A Touching Military Story From The Past
As an example of how we should be for those of you who read or will read the post below this one I decided to post this story. This is a story about a man named Fred Hargesheimer who later became First Lt. Fred Hargesheimer who served in WWII. Hargesheimer is now 91 years old and has led a very full life that will touch your heart if you have one.
First of all, this guy clearly grew up with a proper teaching of how we should treat others, and how to survive while keeping those values. Secondly, he was clearly exposed to people after learning this lesson, who had learned the same lessons in their lives.
This man served during WWII and was a pilot flying a P-38 on a photo reconnaissance mission from his base on the main island of New Guinea tracking ship movements around Japanese occupied New Guinea 700 miles from North Eastern Australia. During that mission he was shot down by a Japanese fighter that riddled the back of his plane with bullets until the engine burst into flames and Hargesheimer knew to bail out. He pressed the ejection button but a malfunction caused by the bullets, prevented him from ejecting properly. He then had no choice but to unsnap his safety belts and attempt to push the cockpit open so that he could eject. When he did this he was immediately sucked out of the plane and into the air. This was his first lucky encounter with someone who was taught honor, maturity, values and respect growing up. The Japanese pilot who could have easily plummeted him with a few more bullets and killed him did not believe that to be an honorable way to kill someone. He could not bring himself to kill defenseless enemy fliers.
Hargsheimer then floated helplessly to the ground into another world of danger. A jungle filled with poisonous insects, wild boars, alligators, leaches and malaria filled mosquitoes, headhunters and enemy Japanese soldiers. He managed to survive in that environment and just when he was likely about to give up and let himself die alone out in the jungle to weak to go on some islanders who had seen him go down in the distance and had been looking for him since found him. At first he was afraid and then they presented him with a note from an Australian soldier who had also been rescued by them that said they could be trusted. They then took him to their camp and began to celebrate the fact that he was saved. This experience was a bit scary to him what with the stories of headhunters etc. until he heard them singing a song the tune of which he recognized.... Onward Christian Soldiers. This brought him much relief and he began to befriend them.
He learned their language and endured many things with them. He was a part of their community for some time and eventually Japanese soldiers infiltrated the camp looking for any soldiers they may have been harboring. He was led into the woods by one of the villagers and had no choice but to climb a eucalyptus tree and endure the night. While there he was snapped up by swarms of mosquitoes and contracted malaria. He was taken back into the village where he suffered the symptoms of malaria and was nursed back to health by the villagers one of whom saved his life by feeding him the only thing that seemed to stay in his system... breast milk.
He was eventually saved and taken home where he married and had children.
He convinced his wife to allow him to spend the family's vacation money on a trip back so that he could thank those who saved him. She agreed and he took the trip. He was greeted by singing villagers at the shore in a touching reunion. He stayed for weeks realizing that there were things that the villagers needed trying to help as much as possible. He went home and raised money for them and came back and built a school, he came back and forth building libraries and churches and more. Eventually his efforts made it possible for the community people to get jobs and improve their welfare and survive. They praised him and made him a chief. He went back and forth for years making his last trip last year when he was 90 years old. After doing so much for these people who had done so much for him he began to contemplate the man who had shot him out of the sky on that fateful day. Was he angry? No. He wondered why that man did not shoot him while he dangled helplessly from his parachute so he tracked the man down through searching historical records and found him. The man's name was Mitsugo Hyakutomi of Yamaguchi, Japan. He found out the man had Alzheimer's and could therefore not tell him the story of why he was not shot while floating helplessly in the parachute, but the man's wife wrote him a letter explaining that he had told her of his belief that it was dishonorable to shoot helpless people and therefore could not bring himself to shoot down helpless enemy flyers. Now this is a great story. This is a story of what life can be like with proper teachings of courage, honor, commitment, maturity and respect before becoming legal adults - without the media twisting the truth - without soldiers compromising security and safety by bragging about and collecting trophies from war. War will happen and it will always be bad for those in it, but that does not mean it has to be so bad afterward. Those of us who are veterans now understand the difference and hope for a better transition into civilian life. With proper teachings growing up we can deal with what comes in our adult lives with honor and maturity and respect - and with proper teachings growing up we can understand that the fight against negatives should come after we return from something negative and not in the middle of it when that fight can be detrimental to our survival.
example Fred Hargesheimer heart values lessons WWII mission survival
First of all, this guy clearly grew up with a proper teaching of how we should treat others, and how to survive while keeping those values. Secondly, he was clearly exposed to people after learning this lesson, who had learned the same lessons in their lives.
