I found my father's twin on the Internet, playing his accordian on the street for his keep. Lt. Joseph W. Smith, my father, was written up in the Saturday Evening Post as one of General Pershing's 100 Heros.
"Not long ago the Secretary of War was asked by one of the Government publicity committees to cable General Pershing and ask him if he would select one hundred typical stories of American heroism during the war. Some three weeks later General Pershing cabled the Secretary that he had assembled his board of officers which awarded the Destinguished Service medals and that they had selected one hundred representative types of American heroism."
"It should be borne in mind that there were literally thousands of instances of heroism among our fighting troops in France, and that any selection confined to so small a number as one hundred would necessarily omit more examples than it could possibly include. The one hundred exploits given are, howere, sufficiently numerous and fine to stir the blood of any American who reads thes wonderful little stories of the unflinching courage of our boys."
"Lieutenant Smith had no thought for his own safety. His was a question of saving his men from casualties. He swam across the Rupt de Mad, a small stream on September 12, 1918. Finding that when his platoon crossed the river they would be subjected to fire from enemy machine guns, Lieutenant Smith determined the exact location of those guns. He plunged into the stream in advance of his men, crossed to the opposite shore and deliberately exposed himself to enemy fire to find the details of their positions. Followed by his men, he led them in a flank attack on the nest, capturing nineteen Germans, he himself using a rifle with deadly effect. This prompt and heroic action made it possible for the entire American line to advance without losing one man."
My family's bloodline goes back to the pioneers who proceeded west along the Columbian trial. They made America the greatest bastion of freedom the world has ever known. We must not let them down.
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