05-22-2012, 10:39
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#1
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Quiet Professional (RIP)
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Carriere,Ms.
Posts: 6,922
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Old Soldiers Epitaph......
Big Teddy
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I believe that SF is a 'calling' - not too different from the calling missionaries I know received. I knew instantly that it was for me, and that I would do all I could to achieve it. Most others I know in SF experienced something similar. If, as you say, you HAVE searched and read, and you do not KNOW if this is the path for you --- it is not....
Zonie Diver
SF is a calling and it requires commitment and dedication that the uninitiated will never understand......
Jack Moroney
SFA M-2527, Chapter XXXVII
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greenberetTFS is offline
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05-22-2012, 11:01
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#2
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Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cochise Co., AZ
Posts: 6,177
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Quote:
Samuel Whittemore (1694 - February 3, 1793) was an American farmer and soldier. He was eighty years of age when he became the oldest known colonial combatant in the American Revolutionary War.[1]
[edit] Biography
Whittemore was born in England. He came to North America in 1745 as an officer in the British Army, where he fought in King George's War. He was involved in the capture of the French stronghold, Fort Louisburg. After the war he stayed in the colonies, settling in Menotomy, Massachusetts (present-day Arlington). He subsequently fought in the French and Indian War at the age of 64, once again assisting in the capture of Fort Louisburg.[2]
On April 19, 1775, British forces were returning to Boston from the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the opening engagements of the war. On their march they were continually shot at by colonial militiamen.
Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, sent to assist the retreat. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols and killed a grenadier and mortally wounded a second. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was shot in the face, bayoneted thirteen times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found alive, trying to load his musket to fight again. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.
A monument in Arlington, Massachusetts reads:
"Near this spot, Samuel Whittemore, then 80 years old, killed three British soldiers, April 19, 1775. He was shot, bayoneted, beaten and left for dead, but recovered and lived to be 98 years of age."
In 2005, Samuel Whittemore was proclaimed the official state hero of Massachusetts and his memory is commemorated on February 3rd each year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Whittemore
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Quite a Soldier!
Pat
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"Hector Lives!"
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." -- Frederick Douglass
"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." -- Dennis Prager
"The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it." --H.L. Mencken
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PSM is offline
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05-22-2012, 11:33
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Arizona
Posts: 5,222
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PSM
Quite a Soldier!
Pat
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One Hard Man, thanks for the history
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PRB is offline
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05-22-2012, 17:08
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#4
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,780
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I want a Medal of Honor write up for Mr. Whittemore!
Above and beyond indeed!
TR
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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." - President Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
De Oppresso Liber 01/20/2025
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The Reaper is offline
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05-22-2012, 20:20
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#5
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Guerrilla
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Northern Colorado
Posts: 473
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that patriot had some hard bark on him...great post...raisng my glass with friends celebrating sam!
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twistedsquid is offline
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05-22-2012, 21:50
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#6
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Just above the flood plain in Southern Texas
Posts: 3,608
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That's quite the story. Cheers to Samuel Whittemore, a special breed of person!
and, as an 18D, a round of cheers to Dr. Cotton Tufts for putting an old soldier back together again to fight an live another day. (I'm sure he had nothing more than a simple M-5 bag of tricks)
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You only live once; live well. Have no regrets when the end happens!
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” (Sir Edmund Burke)
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Old Dog New Trick is offline
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05-23-2012, 07:50
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#7
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RIP Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: The Ozarks
Posts: 10,072
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"If I don't mind, it don't matter" applies at any age, evidently.
Salute.
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"There you go, again." Ronald Reagan
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Dusty is offline
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05-23-2012, 16:56
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#8
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Area Commander
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Midwest
Posts: 7,107
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Amazing Soldier, thanks for this post!
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My Heroes wear camouflage.
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Gypsy is offline
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05-23-2012, 18:49
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#9
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Asset
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Randolph, VT
Posts: 18
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Tough old man
I used to live up the street from this monument in the center of Arlington, MA. The 10th Regiment of Foot took more wounded getting home from Lexington and Concord than they did in the battles. The basic load for the Brits was 20 or 30 rounds - the bayonet was considered the primary weapon! At the time, Arlington was called Menotomy and one British soldier wrote afterwards "We were much vexed as we passed through Anatomy" (Let the puns begin)
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Initial success or total failure
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JoeEOD is offline
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