longbough

Someone started a thread about the "baddest MF." It was closed before I could post my response. I didn't want to waste my time and effort. So I'll start it up again.

Regardless of ideology or politics - who are some of the bravest, toughest folks who ever lived?

(OK. Let's get these out of the way right now: Rosa Parks, MLK and Mahatma Ghandi).

Sgt. Alvin York, the famous pacifist soldier. On October 8th, at the battle of the Argonne Forest, Sgt. York killed 28 Germans, wiped out 35 machine guns, and captured 132 prisoners.

First Lieutenant Audie Murphy. During WWII he killed over 240 German troops and captured or wounded a great many others.

The brave Ghurkas whose regiments have been awarded 26 Victoria's Crosses have incredible stories.

Havildar Gaje Ghale, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles.
….while preparing for the attack the platoon came under heavy mortar fire but Havildar Gaje Ghale rallied them and led them forward.

Approaching to close range for the well-entranced enemy, then platoon came under withering fire and this NCO was wounded in the arm, chest and leg by an enemy hand grenade. Without pausing to attend to his serous wounds and with no heed to the intensive fire from sides, Havildar Gaje Ghale closed his men and led them to close grips with the enemy when a bitter hand to hand struggle ensued.

Havildar Gaje Ghale dominated the fight by his outstanding example of dauntless courage and superb leadership. Hurling hand grenades, covered in blood from his own neglected wounds, he led assault after assault, encouraging his platoon by shouting the Gurkha’s battle cry.
Spurred on by the irresisitible will of their leader to win, the platoon stormed and carried the hill by a magnificent all out effort and inflicted very heavy casualties on the Japanese.

Rifleman Ganju Lama. … B Company, 7th Gurkha Rifles, was ordered to counter-attack and restore the situation. Shortly after passing the starting line it came under heavy enemy medium machine-gun and tank machine-gun fire at point blank range, which covered all lines of approach. Rifleman Ganju Lama, the No.1 of the projector infantry anti-tank gun (PIAT), on his own initiative, with great coolness and complete disregard for his own safety, crawled forward and engaged the tanks single handed. In spite of a broken left wrist and two other wounds, one in his right hand and one in his leg, caused by withering cross fire concentrated upon him, Rifleman Ganju Lama succeeded in bringing his gun into action within thirty yards of the enemy tanks and knocked out first one and then another, the third tank being destroyed by an anti-tank gun.

In spite of his serous wounds, he then moved forward and engaged with grenades the tank crews, who now attempted to escape. As the enemy crews scrambled out of their burning vehicles, Ganju attacked them with hand grenades - removing the pins with his teeth because of his broken hand. Not until he had killed or wounded the last enemy tank crew member could he be persuaded to return to the Regimental Aid Post to have his wounds dressed…….

Havildar Lachhiman Gurung, 8th Gurkha Rifles. … Before assaulting, the enemy hurled innumerable grenades at the position from close range. Once grenade fell on the lip of Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung’s trench; he at once grasped it and hurled it back at the enemy. A second grenade landed in his trench. Again this Rifleman snatched to throw it back but it exploded in his hand, blowing off his finger, shattering his right arm and severely wounding him in the face body and right leg. His two comrades were also badly wounded and lay helpless in the button of the trench.

The enemy, screaming and shouting, now formed up shoulder to shoulder and attempted to rush the position by sheer weight of numbers. Rifleman Lachhiman Gurung, regardless of his wounds, fires and loaded his rifle with his left hand, maintaining a continuous and steady rate of fire. Wave after wave of fanatical attacks were thrown in by the enemy during the next four hour and all-were repulsed with heavy casualties…

Godzilla

I was always impressed by that guy who cut off his own arm with a pocket knife after having it pinned by a rockfall. But since that was a matter of his own survival as opposed to courage in service to others, I'm not sure that it applies.

