Daniel Inouye

 While we were having our class discussion about heroes, I remembered thought of an amazing story that I once saw in a WWII documentary. Lieutenant Daniel Inouye were attacking a ridge in Italy during the war that was heavily defended. He skillfully directed his group through machine gun fire, but the amazing part was his complete disregard for his own safety. As a German machine gun pinned down his group, he worked his way up to the bunker, not realizing that he'd been shot by a sniper in the side, and tossed a grenade in the German bunker. He continued up the hill and threw two grenades a second bunker. His men tried to take a third bunker, but were pushed back. Inouye crawled towards the third bunker, pulling the pin of a grenade. Then a German shot a rifle grenade that almost tore off the arm that Inouye held the grenade in. He pried the grenade out of his dead right hand and threw it at the bunker. Then he cleared it out, shooting left handed. During this stand he was again shot, in the leg this time, and finally a medic got to him. He received morphine, but refused to be evacuated until the ridge was captured. The remnants of his right arm were later amputated and he received a medal of honor for his brave actions. He is currently a senator of Hawaii, and he is one of many who come to my head when I hear the word hero.