Alvin
York
Alvin
York, born in 1887, learned to shoot by hunting wild game while growing up in
the mountains of Tennessee. He was opposed to war and tried to avoid the draft
as a conscientious objector (someone, because of their moral or religious
beliefs, refuses to obey the law). York was a Christian and as one, he decided
he wasn’t allowed to kill. Later, he decided to allow himself to kill because he thought that fighting in a war
was justified as long as the cause was too.
At the Battle
of Argonne Forest, October 18, 1918, Germans fired on York’s platoon and killed
nine of his men. York took command and killed nine to twenty-five Germans before he
took 132 of them as prisoners. York received the Medal of Honor and the French
Croix de Guerre. He used his fame to raise money for the Alvin York Institute,
a school for poor Tennessee children, after returning home.
Eddie
Rickenbacker was born in Columbus, Ohio. Rickenbacker had great reflexes,
due to his car-racing days. He used these reflexes as an advantage while he was a combat pilot and was
named commander of the first all-American squadron to enter combat. While in
the 94th Aero Squadron, Rickenbacker became the top pilot with over
130 air battles fought and 20+ aircrafts shot down. He was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor by surviving an aerial battle alone against seven German pilots.
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