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Coming out of an ocean near you...

maleficent

I first read about my candidate in the cheesey self help book, The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews. His story was also part of the fabulous book, The Killer Angels and Gods and Generals, by Michael Shaara (the movie gettysburg was based on this book)

My badass is Joshua Chamberlain (if you saw the movie, he was played by Jeff Daniels)

Chamberlain achieved fame at the Battle of Gettysburg, where his valiant defense of Little Round Top became the focus of many publications and stories, including Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Killer Angels, and the movie based on that novel, Gettysburg

Sent to defend the southern slope of Little Round Top by Col. Strong Vincent, Chamberlain found himself and the 20th Maine at the far left end of the Union line, with the 83rd Pennsylvania, 44th New York, and 16th Michigan infantry regiments to their right. The men from Maine waited until troops from the 15th Alabama regiment (under Colonel William C. Oates) charged up the hill, attempting to flank the Union right. Time and again they struck, until the 20th Maine was almost doubled-back upon itself. With many casualties and ammunition running low, Col. Chamberlain recognized the dire circumstances and ordered his left wing (which was now looking southeast, compared to the rest of the regiment, which was facing west) to swing down like a door. From his report of the day:

At that crisis, I ordered the bayonet. The word was enough.

The 20th Maine charged down the hill, using an unusual tactical maneuver of having the extreme left wing wheel continually to make the charging line swing like a hinge thus creating a simultaneous frontal assault and flanking maneuver, capturing many of the Confederate soldiers and successfully saving the flank.

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Baraka_Guru

Palden Gyatso: a Tibetan Buddhist monk who survived 33 years of religious and cultural oppression in Chinese prisons and labour camps. They used various forms of torture as they tried to force him to accept the Chinese Communist ideology. He refused... that's right... for more than three decades.

He now travels the world, showing people various torture devices like the ones used on him while he was imprisoned. He devotes his life to exposing human rights violations committed by the Chinese.

Real life, yes. Tough, yes. Bad? Well, to the Chinese, maybe...

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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

Ch'i

(Can't find his name)

Badass: This single guy stood his ground against Ghengis Khan and his army. He took out Khan's horse with a javelin/bow. Khan was so amazed by the man's bravery that he made him a general.

Toughest: Miyamoto Musashi. This legendary swordsman was undeafeted. He came out victorious in over 60 duels, and a war. A peculiarity of his was his preference of using a bokken (wooden sword) even when his opponent had a real sword, and, depending on the terms of the duelers, kill them with it. He was said to have died from thoracic cancer.

biznatch

Gordon Freeman?
Just kidding. Jean Moulin was pretty tough...he fought in the Resistance during WW2, and when he was captured and tortured, he never revealed any of the information he was asked. He died on the train to concentration camp.

Ace_O_Spades

Ernest Alva (Smoky) Smith

http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/whatsnew/sp/sp_mar26_2004.htm

This dude used to kill Germans with a 1 meter long warclub wrapped in barbed wire. That right there is why I vote him for most badass dude.

He stood his ground against a German tanks and over 10 soldiers, while protecting a wounded comrade.

The guy was one crazy mofo.

RIP

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Feh.

dksuddeth

The 300 spartans at thermopylae

E company at the battle of the bulge

GySgt Carlos Hathcock, USMC

Brig. General Chesty Puller, USMC

and last, but certainly not least, the young man right here.

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"no amount of force can control a free man, a man whose mind is free. No, not the rack, not fission bombs, not anything. You cannot conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."

ziadel

White Feather, 93 confirmed kills.


but lets not forget Miyamoto Musashi....

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Ron Paul '08
Vote for Freedom
Go ahead and google Dr. Ron Paul. You'll like what you read.

Elphaba

Col. David H. Hackworth, 1930-2005

He is often mentioned as the equal to Murphy and York. You can find a short biography of him here:

http://www.hackworth.com/

jorgelito

Bruce Lee

(self-explanatory)

Lady Sage

Any young man or woman in the military.

They are willing to fight and die for my sorry butt and for that they are the toughest, baddest real people I know.

_God_

My son, Jesus.

thingstodo

Really...your son...

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If you're wringing your hands you can't roll up your shirt sleeves.

Stangers have the best candy.

biznatch

Someone's not gonna last long here....*walks away whistling*...

_God_

Yeah, see, my username is _God_, so that makes Jesus ...

The guy with the crown of thorns, lugged a cross, got crucified ...

Sorry there wasn't any humor in it for you.

You may be right, but I think I'll give it a month or so, in hopes that no more trolls post replies like yours.

Intense1

Just to add my bit....

A few weeks ago there was a news report about a home invasion turned self-defense killing in which a man broke into this woman's home brandishing a claw hammer, and she proceded to tear into him, killing the hammer-waving intruder with her BARE HANDS. It was discovered later that her ex-husband had hired this man to kill his ex-wife.

