American Heroes

Oliver North will be delivering a powerful message on faith and freedom at the Raleigh County Convention Center in Beckley West Virginia. The event starts at 6pm on Saturday, May 23. If you are anywhere in the area, don’t miss it!

This post comes from Greg Koukl’s Stand To Reason blog. It details the newest recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, a real American Hero.

Pfc. Ross McGinnis was awarded the Medal of Honor today for sacrificing his life to save the lives of his crew when a grenade was thrown into their truck while on patrol in Baghdad.

“Pfc. McGinnis yelled ‘Grenade! … It’s in the truck,’” [his platoon sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class Cedric] Thomas said. “I looked out of the corner of my eye as I was crouching down and I saw him pin it down.” McGinnis did so even though he could have escaped. “He had time to jump out of the truck,” Thomas said. “He chose not to.”

It’s is amazing that Pfc. McGinnis had nurtured the courage and love for his comrades that in a split second he was able to exercise those virtues and sacrifice their lives for the sake of theirs. Virtues only exhibit themselves in a crisis when they’re needed if they are cultivated in ordinary circumstances. His father explained that Pfc. McGinnis had a somewhat direction-less and troubled adolescence, and then submitted himself to the discipline of the military to devote himself to a higher purpose. It’s truly impressive and inspiring that the military so regularly develops such individuals as Pfc. McGinnis.

We share his family’s pride and sorrow.

The Orlando Sentinel covered a recent book signing in the Villages, Florida, where hundreds of fans came out early in the morning to meet and shake hands with North and the American Heroes team. Check out the video below.
Oliver North at Book Signing in Florida

Father’s Day is June 15, so it’s time to stock up on copies of American Heroes! Click here to get a personally signed copy by Oliver North!

American Heroes is the perfect gift for the veteran on your list!

Even though he is a decorated veteran of the war in Iraq, Sgt. 1st Class John Duggins doesn’t think of himself as an “American Hero.” So it came as quite a surprise when Duggins saw his face on the cover of a new book with that name written by best-selling author Oliver North.

Uncovering the identity of the soldier on the cover of ‘American Heroes‘ by Staff Sgt. Mike Pryor 2nd BCT, 82nd Airborne Public Affairs, Fort Bragg, N.C.

“People started calling me up as soon as they saw it saying, ‘Hey, you’re on the cover of a book!’ I was like, ‘Yeah, right. Shut up, …”

… recounts Duggins, 37, a platoon sergeant with Battery B of the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment.

At first, Duggins thought his buddies were playing a prank on him, but they were telling the truth – it is indeed his face staring out the front cover of North’s just-released book, “American Heroes.”

The book is a tribute to U.S. military personnel serving on the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. The cover photo - taken last September while Duggins’ unit was in the middle of a 15-month deployment to Iraq – shows him out on patrol looking steely-eyed and ready for action with his M4 at the low-ready.

“We were looking for a Captain America photo, and that one just jumped out at us,” said Chuck Holton, the book’s co-author, who ended up selecting Duggins’ photo from a pool of hundreds of other possibilities.

The book has turned Duggins into something of a minor celebrity, complete with his own publicist: his mother, Ruth.

“We’ve called just about everybody we know to tell them about it,” Mrs. Duggins said.

The photo has already made Duggins famous in his hometown of Madison, N.C. His picture is hanging up on the wall at the local tavern.

On the other hand, Duggins’ newfound celebrity has also earned him some ribbing from his fellow Paratroopers.

“We all say, ‘Hey, what’s up, American Hero?” said Capt. Josh Richardson, Duggins’ battery commander.

Duggins, a humble man of few words, said he prefers to avoid the spotlight. He said he didn’t do anything worthy of a spot on the front cover, even suggesting that a different photo on the back of the book of a Soldier carrying a wounded comrade would have been a better choice.

“That should be the one on the cover. That’s the real hero,” Duggins said modestly.

But if Duggins wasn’t exactly thrilled to be in the limelight, his two sons, Taylor, 15, and Cody, 13, were more enthusiastic about the book. Taylor even gave it the ultimate teenage endorsement.

“It’s cool. I put it up on my My Space page,” he said.

Duggins’ appearance on the book’s cover even earned him a chance to meet with Oliver North personally. As fate would have it, North was passing through Fayetteville on a book signing tour and arranged to meet Duggins after a signing at a local Barnes & Noble book store May 6.

At the store, a line of customers clutching copies of “American Heroes” for North to sign snaked out the door. Some of them did double takes when they saw Duggins waiting outside with his family. One man recognized Duggins from the cover photo.

“Wow, he even looks mean in real life,” the man noted.

“No he doesn’t,” Ruth Duggins said protectively.

