04-12-2010, 06:41
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#1
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: N.E.WA
Posts: 1,137
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John "Jack" Agnew (Ret)
A true Hero.......God Bless You Sir, and those like You......RIP
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...OGmjQD9F17SU00
Quote:
Member of unit linked to 'Dirty Dozen' dies in Pa.
By RON TODT (AP) – 10 hours ago
PHILADELPHIA — John "Jack" Agnew, one of the original members of a U.S. Army unit that operated behind enemy lines in World War II and is often credited with having loosely inspired the movie "The Dirty Dozen," has died at age 88.
Agnew belonged to the Filthy Thirteen, an unofficial unit within the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. He was pronounced dead Thursday at Abington Memorial Hospital after becoming ill at his home in the Maple Village retirement community in Hatboro, where he and his wife moved about a year ago, his daughter Barbara Agnew Maloney said.
On D-Day, the Filthy Thirteen parachuted into France to take a bridge over the Douve River. It was "a mission that would cost most of the men their lives," according to an article in the winter 2008-09 edition of American Valour Quarterly, a publication of the nonprofit American Veterans Center.
Before the Battle of the Bulge, Agnew and other members of the unit were requested for pathfinder duty and parachuted into Bastogne, which was besieged by German forces. Agnew operated a beacon to help guide in planes carrying badly needed supplies.
Tales of the unit's exploits and a Stars and Stripes military newspaper photograph are said to have inspired "The Dirty Dozen," not because any of the unit's members were convicts like the movie's characters — they weren't — but because of their reputation for brawling, drinking and spending time in the stockade.
In interviews, Agnew, a private first class, said that came directly from the unit's leader, Jake McNiece.
"We weren't murderers or anything, we just didn't do everything we were supposed to do in some ways and did a whole lot more than they wanted us to do in other ways," he told the quarterly. "We were always in trouble."
Agnew was among those interviewed in a documentary, "The Filthy Thirteen: Real Stories from Behind the Lines," that was included in a 2006 special edition DVD of "The Dirty Dozen."
The 1967 movie, about an Army major who has to train and lead 12 convicts into a mission targeting German officers, starred Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and Jim Brown.
Maloney said her father told her about 30 percent of the movie was true.
"And, actually, the scene where they captured the officers, Dad said that was true and he really coordinated that," she said Sunday.
Two months ago, Maloney said, she accompanied her father to a military history convention in Louisville, Ky., where she met with three of the four surviving Filthy Thirteen members and three members of Easy Company, which was the focus of the HBO series "Band of Brothers."
"Dad, when we were little kids, he'd always say, 'I won the war; I know you don't believe me, but someday you'll know,'" she said. "We didn't really realize it until the 'Band of Brothers' came out."
Agnew will be buried with full military honors Tuesday at Forest Hills Cemetery in Huntingdon Valley, in the Philadelphia suburbs, where he and his wife, Elizabeth Agnew, lived for 56 years, Maloney said.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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__________________
"Most of us here can attest that we never took the easy way. Easy just is............easy. Life is a work in progress, and most of the time its a struggle." ~ Me
"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." -Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956)
"A Government that is losing to an insurgency is not being outfought, it is being out governed." Bernard B. Fall
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LongWire is offline
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04-12-2010, 07:03
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#2
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Gold Star Father
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Littleton, Colorado
Posts: 388
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Rest in Peace Sir. Thank you for your service and sacrifice for our country. You will always be missed and NEVER forgotten.
molon labe
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Tatonka316 is offline
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04-12-2010, 07:18
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#3
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: 18 yrs upstate NY, 30 yrs South Florida, 20 yrs Conch Republic, now chasing G-Kids in NOVA & UK
Posts: 11,901
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RIP Warrior, Vaya con Dios..
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Go raibh tú leathuair ar Neamh sula mbeadh a fhios ag an diabhal go bhfuil tú marbh
"May you be a half hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead"
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JJ_BPK is offline
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04-12-2010, 07:50
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#4
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Guerrilla Chief
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Ohio
Posts: 590
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Rest in God's Peace
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LOYALTY - HONOR - INTEGRITY
Understand the problem; pull your weight. Appreciate. Be completely honest and trustworthy in all things. - Jeff Cooper
Practice honesty and integrity; rescue the man who has been wronged from the hands of his oppressor; do not exploit the stranger, the orphan, the widow; do no violence; shed no innocent blood in this place. Jer 22:3
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ~ Edmund Burke
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Rogue is offline
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04-12-2010, 07:56
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#5
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Area Commander
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: OK. Thanking Our Brave Soldiers
Posts: 3,614
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Rest-In-Peace, Sir. Your bravery and courage in the face of danger will never be forgotten.
Holly
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echoes is offline
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04-12-2010, 10:30
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#6
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Quiet Professional (RIP)
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Carriere,Ms.
Posts: 6,922
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God Bless,Rest in Peace Warrior............. 
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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04-12-2010, 10:51
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#7
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Area Commander
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 2,952
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May you rest in God's peace warrior!!
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Red Flag 1 is offline
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04-12-2010, 11:00
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#8
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Area Commander
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Cochise Co., AZ
Posts: 6,204
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Rest in Peace, Pathfinder!
Then and Now.
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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04-12-2010, 11:01
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#9
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Area Commander
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: USA-Germany
Posts: 1,574
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RIP
Rest in Peace and Thank You.
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"Men Wanted: for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.” -Sir Ernest Shackleton
“A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.” –Greek proverb
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akv is offline
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04-12-2010, 13:31
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#10
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Guerrilla Chief
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: south western pa.
Posts: 692
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R.I.P. Sir. And Thank You
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Special Forces Association A-593 Life
_______________________________
Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft.
Theodore Roosevelt
________________________________
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle
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swpa19 is offline
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04-12-2010, 13:43
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#11
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Guerrilla
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: PA
Posts: 419
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RIP Sir, and yes you did win the war...
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Sometimes you must do dark things to get to the light. "unknown"
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FMF DOC is offline
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04-12-2010, 15:31
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#12
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Eastern Panhandle, WV
Posts: 719
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There are some warriors who are grander than words and bigger than life. We salute you sir. We have stood on the shoulders of paratroopers, pathfinders, and commandos like you for three generations. It is time for you to rest from that burden.
"Well done, thou good and faithful servant."
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Green Light is offline
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04-12-2010, 17:00
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#13
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Area Commander
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Midwest
Posts: 7,134
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Rest in Peace, Sir...we shall not forget you. God Bless.
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My Heroes wear camouflage.
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Gypsy is offline
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04-12-2010, 19:10
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#14
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Wilson,NC
Posts: 1,506
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Rest in Peace Sir. You have been an inspiration to all.
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"Solitude is strength; to depend on the presence of the crowd is weakness. The man who needs a mob to nerve him is much more alone than he imagines."
~ Paul Brunton (1898-1981)
R.D. Winters
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rdret1 is offline
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04-12-2010, 19:17
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#15
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Quiet Professional
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Northwest AR
Posts: 523
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RIP
Rest In Peace.
Truly a remarkable warrior.
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"For exercise I recommend vigorous walking... and carrying a gun. The gun’s weight will increase the level of exercise and the possession of a gun on a walk produces real confidence."
Thomas Jefferson
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