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Numerous great stories of American heroism come from the battlefields of the Second World War. From the ground to the sky, with aces high, men like Kenneth A. Walsh made the enemy pay in blood and equipment for getting into a tussle with the United States of American and her Marines.Kenneth was a fighter pilot by trade and a damn good one to boot, flying the Vought F4U-1 Corsair. We could make a great acronym out of what F4U stood for, but we digress. Kenneth A. Walsh was extraordinarily pissed off on the 15th of August, 1943. Japanese forces were trying to bomb the good guys. We're pretty sure Lt. Walsh said to himself "Oh hell no!" as he dove his Corsair into enemy formations destroying three planes. Two dive bombers and an enemy fighter. Despite his aircraft being severely damaged, he still took the fight to the enemy.Then again five days later while on escort, Kenneth A. Walsh had some engine trouble, damn aircraft! Our intrepid hero landed his plane, replaced it and took off again, except he was behind the rest of the escort group and found himself up against 50 Japanese Zero fighters. "What luck!", he must have thought to himself as he engaged the large group of enemy fighters. 50 against 1 seems like decent odds for a Marine. He took down four that day before his plane was hit so many times he had to... "perform a dead stick landing" which seems a lot like what we'd call a crash landing. He was rescued though. And continued to fight in the Marine Corps until his retirement in 1962 at the rank of Lt. Colonel.
For extraordinary heroism, leadership and all around badassness in the Pacific skies, Lt. Kenneth A. Walsh was awarded the Medal of Honor. It doesn't say badassness in the citation, but we're certain it could go in there and nobody would say anything about it.Read more stories of American Grit here:
