Theater. Shortly after his arrival, he was appointed as the commanding general of the Air Force's 5th Bomber Command.

From September 1942 to January 1943, Walker repeatedly went on bombing missions deep into enemy-held territory with his air crews. According to the San Angelo Standard-Times, he also went on bombing missions alone — something few generals did. His desire to take part in the danger earned him great respect from his subordinates. The lessons he learned from those missions helped him develop a highly efficient technique for bombing in the face of enemy aircraft and antiaircraft fire, according to his Medal of Honor citation.

On Jan. 5, 1943, Walker joined several air crews on one of those dangerous missions. Six B-17 Flying Fortresses and six B-24 Liberators were sent on a daytime bombing mission over the Japanese-held harbor at Rabaul on the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. The attack was a success in that direct hits were scored on nine enemy ships. However, the bombers didn't get away before enemy fighters and antiaircraft fire came after them.

Walker was flying as an observer on a B-17 nicknamed the San Antonio Rose, which came under heavy attack. The aircraft was last seen with one engine on fire and several fighter aircraft on its tail. Evidence collected later showed that two of the aircraft's crew members were able to bail out; however, all 11 crew members were eventually declared dead.

On March 25, 1943, Walker's oldest son, Kenneth Jr., received the Medal of Honor on his father's behalf from President Franklin D. Roosevelt during a White House ceremony. Walker was the highest-ranking Army official to be reported missing during the war.

Well before his death, Walker and a few other Air Corps Tactical School instructors were invited by a federal commission to testify in support of creating a separate military air organization that wasn't subordinate to any other branches. Thanks to his work with this commission and the air war plan used during World War II, Walker is considered one of the forefathers of the modern Air Force.

Walker has been remembered in many ways, including on the Wall of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

In January 1948, Roswell Army Air Field in Roswell, New Mexico, was redesignated as Walker Air Force Base in honor of the fallen general. At Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, the home of the College of Aerospace Doctrine Research and Education, Walker Hall was also named for him.

Every year, a small number of papers written by field-grade officers in the Air Force Fellows program are selected to be published online. Those papers are known as the Walker Papers. The chosen officers attend civilian universities and organizations for a year to study national security strategy and serve as military ambassadors to prestigious institutions.

01/07/2026

Medal of Honor Monday: Army Pfc. David Nash

By Katie Lange

Army Pfc. David Paul Nash had only been in the military for about eight months when he gave his life in Vietnam so his fellow soldiers could live. Nash's devotion to the mission and his comrades led him to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor.
Nash, who was known throughout his life as Paulie, was born Nov. 3, 1947, in Whitesville, Kentucky, to Ishmael and Stella Nash. He had six brothers and a sister, served as a Catholic altar boy and attended St. Mary's High School in his hometown.

Nash loved to fish and hunt and, as the second oldest sibling, wasn't afraid of hard work to help support his family. During his teens, he worked at a filling station and raised a to***co crop with one of his older brothers, his mother told the Owensboro, Kentucky, newspaper the Messenger-Inquirer in 2001. Two of his younger brothers said they liked to help him work on his 1957 Chevy up until the time he was drafted in May 1968.

After basic training, Nash was assigned as a grenadier to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division. By that October, he found himself in Vietnam.

According to a 1999 Messenger-Inquirer article, just days before his Medal of Honor actions, Nash took a photo of his bunker's Christmas tree, wrote a letter to his family and dropped it in the mail. It was a letter to which they would never be able to reply.

On Dec. 29, 1968, Nash's company was on an ambush patrol in the Mekong Delta, a swampy area with flooded fields and d**es, when they were suddenly attacked by the Viet Cong. Nash was the first to return enemy fire. Despite being exposed, he managed to suppress the bombardment with a quick series of rounds from his gr***de launcher, which enabled U.S. artillery fire to be adjusted onto the enemy.

After the combatants fled, a small element of Nash's company continued to the ambush site, where he and three fellow soldiers set up an overnight position along a narrow d**e. Other squads of men set up in similar positions nearby.

Shortly after midnight, as Nash and a comrade kept watch while the two other soldiers slept, an enemy gr***de went off in an adjacent position, wounding two soldiers. Seconds later, Nash saw another gr***de land feet from his position.

