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Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Sergeant Alvin York
Born in rural Tennessee, Alvin York was never exposed to violence and war in his childhood. He was raised on a farm tending to animals with his parents and taking care of the land. As one of eleven kids, he had minimal schooling in order to help provide for his family through hunting, fishing, and other activities. York became the head of the family after the death of his father and had to assume a greater role of responsibility. He and his family attended church regularly and were Pacifists, a denomination that would later become a contrast to his achievements in World War I. However, he got into many fistfights and drank a copious amount, also going against his religion. In 1918, he joined the 82nd Division and went to France, where his actions would earn him the highest possible military honor. Being raised as a Pacifist, York clearly stated that in his agreement to join the war he would not use violence. His later feat of courage obliterated that statement. Nine of the men York was fighting with were injured or killed, leaving him as the highest ranking individual left of the platoon. York decided to attack the Germans by himself. As he was making his way through the German ranks, he came across 6 German soldiers who all charged at him with bayonets, resulting in York killing them all with his pistol. The machine gun was being manned by a German officer who surrendered to York after watching him single-handedly murder six of his comrades. After the officer surrendered, York took in 130 Germans as hostages and brought them back to the American camp, earning him the Medal of Honor, the greatest honor that can be presented to someone in the army. This act of courage made Sergeant York a war hero and brought him great fame.
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3 comments:
Learning about Alvin York's childhood was really interesting, especially after what we learned about his achievement on the battlefield. I think that knowing he had gone against his religion on other counts aside from in the war gives an interesting factor in why he decided to use violence later, in addition to the events that led up to his commended actions.
It is very interesting how has got to where he is now because you described what he used to do when he was younger. This show how he had a ruff child hood and its not a regular child hood. It very interesting in learning how far some people have got to after everything they have gone through in their life.
I think this post highlights the mindset of a soldier at war very well, because we see York, a person who tries to stay away from fighting, turn into a killing machine that captures 130 German soldiers. Potential soldiers who were thinking about fighting for their country did it because they believed in the patriotism and doing it for the flag, but once they were in muddy trenches with bullets flying around them, they realized that they were truly fighting for themselves and their friends on the battlefield, and nobody else. I believe that this new mentality York and other soldiers had to adopt may have been responsible for his accomplishments.
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