Wow this guy really deserves the Medal of Honor

[Koolkid101 0]

Quote[/b] ]Sgt. David Rubitsky was asked to lay a communications wire connecting his battalion command post to a rat-infested, enemy-threatened outpost in a New Guinea swamp on Dec. 1, 1942.

The outpost was actually a former Japanese bunker won by American troops in recent fighting. Built with coconut logs and concrete reinforced with steel plate, it was four to five feet in height, 30-feet long and 10-feet wide.

When Rubitsky and an officer traveling with him arrived at the remote bunker, the three U.S. soldiers manning it said Japanese troops were moving into the area. They decided to flee and advised Rubitsky and Capt. Joseph Stehling to do the same.

Rubitsky decided to stay. And thus began his amazing story of heroism that has yet to be fully rewarded and recognized by his country even 59 years later.

Rubitsky watched the Japanese soldiers move small artillery pieces, heavy machine guns, mortars and anti-aircraft armaments into the area. He watched as more and more soldiers gathered. Anticipating a surprise attack by the Japanese on his 2nd Battalion, Rubitsky decided to lead his own surprise attack.

He opened fire. As Japanese soldiers advanced toward his bunker, Rubitsky used every weapon in his arsenal for nine grueling hours of intense fighting. He alternated between firing his .30-caliber water-cooled machine gun with 3,000 rounds of ammunition, a Browning automatic rifle with close to 600 rounds, his M-1 rifle, a pistol and tossing some of his 35 hand grenades.

Rubitsky spent a total of 21 hours in the bunker -- including nine under heavy siege. The Japanese army attacked from three different directions -- the north, south and west. His bunker had slits on all sides, making it possible for him to respond to an attack from any direction. He switched from gun to gun and threw grenades at the enemy, while the Japanese alternately charged his position and shelled it with light artillery.

When the fighting was over, Rubitsky was bleeding from the mouth, nose and elsewhere and suffering from multiple concussions from the shelling. But the Japanese were a lot worse off.

When Lt. Col. Herbert Smith came up to the bunker the next day, he estimated that Rubitsky had single-handedly killed 500 to 600 Japanese soldiers, thereby saving his own battalion from being decimated in a surprise attack.

That same month, Smith and Stehling recommended Rubitsky for the Medal of Honor.

But Rubitsky didn't get the medal. The late Maj. Gen. Smith, Brig. Gen. Stehling and three other soldiers from the 128th Infantry, the 2nd Battalion and the 32nd Division in New Guinea all concluded that the reason Rubitsky did not get the award was anti-Semitism.

Smith stated, before he died in 1989, that after referring the recommendation up the chain of command he was told by a lieutenant colonel: "We don't give Jews the Congressional Medal of Honor."

But the story doesn't end there.

Today Rubitsky is 82 years old. He spent a total of 40 years in active military service. He is currently a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Disabled American Veterans.

He and those who love him want to see this injustice righted.

Evelyn Smith, the widow of Gen. Smith, has written a notarized statement regarding her husband's support of Rubitsky: "My husband told me that Sgt. David Rubitsky deserved to win the Congressional Medal a second time in Leyte, Philippines, for knocking out seven machine gun nests, killing nearly 200 or more Japanese soldiers. …"

As for Rubitsky, himself, he says his lobbying for the medal at this stage is simply a matter of principle.

"What really matters is why I didn't get the medal," he says. "I'm doing it for the principle and the truth, not the medal and not the money. It's for every man, whether black, green, or purple. If he wears the uniform, he should get what's coming to him. He shouldn't have to fight for it."

There's talk of a movie being made about David Rubitsky. But before the full story can really be told -- on the big screen or elsewhere -- it needs a happy ending.

Damn that is even more that Segergant York in WWI, why won't they give this man the Medal of Honor?

[bn880 5]

Maybe he didn't get it for catch phrases like this "If he wears the uniform, he should get what's coming to him. He shouldn't have to fight for it."

