Go Back   Professional Soldiers ® > Hall of Heroes > Above and Beyond

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 10-04-2013, 20:43   #1
Divemaster
Quiet Professional
 
Divemaster's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Washington
Posts: 2,053
Nation's Oldest MOH Recipient Dies at 96

Nicholas Oresko of Cresskill, World War II hero, dies at 96

FRIDAY OCTOBER 4, 2013, 10:23 PM
BY EVONNE COUTROS AND ABBOTT KOLOFF
STAFF WRITERS

Nicholas Oresko of Cresskill, the nation’s oldest Medal of Honor recipient, died Friday evening, surrounded by veterans and military personnel who had gathered there all week after hearing on social media that he was in the hospital with a broken leg.

He died at 6:30 p.m. at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center of complications from surgery for a broken right femur, said John “Jack” Carbone, a family friend. That was the same leg injured by gunfire on Jan. 23, 1945, as he crawled from one enemy bunker to another.

Oresko had no living immediate family, but he was never alone at the hospital after being taken there earlier in the week from a Cresskill assisted living facility, Carbone said. Veterans and young members of various branches of military service were at his side, with more than two dozen at the hospital Friday afternoon before he was taken to have surgery.

Full story: http://www.northjersey.com/cresskill...ies_at_96.html

It is sad to think I'll likely still be around to live in a world without his generation.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg Nick Oresko.jpg (18.1 KB, 49 views)
__________________
Grando autem duodecimo hominis
Divemaster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2013, 20:46   #2
Divemaster
Quiet Professional
 
Divemaster's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Washington
Posts: 2,053
Medal of Honor citation

ORESKO, NICHOLAS

Rank and organization: Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 302d Infantry, 94th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Tettington, Germany, 23 January 1945. Entered service at: Bayonne, N.J. Birth: Bayonne, N.J. G.O. No.: 95, 30 October 1945.

Citation:

M/Sgt. Oresko was a platoon leader with Company C, in an attack against strong enemy positions. Deadly automatic fire from the flanks pinned down his unit. Realizing that a machinegun in a nearby bunker must be eliminated, he swiftly worked ahead alone, braving bullets which struck about him, until close enough to throw a grenade into the German position. He rushed the bunker and, with pointblank rifle fire, killed all the hostile occupants who survived the grenade blast. Another machinegun opened up on him, knocking him down and seriously wounding him in the hip. Refusing to withdraw from the battle, he placed himself at the head of his platoon to continue the assault. As withering machinegun and rifle fire swept the area, he struck out alone in advance of his men to a second bunker. With a grenade, he crippled the dug-in machinegun defending this position and then wiped out the troops manning it with his rifle, completing his second self-imposed, 1-man attack. Although weak from loss of blood, he refused to be evacuated until assured the mission was successfully accomplished. Through quick thinking, indomitable courage, and unswerving devotion to the attack in the face of bitter resistance and while wounded, M /Sgt. Oresko killed 12 Germans, prevented a delay in the assault, and made it possible for Company C to obtain its objective with minimum casualties.
__________________
Grando autem duodecimo hominis
Divemaster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2013, 20:51   #3
PRB
Quiet Professional
 
PRB's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Arizona
Posts: 5,221
Quote:
Originally Posted by Divemaster View Post
ORESKO, NICHOLAS

Rank and organization: Master Sergeant, U.S. Army, Company C, 302d Infantry, 94th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Tettington, Germany, 23 January 1945. Entered service at: Bayonne, N.J. Birth: Bayonne, N.J. G.O. No.: 95, 30 October 1945.

