Words of Wisdom from SharLeigh
A HUMBLE AMERICAN HERO
His name was Alvin York, the third of eleven children, born and raised in a two-room cabin in Pall Mall, Tennessee. The area was very rural and poverty was a way of life. Alvin had hardly any schooling and worked in the blacksmith shop with his father or on local farms for 40 cents a day. The family farm had poor soil which barely put enough food on the table, so survival depended on hunting. The young Alvin York became quite a marksman, and as he grew older he earned a reputation for being a deadly accurate shot. But that was not the only reputation he had – Mr. York was also a hell raiser who gambled, drank and got into fights. But his hell-raising days came to a halt when he attended a revival meeting and accepted the Lord. When he was drafted into the army for World War I, he struggled with the idea of killing soldiers but soon decided that his country needed him and that it was his moral duty. Corporal York was involved in the U.S.-led portion of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France. York, along with three other noncommissioned officers and thirteen privates, were sent behind enemy lines to silence a machine-gun nest. When the Germans discovered the detachment, they killed six and wounded three of the Americans. Corporal York, who was the only surviving noncommissioned officer, assumed command and engaged in a rapid-fire shootout with the Germans. By the end of the engagement, York and his seven remaining men had killed 28 Germans and captured 132 others. York was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor (the highest American medal) for his heroism, and promoted to Sergeant. Destiny has an ironic way of picking heroes. Mr. York was a humble man that did not take to war, yet he accepted his duty and became an American hero. Speaking of his deeds, York said, “A higher power than man power guided and watched over me and told me what to do.”