This man served during WWII and was a pilot flying a P-38 on a photo reconnaissance mission from his base on the main island of New Guinea tracking ship movements around Japanese occupied New Guinea 700 miles from North Eastern Australia. During that mission he was shot down by a Japanese fighter that riddled the back of his plane with bullets until the engine burst into flames and Hargesheimer knew to bail out. He pressed the ejection button but a malfunction caused by the bullets, prevented him from ejecting properly. He then had no choice but to unsnap his safety belts and attempt to push the cockpit open so that he could eject. When he did this he was immediately sucked out of the plane and into the air. This was his first lucky encounter with someone who was taught honor, maturity, values and respect growing up. The Japanese pilot who could have easily plummeted him with a few more bullets and killed him did not believe that to be an honorable way to kill someone. He could not bring himself to kill defenseless enemy fliers.
Hargsheimer then floated helplessly to the ground into another world of danger. A jungle filled with poisonous insects, wild boars, alligators, leaches and malaria filled mosquitoes, headhunters and enemy Japanese soldiers. He managed to survive in that environment and just when he was likely about to give up and let himself die alone out in the jungle to weak to go on some islanders who had seen him go down in the distance and had been looking for him since found him. At first he was afraid and then they presented him with a note from an Australian soldier who had also been rescued by them that said they could be trusted. They then took him to their camp and began to celebrate the fact that he was saved. This experience was a bit scary to him what with the stories of headhunters etc. until he heard them singing a song the tune of which he recognized.... Onward Christian Soldiers. This brought him much relief and he began to befriend them.
He learned their language and endured many things with them. He was a part of their community for some time and eventually Japanese soldiers infiltrated the camp looking for any soldiers they may have been harboring. He was led into the woods by one of the villagers and had no choice but to climb a eucalyptus tree and endure the night. While there he was snapped up by swarms of mosquitoes and contracted malaria. He was taken back into the village where he suffered the symptoms of malaria and was nursed back to health by the villagers one of whom saved his life by feeding him the only thing that seemed to stay in his system... breast milk.
He was eventually saved and taken home where he married and had children.
He convinced his wife to allow him to spend the family's vacation money on a trip back so that he could thank those who saved him. She agreed and he took the trip. He was greeted by singing villagers at the shore in a touching reunion. He stayed for weeks realizing that there were things that the villagers needed trying to help as much as possible. He went home and raised money for them and came back and built a school, he came back and forth building libraries and churches and more. Eventually his efforts made it possible for the community people to get jobs and improve their welfare and survive. They praised him and made him a chief. He went back and forth for years making his last trip last year when he was 90 years old. After doing so much for these people who had done so much for him he began to contemplate the man who had shot him out of the sky on that fateful day. Was he angry? No. He wondered why that man did not shoot him while he dangled helplessly from his parachute so he tracked the man down through searching historical records and found him. The man's name was Mitsugo Hyakutomi of Yamaguchi, Japan. He found out the man had Alzheimer's and could therefore not tell him the story of why he was not shot while floating helplessly in the parachute, but the man's wife wrote him a letter explaining that he had told her of his belief that it was dishonorable to shoot helpless people and therefore could not bring himself to shoot down helpless enemy flyers. Now this is a great story. This is a story of what life can be like with proper teachings of courage, honor, commitment, maturity and respect before becoming legal adults - without the media twisting the truth - without soldiers compromising security and safety by bragging about and collecting trophies from war. War will happen and it will always be bad for those in it, but that does not mean it has to be so bad afterward. Those of us who are veterans now understand the difference and hope for a better transition into civilian life. With proper teachings growing up we can deal with what comes in our adult lives with honor and maturity and respect - and with proper teachings growing up we can understand that the fight against negatives should come after we return from something negative and not in the middle of it when that fight can be detrimental to our survival.
example Fred Hargesheimer heart values lessons WWII mission survival
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