Colonel Van T. Barfoot (US Army)

 

 

 

At about this time in 1944,

a soldier engages in an action that would earn him the *M

                   edal of Honor*. Colonel Van T. Barfoot has been called

“[o]ne of the most significant Native-American heroes of World War II”

—but he might be better known for a 2009 fight to keep

the American flag flying in his front yard.

 

The homeowners’ association in Barfoot’s neighborhood disliked the 21-foot flagpole

that he’d erected there.

Hmm. Perhaps it was an unfair fight:

an old WWII hero versus a homeowners’ association?!

Needless to say, Barfoot won.  ;)

 

How unsurprising that Barfoot wanted that flag,

given his wartime experiences. 

 

Barfoot had enlisted in the Army even before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

By 1944, then-Technical Sergeant Barfoot was with the 157th Infantry,

45th Infantry Division,

participating in amphibious landings in Italy.

By May, his unit was near Carano, Italy.

Those men had been in a defensive position for weeks.

 

On May 23, they were finally ordered to attack.

 

Our soldiers faced an immediate challenge.

“We knew we had a minefield to go through,”

Barfoot later explained. “Numerous mines. . . .

The enemy covered the minefield with machine gun fire.

As we got there, we began to receive some small arms fire.”

 

Barfoot wasn’t going to let a little thing like a minefield get in his way. 

He knew what he had to do. He’d been conducting patrols for days,

and he had a pretty good mental map of the area in his head.

He volunteered to lead a squad through the minefield.

He’d “take the machine guns out.”

 

And that’s just what he did.

 

Barfoot was soon moving alone down the enemy’s left flank.

He snuck through ditches

and got close enough to one machine gun nest to throw in a grenade.

He was soon working his way through German trench lines toward a second nest.

He killed some of the enemy with his submachine gun and captured others.

 

Maybe you won’t be surprised to hear

that the Germans in the third machine gun nest surrendered.

When all was said and done, Barfoot had 17 German captives.

 

Yet that was just the first part of his day.

 

Just as Barfoot’s men were getting reorganized,

they saw three German tanks headed their way.

“Three people and a rocket launcher was all we had,”

Barfoot later recounted.

“I knew we weren’t any match against any one of the three tanks

that we saw coming,

so I ordered the people with me back into the ditch.

I took the rocket launcher.

I took up a position to where I could get the tanks if they moved.”

 

His position was exposed,

“directly in front of 3 advancing Mark VI tanks,” as his Medal citation describes.

Barfoot’s first shot destroyed the track of the lead tank,

which prompted the other two to change course.

Barfoot continued on into enemy territory,

destroying an abandoned German fieldpiece that was nearby.

He finished the day by helping two seriously wounded comrades back to safety.

 

Barfoot not only earned a battlefield commission for his actions

that day, but he also received a *Medal of Honor*. 

 

“I was doing my job,” he later said.

“A leader is supposed to protect, lead, and sacrifice himself if necessary.”

A true American hero. 

 

 

 

밴 T. 바풋 대령 (미 육군)



1944년 무렵, 한 병사가 *명예 훈장*을 받을 만한 행동을 합니다.

 밴 T. 바풋 대령은 "제2차 세계 대전에서 가장 중요한 아메리카 원주민 영웅 중 한 명"으로 불립니다.

 하지만 그는 2009년 자신의 집 앞마당에 성조기를 게양하기 위해 벌인 투쟁으로 

더 잘 알려져 있을지도 모릅니다.

바풋이 살던 동네 주택 소유주 협회는 그가 세운 6미터 높이의 깃대를 못마땅하게 여겼습니다. 

흠. 어쩌면 불공평한 싸움이었을지도 모릅니다.

 제2차 세계 대전의 영웅과 주택 소유주 협회라니?! 

말할 필요도 없이 바풋이 이겼습니다. ;)

바풋이 전쟁 경험을 생각하면 그 성조기를 원했다는 것은 놀라운 일이 아닙니다.

바풋은 진주만 공격 이전에도 육군에 입대했습니다. 

1944년, 당시 기술 상사였던 바풋은 제45보병사단 제157보병연대 소속으로 

이탈리아 상륙작전에 참여하고 있었습니다. 

5월이 되자 그의 부대는 이탈리아 카라노 근처에 도착했습니다. 

이들은 몇 주 동안 방어 진지를 유지하고 있었습니다.

5월 23일, 마침내 공격 명령을 받았습니다.

아군 병사들은 즉각적인 위협에 직면했습니다. 

바풋은 나중에 이렇게 설명했습니다.

 "우리는 통과해야 할 지뢰밭이 있다는 것을 알고 있었습니다. 

수많은 지뢰가... 적군은 기관총으로 지뢰밭을 뒤덮고 있었습니다. 

그곳에 도착하자 소총 사격이 시작되었죠."

바풋은 지뢰밭 같은 사소한 것에 방해받을 생각이 없었습니다. 

그는 무엇을 해야 할지 알고 있었습니다.

 며칠 동안 순찰을 해왔고, 머릿속에는 그 지역에 대한 꽤 정확한 지도가 그려져 있었습니다.

그는 지뢰밭을 통과하는 분대를 이끌겠다고 자원했습니다.

"기관총을 제거하겠다"는 것이었습니다.

그리고 그는 정확히 그렇게 했습니다.

바풋은 곧 적의 좌측 측면을 따라 홀로 이동하고 있었습니다. 

그는 도랑을 몰래 빠져나가 기관총 진지 한 곳에 접근하여 수류탄을 투하했습니다.

 그는 곧 독일군 참호선을 뚫고 두 번째 진지로 향했습니다. 

그는 기관단총으로 적 몇 명을 사살하고 나머지는 포로로 잡았습니다.

세 번째 기관총 진지에 있던 독일군이 항복했다는 소식에 놀라지 않으실 겁니다.

 결국 바풋은 독일군 포로 17명을 확보했습니다.

하지만 그것은 그의 하루 일과의 시작에 불과했습니다.

바풋의 부하들이 재정비하던 중, 독일군 전차 세 대가 자신들에게 다가오는 것을 보았습니다. 

바풋은 나중에 이렇게 회상했습니다. 

"우리에게 남은 것은 세 명의 병력과 로켓 발사기뿐이었습니다." 

"오는 전차 세 대 중 어떤 것에도 상대가 되지 않는다는 것을 알고 있었기에, 

저는 함께 있던 병력들에게 도랑으로 돌아가라고 명령했습니다. 

저는 로켓 발사기를 잡았고, 전차가 움직이면 전차를 포위할 수 있는 위치를 확보했습니다."

그의 위치는 "전진하는 마크 6 전차 3대 바로 앞"에 노출되어 있었습니다.

 바풋의 첫 번째 포격은 선두 전차의 궤도를 파괴했고, 

이는 다른 두 전차가 진로를 바꾸도록 이끌었습니다. 

바풋은 적진으로 계속 진격하여 근처에 버려진 독일군 야포를 파괴했습니다. 

그는 중상을 입은 두 명의 전우를 안전하게 후송하는 것으로 하루를 마무리했습니다.

바풋은 그날의 활약으로 전장에서 훈장을 받았을 뿐만 아니라 *명예 훈장*도 받았습니다.

"저는 제 임무를 다했습니다."라고 그는 나중에 말했습니다. 

"지도자는 자신을 보호하고 이끌며, 

필요하다면 자신을 희생해야 합니다."

진정한 미국 영웅.

 

 

2025년 5월 22일 목요일