MOH Recipient To Be Honored by the NFL

Normally I haven't got much use for Baylor University...but in this case I'll make an exception.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. of "The Tank" writes about a former Baylor University football player, NY Giants star and United States Marine...

Lummus, as I wrote, was "a 29-year-old former defensive lineman with the New York Giants and an All-American at Baylor University who – in addition to football – had once signed a minor league baseball contract." But one month after Pearl Harbor, he left the Giants to become a Marine infantry officer.

During heavy fighting on Iwo, Lummus ordered an attack against an enemy gun emplacement:

...As the Marines charged, Lummus stepped on a landmine. The enormous blast that followed could be heard across the entire island.

Numbed and with ears ringing, Lummus’ Marines could still make out the familiar Texas drawl of their platoon commander shouting, “Forward! Keep moving!” They could hear him, but they couldn’t see him. Not until the blast’s smoke and dust cleared. Then they saw the blackened figure of a man bent over and trying to push himself up on one of his elbows.

The Marines initially thought their lieutenant was standing in a hole. Then there was the horror of what they were looking at: Lummus was upright on two bloody stumps: His legs had been blown off, and much of his lower trunk was missing.

Several of the younger Marines, weeping like children, ran to his side. Some of the older Marines briefly considered a mercy shooting. But Lummus kept urging them forward: “Dammit, keep moving!,” he uttered. “You can't stop now!”

Read the rest here


1st Lieutenant Andrew Jackson “Jack” Lummus Jr will be honored by the NY Giants during the game between the Giants and the Dallas Cowboys on Veterans Day.

Simper Fi.