SgtMaj Charles Hoffman (Ernest Janson): Battle of Belleau Wood

03/13/23 • 4 min

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Ernest Janson went AWOL from the Army and joined the Marines under a false name: Charles Hoffman. Eight years later, at the legendary Battle of Belleau Wood, Hoffman’s actions awarded him the Medal of Honor when he single handedly charged a German machine gun squad from attacking his Marines.

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MSgt Roy Benavidez

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Master Sergeant Raul Perez “Roy” Benavidez spent his adolescence working a series of odd jobs in Cuero, TX before enlisting in the National Guard in 1952. He would later join the Army and earn his Green beret before being deployed to Vietnam. It was here that he earned the Medal of Honor for risking his own life to rescue wounded soldiers and recover the body of a fallen soldier and the classified information he was carrying.

You can find Benavidez’s autobiographical books about his experiences here:

Medal of Honor

The Three Wars of Roy Benavidez

Medal of Honor: One Man’s Journey From Poverty and Prejudice

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CAPT Cromwell: Down With The Ship

During WWII, one day before the landing at Tarawa, Captain Cromwell’s submarine was severely damaged by a Japanese destroyer. Forced between losing all his men as they took water or risking capture, Cromwell scuttled the ship with himself in it, keeping the Japanese from learning about Tarawa or the Allies’ ULTRA intelligence program. Cromwell was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

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