Reporting on America’s Heroes
Kate O’Beirne at National Review Online has written a couple of pieces on the lack of news coverage of the heros from the War on Terror. In her first, from June of 2004, she describes the trouble she has had in obtaining award information from the services, especially the Army. In her August 30, 2006 piece, she echoes Don Rumsfeld’s recent remarks about the lack of reporting about our heroes in the media. She correctly points out that the Pentagon could do a much better job in promoting the heroism of our men and women in uniform.
In an e-mail to her this evening, I described my frustrations in this area. I did suggest that NRO could do something about it, say a blog [since they have so very many] on the subject. Between Blackfive and me, there are plenty of stories to post, all with citations and links.
It’s a small part of a bigger issue, giving the American people ALL the news from the battlefield, not just the bad news and the made-up news.
I would like to nominate my fiance David L. Nix as a South Mississippi hero. Durring Hurricane Katrina his actions were very couragious. David and I left on the Sunday night before Katrina made landfall. We decided to leave because the water was slowly starting to rise in our back yard. Well we decided to take Hwy 90 into Alabama. We figured out that we could drive into Alabama and sleep in our truck for the night and head back home as soon as it was over with. Like a lot of people we were not prepared for Katrina to turn our town upside down and did not take the time to stock up on anything. We had just enough gas in our vehicle to go a couple of hours into Alabama and to make it back home after Katrina had passed. Needles to say we got as far asGrand Bay Alabama. We sat in the parking lot of a Rite Aid for about an hour or so untill it closed for the night. It was periodicly raining off and on as if it were just thunderstorms. Not knowing nothing about the area that we were in and no motels available, we got back on Hwy. 90 and headed back toward Mississippi to find some type of shelter. All we saw were a few houses and mabey a few small town gas stations. We finally came across a small building that someone had made it into a beauty shop and decided to park on the side of it and rest as Katrina began to aproach the coast. As time went by the rain and wind began to pick up untill it was begining to beocme to bad for us to stay where we were parked at. David and I decided to try to find somewhere a little more efficent to wade out the storm. So, once agian we headed more towards the Alabama-Mississippi state line until we came across a block building that appeared stable enough to park on the east side to block some of the wind and rain off of the truck. As David and I sat there we listened to WLOX coverage on the radio until we no longer recieved a signal. That’s when things started to get bad. The wind was picking up and it was starting to rain even harder. We sat in the truck watching Katrina move onto the coast. Hours slowly began to pass by as Katrina was beginging to destroy whatever was in it’s way. As we sat in the truck we saw the wind bend the trees over as if they were spegattie noodles. Just as we thought that Katrina was calming down, it got more powerful than ever. Trees were snaping in half power poles falling down, roofs blowing off, shingles and pieces of tin blowing every where, and not to mention all of the sticks and branches. The awning on the building that we were parked by startet to blow loose in the wind and so we backed the truck up to try to dodge it if it blew off but it ended up coming off and a part of it hit our windshield. That’s when we decided to head Mississippi before the athorities blocked the roads off. Little did we know what lied ahead.
As we were heading back to Mississippi, we came to a part of Hwy. 90 that was flooded and the waters were still rising. It had to have been around 10:00 am or so. David stoped the truck as we debated wether it was safe or not to drive through the water. While observing the hight of the water on the road I surprizingly saw a car nose first in the median which was filled with water and thought it was just a car that may have floated away. But to my surpize, I repeateatly saw tail lights blinking off and on. I panicly yelled “David someone is in that car.” David then looked to see the samething and decided that he was going to atleast try to drive through the water. As we aproach the car we saw two elderly people traped in the car. The lady on the passenger side slowly moved her head and made eye contact with David and had a look of fear, and a desperate plea to help them. David stopped the truck and told me that he couldn’t leave these people behind, that God would help these people no matter the cumstances. David then told me to look for a rope or extention cord to have some type of safety line. Unfortunantly there was nothing of that mannor in the truck. David proceeded to tell me to make room in the back seat for the people to fit at. This was the only belongings that I had packed before we left. There was no room to put it so i had to throw some of it out. With no hesitation at all David jumped out of the truck into four feet of rushing waters, wind blowing the rain and debis agianst his body to get the people out of the car. Not even three seconds after David got out of the truck I saw alligators everywhere. I yelled “David there’s alligators” and he said “shut up no there’s not.” He then saw the alligators and jumped onto the side of the truck. David then attempted to run them off by throwing anything he could at them and even tried to run them over with the truck. Needles to say the alligators just went under water and you could see parts of them in and out of the water. Time was running out and the car was filling up with water. David then jumped back into the water with alligators swimming around him and opened up the passenger side door of the car. The lady still had her seatbelt on and David had to unbuckle her seatbelt and then proceeded to pick her up out of her car and carry her to the back seat while I pulled her in. He then did the same with the man. The man also still had his seatbelt on as if he was in shock. David quickly pulled him out and shoved him in the truck. The man was sort of sitting up side down because the water was starting to come into the truck. We then started to drive through the rushing water as it was rising. We could see housed going under water and vehicles with people still in them. We drove about two miles through the water. As soon as we got to safer ground David got out and rearanged the man to be more comfortable. David then went to Singing river Hospital to bring us to safety. He and a man that was at the hospital went to get the other people but it was to late.
I believe that this was very courages of him and therefore he should be reconized as a hero. Even if he is not nomenated, we would still like to contact the people that we shared our experiance with. Thier names are Anne and Harowld Ladner or either Ladnier. They had told us that they were from Long Beach, Mississippi and were between the ages of 80 and 85. If you have any information on these people please contact me at (228)348-8788.