ARTHUR'S MAN OF THE MONTH
Leo Joseph Valdrow
I have never accepted a reader submitted Man of the Month article before and generally I will not but this submission got my attention and forced me to rethink my insistence on creating every Man of the Month article. The man profiled here does not meet the “standards” I have used for this article series in the past but it is my series so I say this works.
I thank Sean for sending this to me. I have not edited this in order to keep it authentic. Enjoy this great story!
Dear Arthur,
I have a candidate for your Man of the Month. He was my father, who died this morning, at about 0615 January 19th, 2010. I offer him as a candidate, not because he was my dad or he just passed but because he was the toughest man I ever met. I am sure you will find he exceeds your criteria for Man of the Month, once you learn a thing or two about him.
He was born in 1930, and it was a very different time. People were expected to be a lot tougher and more self reliant. He grew up in rural California, way back in the days before it became the Hell it is now. They had opportunities that just don’t exist any more and they took full advantage. One such was when he and one of his brothers crossed the Mojave Desert on foot when he was 13. They were re-supplied by a friend who drove out and left water and food every couple of days. They supplemented this with hunting with his .32 caliber Creedmore falling block rifle. This was just one of those things teens did at that time; there were a pair of sisters who did it on horseback about the same timeframe. No one thought it too dangerous or too hard, and if you died it was your fault.
He lied about his age at 15 to get into World War II. He got into the Army
just in time for the war to end, but he was in the occupation forces in
Japan in '45. He has pictures of the Tokyo capital building still painted
camouflage in a feeble effort to avoid our B29s. He was trained by men who
learned to fight by going up against the NAZIs and the Imperial Japanese Army,
so he learned it right the first time through. He was put to the test
fighting in Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division...I won't assail you with
endless war stories but here are a few things: he came out of Korea weighing 98
pounds (starvation on the front lines was a chronic problem) and about
5 Purple Hearts. He lost his a hip joint to machine gun fire, and had a metal one the rest of his days; his right shoulder had a scar the size of an ashtray and for the rest of his days he had trouble lifting his arm—the doctors said he’d never move and that the nerve had been severed but move it he did! He also came out with the kinds of memories a fellow ought not to have. One of the worst he told me about a time after the disintegration of the US Army IXth Corps, when he and every other soldier turned South and ran for their lives. They ceased to be an army at all, just a mob hell bent on getting away. In that time, he and many others took cover huddled next to tanks rolling down a road. The Chinese held the high ground, and were raining everything they had down on the US troops. Anyone who fell was left behind, and there were wounded men, fallen in the road, desperately trying to crawl out of the way of our own tanks. More than one was crushed under the treads because the drivers dared not stop or more men would die. All his days he was tearfully grateful he was not a tank driver on that road. He pitied those poor bastards who had to close their eyes and drive on. There is a book, titled The River and The Gauntlet, about that time.
He also earned a Silver Star in Korea. That he earned when he led 19 riflemen and 3 tanks up to the line, where he fought about 40,000 Chinese. His mission had prearranged air and artillery support, and they fired up all their ammunition. He estimated they killed about 10,000 of the Chinese. They fought on until the enemy was within 300 meters of their positions, and then they had to tuck tail and run. He left over half his riflemen dead on the line, and all the others--himself included--were wounded. That was one of the less harrowing stories he had from fighting that terrible war, which I account was the worst fighting the US Army has ever seen.
He went on to pull 4 tours in Viet Nam, picked up some Bronze Stars, and
was made an honorary member of the 10th Special Forces. And he got a few more Purple Hearts to make a total 9. Yes NINE. He did a tour as a combat advisor, two tours providing intelligence, and his last tour was with the Phoenix Project. He started to sicken of the war when missions became all about depopulating the countryside rather than fighting the enemy.
Between Korea and tours in Viet Nam, he also fought the Cold War...and yes, it was a war. He moved to Intelligence from the infantry at that time. He was just too shot up to keep being a line soldier. His service in the Cold War was harrowing and dangerous and mostly classified. He once let slip that in Hungary in '56 or '57, the US Army lost 7 agents in 7 days. He also let slip over
the years he'd been on submarines six times as an agent, but caught
himself and would not tell why he was on these subs. He did tell of having
to pull nuclear weapons guard duty, and going on missions to
retrieve nukes when we lost one due to accident or mishap (typically nuke armed aircraft that crashed.) He was also bodyguard for
Doctor Edward Teller, a man who never met a nuke he didn't like.
All told he spent 27.5 years in the US Army as an enlisted man and he
retired after a tiff wherein he gave orders to a private soldier and was
told the private did not have to obey. And our Army has been on a downhill
slide ever since. I have a lot more stories of his service, but that's
enough for now.
He left the Army, and went on to college. 27.5 years service, no GED, and
he had to catch up on his schooling. But I account that he earned several
PhDs from the School of the Hardest of Hard Knocks. He went on to achieve
a GED, gained entry into Seattle University where he earned not one, but TWO
Master's Degrees. Both were in aspects of business, but he was unable to
find work with a good corporation. He believed corporations were prejudiced against him because of his age and his shot up condition.
At the time, he supported his family by scrounging up what he could from old friends in the Army...I recall eating a LOT of powdered eggs as a boy, because he could always get a mess sergeant somewhere to pass him a big box or two. We ate a lot of C Rations too. A real treat were the LRRP rations. But we NEVER went hungry. My brother and I also wore fatigues he'd scrounge up. We were small boys and loved having genuine issue kit, never minding that the 'cool' kids made fun of us.
At that time, my father took risky work at night guarding inmates who had
to be moved to a local hospital for treatment. He took his old Smith and
Wesson Model 15, his issued service revolver, with him because the county
would not supply him with one of their own weapons. Lots of late nights or all-nighters and low pay, but that didn’t slow him down.
He finally got stable work--in spite of having two Master's degrees--as a
custodian with the postal service. Yes, the same service you would like to
see go away...you should have heard his stories about one how messed up it
is. Once he told me he had a black employee file a grievance through
the union against an off-the-boat Asian employee because the Asian worked
too hard. He took that job, one far below his abilities, to support his
family. He worked it and the Postal Service system until he became a much
better paid electronics tech, and then he vaulted into management. He was
fourth down from the top at the postal service annex in Anchorage, Alaska
when he retired. He never let the bastards grind him down.
He retired with over 40 years of government service behind him. The horrors he witnessed he carried all his life, they were many in number and the kinds of things that broke lesser men. He never failed his nation or his family. I account he was a man among men, not just because he was my father, but because he was the greatest man I ever knew. His accomplishments speak for themselves.
Sean Valdrow
Ubi libertas ibi patria
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