Nash could have rolled down the other side of the d**e to escape the explosion, but he didn't. Instead, he shouted a warning to his fellow soldiers and threw himself on top of the gr***de. His body absorbed the explosion, saving the lives of the three men with him.

Few were surprised by his actions. According to congressional testimony, a friend later said of Nash, "He was always quiet, but he made you feel good about yourself. He was the kind of guy you wanted next to you when you went on patrol. You trusted him. You knew he would do the right thing and cover you. When I heard what happened, I wasn't surprised. He was that kind of guy."

For making the ultimate sacrifice, Nash's family received the Medal of Honor on his behalf from President Richard M. Nixon, April 7, 1970, during a White House ceremony. The families of 20 other fallen Vietnam soldiers received the same high honor that day.

Nash is buried at St. Mary of the Woods Cemetery in his hometown.

His memory has not been forgotten. In the 1990s, Whitesville erected a memorial in his honor in its city park. In 2004, a section of highway in Daviess County, Kentucky, was unveiled as "Pfc. David Paulie Nash Memorial Highway" to memorialize him. Several veterans who served with Nash attended the ceremony.

12/31/2025

"The best way to predict the future is to create it." – Abraham Lincoln

12/26/2025

Medal of Honor Monday: Army Tech. Sgt. Peter Dalessandro

By Katie Lange

By valiantly fighting his way through Europe and surviving as a prisoner of war, Army Tech. Sgt. Peter Joseph Dalessandro became one of the most highly decorated soldiers of World War II. When he started a career as a state senator afterward, he did so as a Medal of Honor recipient.

Dalessandro was born May 19, 1921, in Watervliet, New York, to Emilio and Maria Dalessandro. He had three brothers and two sisters and was educated in public schools. Little else has been published about his childhood.

When World War II broke out, Dalessandro joined the Army, and it didn't take long for him to get involved in combat overseas. He took part in the invasions of North Africa, Sicily and Normandy, France, before fighting his way across Europe toward Germany.

Dalessandro was part of Company E, 1st Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Division, during the winter of 1944.

Around Christmastime, his unit was ordered to replace another on the Belgian-German border during what became known as the Battle of the Bulge, Germany's last major offensive that surprised exhausted Allied troops in the region.

On Dec. 22, 1944, Dalessandro's platoon was preparing to hold the line at an important road junction on high ground near Kalterherberg, Germany. They had only been there for about two hours when three enemy companies fired an intense round of artillery and mortars in their direction. Soon after, enemy soldiers charged at them in an attack that threatened to overwhelm the platoon's position.
Dalessandro saw his men faltering, so he braved the intense fire and made his way through the group to give them encouragement. Dalessandro then moved to a fully exposed observation post, where he adjusted mortar fire onto the enemy soldiers while firing at them with his rifle. The whole time, he continued to encourage his platoon to push back the attack.

When the enemy launched a second attack later that day, Dalessandro again took control of the situation by rushing to a forward position and calling for mortar fire.

When he ran out of rifle ammunition, Dalessandro crawled 30 yards across exposed ground to grab a light machine gun, which he took back to his position and fired toward the enemy at nearly point-blank range until it jammed. Thankfully, Dalessandro managed to get the gun to fire one more burst, which took out four German soldiers who were about to kill two wounded U.S. soldiers and a medical corpsman in a nearby foxhole.

As the enemy moved in, Dalessandro didn't retreat. Instead, he hurled gr***des and called for mortar fire that came closer and closer to his position, all while covering his platoon so they could withdraw. As German soldiers swarmed him, Dalessandro was heard calling for yet another barrage, yelling, "OK, mortars, let me have it right in this position!"

Dalessandro's bravery and fearlessness allowed his fellow soldiers to escape. However, he was captured and held prisoner for about five months until the war ended. He was then sent back to the U.S.

During a White House ceremony Aug. 23, 1945, Dalessandro received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman for his courage in Europe. He was one of 28 service members who received the honor that day. Dalessandro had also received three Purple Hearts, two Silver Stars, a Bronze Star and the French Croix de Guerre, making him one of the most decorated soldiers of World War II.