My thoughts:

1. This is one BAD broad.
2. No wonder the ex hired someone to do the deed - he knew what said contract killer would be facing.
3. Any hope for reconciliation in this marriage?...... hee

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(none yet, still thinkin')

debaser

Refer to this list:

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/moh1.htm

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Bossnass

Colonel Richard Henry Meinertzhagen

Baddass Colonial British Officer. Pretty much everything he did required a whole lot of "gumption". Took on witchdoctors. Killed Germans in both World Wars with his warclub. Signifcant force in the formation of Israel.

Even more badass is that history holds him in different lights. I've read two books about him; one made him pretty damn tough and heroic, the other made him a fraud and a murderer. All sources from each biography considered, I err on the side of both. He killed a servant in India that mistreated his horse. His wife died an accidental death while cleaning his guns. He was a bird guy. Orthin(whaterver)olgist, who may have stolen some of his speciems. Shrug. Tough, Bad, Real Life.

The_Dunedan

John Marshall: A partisan of the Empress Maud during the reign and wars of King Stephen of England, Marshall was once trapped in the belfry of a burning church at the abbey of Wherwell. He and an unknown knight fled the fire by sealing themselves in the tower, hoping to wait out a pitched battle being fought in the abbey's grounds and lower themselves down on the bell-rope to escape the fire once the worst of the fighting was over.

At one point, Marshall leaned out of a tower window, and was promptly splashed in the face by molten lead running off the church's roof. While he and his companion were protected from the worst of the heat by the stone tower, the rising hot air from the burning wooden church had begun to melt the leaden water-proofing on top of the belfrey. Marshall's right eye was melted away, and he suffered massive burns on his face and shoulders.

Amazingly enough, he remained conscious and was lowered down by the bell-rope as planned. Even more incredible, he allegedly remained conscious and alert during the forty-mile ride back to his Manor.

The "Gesta Stephani," a chronicle of the period, also relates an instance in which Marshall, besieged by Stephen's forces, offered his son as a hostage while he attempted to call for aid, as the rules of war allowed at the time. Marshall swore to surrender the castle if aid did not arrive within three weeks; refusal on his part would have meant his 7-year-old son's hanging. Aid never came, and Stephen reminded Marshall of his oath. Marshall refused to surrender and, when Stephen reminded him of his son, Marshall replied "I have the hammer and tongs to make more sons." Stephen could not bring himself to hang the boy, and Marshall's family eventually gave Europe some of the finest soldiers of the Medieval age.

Telluride

I've seen a lot of good responses to this, so I thought I'd add one: Otto Skorzeny. Yeah, yeah. I know he fought for the Nazis in WWII, but some of the things he did were so amazing that they seem more like fiction than fact.

More info: http://www.answers.com/topic/otto-skorzeny

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"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice." - Friedrich Hayek

Dane Bramage

I heard about this on some TV show. Quite amazing if you ask me. Below is a clip from the Amazon.com synopsis of the book, The Long Walk...

"Cavalry officer Slavomir Rawicz was captured by the Red Army in 1939 during the German-Soviet partition of Poland and was sent to the Siberian Gulag along with other captive Poles, Finns, Ukranians, Czechs, Greeks, and even a few English, French, and American unfortunates who had been caught up in the fighting. A year later, he and six comrades from various countries escaped from a labor camp in Yakutsk and made their way, on foot, thousands of miles south to British India, where Rawicz reenlisted in the Polish army and fought against the Germans."

They crossed Siberia, the Gobi desert and the Hymalias on foot. Pretty freaking tough if you ask me.

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Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules — and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
Kurt Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan

frogza

My great grandpa

He and his brother were running a trap line high in the mountains of Northern Utah during the winter. While waiting between trap checks they tried some mining. The snow was usually around 6-8 feet deep where they were living and working. One night my great-great uncle put 2 sticks of dynamite on the stove while he and my great grandpa were unloading the days catch. The dynamite apparantly rolled through a missing hot plate on the stove. Neither of them noticed during the shuffle. My great grandpa started a fire in the oven a few minutes later to warm up and the dynamite exploded. Both men were torn up from the shrapnel from the stove and recieved severe burns. My uncle's leg was completely severed at about mid thigh. My grandpa took off his belt and used it as a turniquet on my uncles leg and performed what first aid he could on the other injuries they both had.