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]Damn that is even more that Segergant York in WWI, why won't they give this man the Medal of Honor?

He needs help from congress....

[billybob2002 0]

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/mohb.htm

Quote[/b] ]

No African American soldier was awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II. In 1993 the Army contracted Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, to research and prepare a study "to determine if there was a racial disparity in the way Medal of Honor recipients were selected." Shaw's team researched the issue and, finding that there was disparity, recommended the Army consider a group of 10 soldiers for the Medal of Honor. Of those 10, seven were recommended to receive the award. In October of 1996 Congress passed the necessary legislation which allowed the President to award these Medals of Honor since the statutory limit for presentation had expired. The Medals of Honor were presented, by President William Clinton, in a ceremony on 13 January 1997. Vernon Baker was the only recipient still living and present to receive his award; the other six soldiers received their awards posthumously, with their medals being presented to family members.

Like I said he needs help from congress and support.

[MSpencer 0]

Congress is too anti-military and so quick to believe the worst of our military.

They'll come up with something like "450 of those 500 were unarmed civilians" or something. At least the media will.

It's politics.

[blackdog~ 0]

Congress is too anti-military and so quick to believe the worst of our military.

They'll come up with something like "450 of those 500 were unarmed civilians" or something. At least the media will.

It's politics.

Yup. See the post entitled "Something that didn't make the headlines".

As you said: it's politics.

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

hmm - more 'blatant prejudice' than politics.

[MSpencer 0]

Racial bias has always been caused by politics.

[billybob2002 0]

Quote[/b] ]hmm - more 'blatant prejudice' than politics.

He needs to rally the "troops" like the others did to get the moh.

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

Racial bias has always been caused by politics.

No it hasn't, its been caused by racial bias.

Racism exists independently of politics.

[Akira 0]

Racial bias has always been caused by politics.

Racial bias has always been caused by ignorance.

Politics has nothing to do with it, but can be influenced by the same ignorance.

The same can be said for the Navaho code talkers, Jews, Hispanics, Blacks, Tuskegee Airmen, or any other minority group in the Second World War. Ever wonder why we viewed the Germans differently then we did the Japanese? Racial bias.

[MSpencer 0]

Germany: Hitler- Master Race idea

China: Middle Kingdom idea to cement dynastic cycle and justify anti-religion ideas.

USA and countless other countries: Blacks - slavery, viewed as inferior because of political motivation to believe that people can be seen as objects.

Navajo Codetalkers (I met Chester Nez, talked to him for a while one day): Propoganda done by the good 'ol US of A's Senate.

The list goes on...

[Akira 0]

The politics was a means to an end, not the basis for racial inequality.

Slavery started with the basic ignorant premise that "they are different, thus inferior." Even went so far as the scientific community, as when the deduced that since a Black persons head was on average smaller (cranial radius) then a white person then they must be dumber. They had trouble explaining how the Asians on average had a larger one then the white people.

Then came the necessity of establishing slavery in the man-power strapped New World.

Quote[/b] ]Germany: Hitler- Master Race idea

Politization of Anti-Semitism did not come till MUCH later. Hitler did not even conceive of these ideas until much later in his life.

Making it a political issue was the means to his victory in a country that was down and out (to put it mildly).

Quote[/b] ]China: Middle Kingdom idea to cement dynastic cycle and justify anti-religion ideas.

I'm not sure where the racism comes in, but dynastic rule was neccesary for unification and cohesion in a country that was divided for most of its existence.

Quote[/b] ]USA and countless other countries: Blacks - slavery, viewed as inferior because of political motivation to believe that people can be seen as objects.

See above.

Quote[/b] ]Navajo Codetalkers (I met Chester Nez, talked to him for a while one day): Propoganda done by the good 'ol US of A's Senate.

Propoganda? That their contribution was ignored? Seems the opposite to me.

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

USING politics to ENFORCE racist and prejudiced ideas is not, by any means, the same as politics creating those ideas.

(as an example) Religion tells people how to act. Politics does not.