Soon after returning home, Dalessandro turned to politics. He was elected as a Democrat to the New York state senate in 1946 and served six terms in that capacity until resigning in 1957 to become the secretary to the Senate minority leader, according to a 1997 article in the Massachusetts newspaper the North Adams Transcript.

That same year, Dalessandro married Patricia Farley. The pair had two daughters, Maribeth and Bernadette.

Dalessandro moved to Latham, New York, in 1969, where he remained until he died on Oct. 15, 1997. The World War II veteran is buried in Saratoga Springs National Cemetery in Saratoga Springs, New York.

In 1987, Dalessandro Boulevard in Albany County, New York, was dedicated in his honor.

12/21/2025

12/09/2025

Medal of Honor Monday: Army Sgt. Ray McKibben

By Katie Lange

On his third deployment to Vietnam, Army Sgt. Ray McKibben went after the enemy on numerous occasions when his unit was unable to do so themselves. McKibben didn't survive his tour of duty, but his courage and dedication to the mission led him to receive a posthumous Medal of Honor.

McKibben was born Oct. 27, 1946, in Felton, Georgia, to Albert and Dottie McKibben. He had an older brother named AJ.

Little has been published about McKibben's childhood, but he attended Buchanan High School before following in his brother's footsteps by joining the Army in the early 1960s.

According to a 1970 article in The Atlanta Constitution newspaper, McKibben had been in the Army for five years and was on his third tour of duty in Vietnam when he gave his life to save his comrades.

On Dec. 8, 1968, McKibben led a unit at the head of a reconnaissance patrol of Troop B of the 7th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Aviation Brigade. They were in enemy territory near Song Mao in southeast Vietnam, where the U.S. Army had a base.

As McKibben led his team along a well-traveled trail, they came under heavy automatic-weapons fire from a fortified bunker, forcing them to take cover. McKibben appraised the situation before charging through bamboo and heavy brush toward the position, killing its gunner and securing the weapon before directing his patrol to keep moving forward.

As his men continued on, McKibben noticed enemy movement to the patrol's flank. He quickly called in a helicopter gunship for close-air support to neutralize the threat.

When the patrol rounded the bend of a river, they were hit by heavier automatic-weapons fire, this time from camouflage bunkers. When one soldier fell wounded, McKibben ignored the intense gunfire all around him and ran to the man's side, pulling him to safety behind a rock before giving the soldier rudimentary first aid.

McKibben then noticed more of his fellow soldiers were pinned down and unable to take out the enemy bunkers. So, he went on a one-man mission to take them out himself. McKibben charged through the brush amid a hail of gunfire to get to the first bunker, where he killed the enemy inside with his rifle before securing its weapon.

McKibben then charged the next bunker, using his rifle and the captured enemy gun as he went. When both weapons ran out of ammunition, he finished the bunker off with hand gr***des.

Reloading his rifle, McKibben provided cover for his fellow soldiers as they continued moving. When he noticed yet another bunker blocking their advance, he once again took it upon himself to assault the position.

Sadly, his luck had run out. As McKibben got close, he was hit by gunfire and didn't survive. However, he was able to shoot one final burst from his weapon, once again killing the enemy inside.

McKibben's courage and commitment helped save the lives of his fellow soldiers and allowed them to finish their mission.

On April 7, 1970, McKibben's widow, Anna, received the Medal of Honor on his behalf from President Richard M. Nixon during a White House ceremony. Twenty other fallen Vietnam soldiers also received the nation's highest medal for valor that day.

McKibben is buried at the Center Baptist Cemetery in his Georgia hometown, where he has not been forgotten. A portion of Highway 120 near where he grew up was renamed in his honor in the 1990s.

The military continues to honor his sacrifice as well. In 1984, a renovated building was renamed McKibben Hall at the now-closed Fort Gillem, Georgia. In 2008, the 7th Squadron that he was once a part of dedicated a conference center and a memorial to him at the unit's new headquarters at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

12/04/2025

Medal of Honor Monday: Marine Corps Staff Sgt. William Windrich

By Katie Lange

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. William Gordon Windrich was only in Korea for a short time, but the skills he'd honed during World War II helped him lead his cold, dirty and disheveled comrades to freedom during one of the most savage battles in modern military history.