Next he went out into the snow and tracked down the horses that had been spooked away by the blast, hitched them up, carried my uncle out to the wagon and drove the team to the nearest town that had a doctor, which was about 6 hours away. He did all of this with many injuries of his own at night through deep snow.

Leto

Gosh.... being half German descent, I'm feeling kinda sheepish after reading through this.

But regardless, I kinda feel my gramps was pretty badass for 'going over the top' at Vimy Ridge, even after he took a bullet in the cheek from the soldier beside him, a fellow Canadian, but one who tripped and discharged his weapon by accident.


Wow. What else can be said after that?

biznatch

Jesus. your great Grandpa was one tough MF. They dont make them like that anymore

frogza

I have a book about him, written by one of his nieces, I am amazed by his fortitude. That book is one of my most prized possesions.

Yakk

The story of how he got the VC is worth knowing.

He and 1 of his companions held off 3 tanks, 2 self-propelled guns, and 30 German infantry.

The bugger was promoted to Corperal 9 times, and later demoted every time (until he finally won the VC).

Anther good one:
Desmond Doss
http://www.washingtontimes.com/natio...4848-7524r.htm

A pacifist who volunteered to be a medic, he saved 75 wounded under enemy fire.

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Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

samcol

The soldiers who marched barefoot through the snow in the dead of winter, leaving a bloody trail, so that in America we didn't have to put up with bullshit anymore.

LStanley

my father, he watched 2 children (one his first born), and 9 other relatives in his immediate family commit suicide. yet he still walks and holds his head high, without remorse...

I've got alot of pride in him, he's dealt with some of the worst pain imaginable, and it will never slow him down.

If there is ever an icon of strength in my life, its him.

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Lathan Stanley

pocon1

nothing to say

Xell101

John P. Bobo
When an exploding enemy mortar round severed Lieutenant Bobo's right leg below the knee, he refused to be evacuated and insisted upon being placed in a firing position to cover the movement of the command group to a better location. With a web belt around his leg serving as tourniquet and with his leg jammed into the dirt to curtail the bleeding, he remained in this position and delivered devastating fire into the ranks of the enemy attempting to overrun the Marines

Thomas A. Baker
At this point Sgt. Baker refused to be moved any farther stating that he preferred to be left to die rather than risk the lives of any more of his friends. A short time later, at his request, he was placed in a sitting position against a small tree . Another comrade, withdrawing, offered assistance. Sgt. Baker refused, insisting that he be left alone and be given a soldier's pistol with its remaining 8 rounds of ammunition. When last seen alive, Sgt. Baker was propped against a tree, pistol in hand, calmly facing the foe. Later Sgt. Baker's body was found in the same position, gun empty, with 8 Japanese lying dead before him

NCB

Nice way to fuck up a good thread. Congrats


Badass: Carlos Hathcock- 93 dead VC cant be wrong
Toughest: The men who stormed the beaches of Normandy

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pocon1

nothing to say

USMC6531

I agree with you Pocon, good choice. My badass choice thought would have to be for Chesty Puller, and for Smedley Butler, one of the firts medal of Honor recipients

Yakk

Could you provide a citation? A PM would be fine. I wasn't aware the person in question (not Kerry) served overseas.

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Last edited by JHVH : 10-29-4004 BC at 09:00 PM. Reason: Time for a rest.

NCB

Youre obvious sarcasm meter needs new batteries

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loganmule

Steadfastly clinging to a position in the face of overwhelming evidence contradicting it doesn't make someone "tough"...best case scenario there is "stubborn". Please take the "Bush" comments to the politics forum, where they belong.

As for presidents who may qualify to be mentioned in this thread, my vote goes to George Washington, who led a ragtag army against what was then the greatest military force in the world, and achieved victory against all odds. I don't know if it qualifies as "tough" in the sense in which this thread raises it, but Washington also walked away from the "emperor" status that he could easily have claimed, and was instrumental in drafting of the Constitution, and the creation of the rule of law.

Coppertop

Is this the guy you're thinking of?

Willravel

Malcom X, Ulysses S. Grant, Cesar Chavez.

Ch'i

King Leonidas I