After the signing was over, Duggins and his family were taken into a back area of the store to meet with Oliver North privately. When North entered the room, he gave Duggins a giant bear hug.

North, a former Lieutenant Colonel in the Marines and a war hero in his own right, said he has nothing but admiration for Duggins and all the other Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines serving in today’s Armed Forces. He said Duggins was the perfect choice to appear on the cover of his book.

“He represents a generation of American heroes that the American people need to know,” North said.

North presented Duggins and his sons with free, signed copies of “American Heroes,” and then asked Duggins to autograph a few copies for him. Like a seasoned pro Duggins began scrawling his name across the front covers of a stack of books.

“We’re so proud of him,” Ruth Duggins said as she watched her son sign his name. “This whole thing is just unbelievable.”

After well-attended speaking engagements at two Ohio churches on Sunday, the American Heroes tour is in New York City on Monday, where we’re conducting radio and television interviews as well as a book signing.

Sunday morning saw Oliver North speaking to a capacity crowd at the huge World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio. That evening, Grace Baptist Church in Franklin, Ohio played our hosts. Both events nearly sold out of American Heroes.

Today, Monday is the official release of the book. Get one today!

It should make you proud to belong to a nation that claims as its’ heritage leaders who don’t hesitate to call on the Almighty for guidance. We’re blessed as a nation because of it.

The following prayer was read by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during a radio address to the Nation on D-Day, June 6, 1944. You can listen to the entire address here.

FDR’s Prayer

“Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.

“Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness in their faith.

“They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Success may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.

“They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest — until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men’s souls will be shaken with the violences of war.

“For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, for their return to the haven of home.

“Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them, Thy heroic servants, into Thy kingdom.

“And for us at home — fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them — help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.

“Many people have urged that I call the nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people devote themselves in a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts.

“Give us strength, too — strength in our daily tasks, to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our armed forces.

“And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons wheresoever they may be.

“And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment — let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose.

“With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace — a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil.

“Thy will be done, Almighty God.

“Amen.”

My publisher called the other day and asked if I’d make a video introducing myself and my latest novel for the salespeople at Random House. This is what I came up with - a compilation of some of my adventures paired with a discussion about the setting for the third in the Task Force Valor Series, titled “Meltdown.”

I recently finished the first draft of the manuscript. It’ll undergo a few revisions before it’s ready to print, but the story rocks!

The setting is Chernobyl - and really bad things are about to happen. Unfortunately, the book won’t be out for another YEAR - I’ll never understand the reason things take so long with publishers unless THEY are in a hurry, then things get done in no time. So while you are waiting, check out American Heroes - my recent book with Oliver North.

On September 29, 2006, Navy Seal Michael Monsoor dove on a grenade. The act saved the lives of several men he called brothers - though it cost him his own.

Master at Arms Second Class Michael Monsoor was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on March 31, 2008, making him the fourth American hero to earn the nation’s highest award for valor in the Global War on Terror.

Monsoor’s story isn’t in the book. That’s because it was already at the printers by the time the award was made. But Michael Monsoor’s story deserves to be told.

Click here to watch a poignant video of an American Hero whose devotion to others culminated with his laying down his life for his friends.

Read his citation below.

The President of the United States in the name of The Congress takes pride in presenting the MEDAL OF HONOR posthumously to

MASTER AT ARMS SECOND CLASS, SEA, AIR and LAND
MICHAEL A. MONSOOR
UNITED STATES NAVY

For service as set forth in the following CITATION:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as Automatic Weapons Gunner for Naval Special Warfare Task Group Arabian Peninsula, in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM on 29 September 2006.As a member of a combined SEAL and Iraqi Army sniper overwatch element, tasked with providing early warning and stand-off protection from a rooftop in an insurgent-held sector of Ar Ramadi, Iraq, Petty Officer Monsoor distinguished himself by his exceptional bravery in the face of grave danger. In the early morning, insurgents prepared to execute a coordinated attack by reconnoitering the area around the element’s position. Element snipers thwarted the enemy’s initial attempt by eliminating two insurgents. The enemy continued to assault the element, engaging them with a rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire. As enemy activity increased, Petty Officer Monsoor took position with his machine gun between two teammates on an outcropping of the roof. While the SEALs vigilantly watched for enemy activity, an insurgent threw a hand grenade from an unseen location, which bounced off Petty Officer Monsoor’s chest and landed in front of him. Although only he could have escaped the blast, Petty Officer Monsoor chose instead to protect his teammates. Instantly and without regard for his own safety, he threw himself onto the grenade to absorb the force of the explosion with his body, saving the lives of his two teammates. By his undaunted courage, fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Petty Officer Monsoor gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Continue Reading »