Citation:

M/Sgt. Oresko was a platoon leader with Company C, in an attack against strong enemy positions. Deadly automatic fire from the flanks pinned down his unit. Realizing that a machinegun in a nearby bunker must be eliminated, he swiftly worked ahead alone, braving bullets which struck about him, until close enough to throw a grenade into the German position. He rushed the bunker and, with pointblank rifle fire, killed all the hostile occupants who survived the grenade blast. Another machinegun opened up on him, knocking him down and seriously wounding him in the hip. Refusing to withdraw from the battle, he placed himself at the head of his platoon to continue the assault. As withering machinegun and rifle fire swept the area, he struck out alone in advance of his men to a second bunker. With a grenade, he crippled the dug-in machinegun defending this position and then wiped out the troops manning it with his rifle, completing his second self-imposed, 1-man attack. Although weak from loss of blood, he refused to be evacuated until assured the mission was successfully accomplished. Through quick thinking, indomitable courage, and unswerving devotion to the attack in the face of bitter resistance and while wounded, M /Sgt. Oresko killed 12 Germans, prevented a delay in the assault, and made it possible for Company C to obtain its objective with minimum casualties.
I'll bet the good MSG never thought he'd see 96 back in the day. RIP Sir.
PRB is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2013, 20:54   #4
Divemaster
Quiet Professional
 
Divemaster's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Washington
Posts: 2,053
Quote:
Originally Posted by PRB View Post
I'll bet the good MSG never thought he'd see 96 back in the day. RIP Sir.
I can't imagine how blessed he must have found each day since, nor how horrible he likely found so many of the nights.
__________________
Grando autem duodecimo hominis
Divemaster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2013, 21:27   #5
The Reaper
Quiet Professional
 
The Reaper's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Free Pineland
Posts: 24,779
Rest in Peace, Master Sergeant.

Thank you for your courage, and for setting the example.

You will not be forgotten.

TR
__________________
"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
The Reaper is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-04-2013, 22:08   #6
Stingray
Guerrilla
 
Stingray's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 243
MOH

Rest in peace MSG.

Sincerely,
__________________
Stingray

"In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance, My head is bloody, but unbowed." William Ernest Henley
Stingray is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 03:10   #7
JHD
Guerrilla
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: DC area
Posts: 374
Rest in peace, sir. Godspeed.
JHD is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 03:32   #8
JJ_BPK
Quiet Professional
 
JJ_BPK's Avatar
 
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
RIP MSG Oresko, Vaya con Dios..
__________________
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"
JJ_BPK is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 06:25   #9
SF_BHT
Quiet Professional
 
SF_BHT's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Sneaking back and forth across the Border
Posts: 6,627
RIP MSG Oresko..........
SF_BHT is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 08:35   #10
TOMAHAWK9521
Quiet Professional
 
TOMAHAWK9521's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Idaho
Posts: 1,200
Rest In Peace, Sir.
__________________
"It is a brave act of valor to condemn death, but where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live." -Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682)
TOMAHAWK9521 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 09:23   #11
medic&commo
Quiet Professional
 
medic&commo's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: central Florida
Posts: 352
Thank you MSG Oresko R.I.P.

m&c
__________________
D-8450-L
medic&commo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 09:28   #12
Peregrino
Quiet Professional
 
Peregrino's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Occupied Pineland
Posts: 4,701
Thank you for your example M/Sgt. Oresko. May you rest in peace.
__________________
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero (42B.C)
Peregrino is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-05-2013, 13:06   #13
mojaveman
Area Commander
 
mojaveman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Harmony Church
Posts: 2,633
Hat's off to MSG Oresko.

Thank you for your service and may you rest in peace.
mojaveman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-06-2013, 02:40   #14
Requiem
Guerrilla Chief
 
Requiem's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Alaska
Posts: 777
Quote:
Originally Posted by Divemaster View Post
Oresko had no living immediate family, but he was never alone at the hospital after being taken there earlier in the week from a Cresskill assisted living facility
God bless those stayed by his side at the end.

RIP, MSG Oresko.

S.
__________________
Heroes are often the most ordinary of men. - Henry David Thoreau.
Requiem is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:42.



Copyright 2004-2022 by Professional Soldiers ®
Site Designed, Maintained, & Hosted by Hilliker Technologies