Windrich didn't survive the Battle of Chosin Reservoir to tell his own story, but his heroics led him to posthumously receive the Medal of Honor.

Windrich was born May 14, 1921, in Chicago to World War I veteran Herman Windrich and his wife, Marguerite. He had a sister named Virginia.

When Windrich was young, the family moved to nearby Hammond, Indiana, where their father worked as a foreman at the city's only oil refinery.

Windrich attended several public schools before dropping out and enlisting in the Marine Corps Reserve in June 1938. By November 1940, he was called up to active duty.

During World War II, "Windy," as he was called, spent nearly two years in the South Pacific as a machine-gunner, seeing action during the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands. He was discharged soon after the war ended and, after returning home, earned his GED diploma. At some point, he married his hometown girlfriend, Margaret. They had a daughter named Alita.

Civilian life didn't suit Windrich, however. So, in February 1946, he reenlisted in the Marine Corps. That summer, while serving aboard the USS Mount McKinley, Windrich took part in the atomic bomb testing at Bikini Atoll. In the years that followed, he served in positions in around Washington and in China.

Windrich was on military police duty at Camp Pendleton, California, when the Korean War broke out in the summer of 1950. As part of the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, he was one of the first Marines to see action in the conflict. He took part in the Inchon landing and the capture of Seoul before being transferred to Company I of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, 1st Marine Division.

Windrich was the company's platoon sergeant during the infamous Battle of Chosin Reservoir, where about 30,000 troops from the United Nations, many of whom were U.S. Marines and soldiers, chased defeated North Korean army soldiers up the Korean Peninsula to try to force them over the border into China.

When they reached the Chosin Reservoir, however, about 120,000 Chinese troops surged south over the border instead, ambushing U.N. troops and cutting them off from their main supply route.

The nearly three-week battle was one of the most brutal in military history, waged in below-zero temperatures, heavy snow and frigid winds.

On the night of Dec. 1, 1950, the enemy launched a sudden attack on the forward elements of Company I's position on Hill 1520. As Marines fell, Windrich organized a group of men and spearheaded an assault toward the top of the hill to confront the enemy forces.

Despite intense enemy automatic weapons, mortar and gr***de fire, the group was able to effectively hold back the attackers while the remaining troops withdrew to safer ground. However, the assault group was decimated in the process. Most of the men were either wounded or killed, including Windrich, who suffered a head wound from a bursting gr***de.

Windrich fell back to where his company had repositioned themselves. After refusing medical attention, he organized a new group of volunteers to evacuate the fallen Marines on the frozen hillside.

Windrich then placed the rest of the troops on the left flank of the defensive sector as the enemy attacked again. Windrich was severely wounded in the leg and couldn't stand, but he refused to leave the fight, shouting words of encouragement and directing his team's fire until the attack was pushed back. Even then, he continued to direct his platoon to set up defensive positions. Eventually, Windrich succumbed to the bitter cold and excessive blood loss.
"He allowed himself to be placed on a stretcher, and as he lay down, he told one of the men carrying him that he just wanted to go to sleep. Then he died," read a 1985 article on Windrich in his hometown newspaper, The Times.

Windrich's bravery and devotion to duty inspired the men around him to hold the line despite the tremendous odds against them. Eventually, they were able to fight their way south to freedom. But the battle took its toll. The U.S. reported more than 12,000 casualties, including more than 3,000 dead.
Windrich's fellow Marines weren't able to carry his body down the 70 miles of mountainous terrain, so he was left behind with the promise from commanders that they would come back for all the fallen Americans when they could.

Windrich is one of 17 men who received the Medal of Honor for valiant actions during the battle. On Feb. 8, 1952, his widow and daughter received the nation's highest honor for valor on his behalf during a Pentagon ceremony.

More than four years after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir ended, the promise to bring Windrich's body home was fulfilled, and his remains were repatriated. On July 29, 1955, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.

Near his hometown in Lake County, Indiana, residents and visitors can read about Windrich's heroics on a section of the Korean War veterans memorial that's dedicated to him. The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, has also erected a Chosin Few Battle Monument in honor of those who fought there.

11/30/2025

Fall-in@comcast.net