Out of everyone you've met, who has had the most impressive military career?

Of those I've met? Well, there was a master sergeant assigned to my office at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii when I arrived there. He was a white haired, quiet man who wore just one decoration on his uniform, a Silver Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster. Rather than simply ask, I went to the personnel records one day and pulled his 201 file. The story it revealed was truly incredible. He lied about his age at something like 13 to enlist in the Army and went to Europe with Pershing. When WWI ended, he went back home to the farm. He reenlisted for WWII and fought in Europe, receiving a battlefield commission and rising to major and commanded a battalion. When WWII ended, he went back to the farm. He enlisted again for Korea and Vietnam. When I met him he was completing 20 years of service, every one of them in war time service. Oh, and the Silver Stars? Both were awarded, the orders signed, by John J. Pershing.

When I was stationed in Germany a lot of people made one of the cooks on the Kaserne a object of ridicule just because he was a cook. Sometimes it was worse than others, but he would just put his head down and keep going. Several months after this started, an old friend of his was stationed there and one day I seen him rip up and down on several people who had been the main group giving the cook a hard time. By the time he was done several minutes later, everyone felt pretty bad when they heard the cooks story. He told them about how our cook use to be an 11B Army Grunt in Vietnam. One day on a long (several day) patrol they took fire and was pinned down. I believe it was about 20 people they had. Long story short, this man had cared for all the wounded, held off the enemy and kept them safe for several days until they could get help. He himself was wounded several times. He was put in for a Silver Star and for whatever reason, the "powers that be" decided it was just a Bronze Star kind of action to them. Personally A lot of us who heard the story felt it was MOH material. I seen several heads hang low after that and a clerk in the admin checked and did verify his records. After that, he was treated with respect and treated with dignity! He might not have all the medals and honors some receive, but the dignity this man treated people with, even while ridiculed and never bragged on his accomplishments made him someone to look up to I felt. He was a better man who had proven his self worth . He himself was a great role model, especially when you thought about him, his past actions and the way he treated people in general. It taught me a good lesson about how you never know who you are talking to and until you do, treat them with respect and dignity. You never know what they have done or been through. Our cook was a bad ass who deserved some respect!!!

You mean Commander Shepard is based on a true Story?