One of my heroes, Senator/Captain [Daniel Inouye], has died

VeritasVR

Daniel Inouye died today from respiratory complications today, at the age of 88. He was the most senior Senator and 3rd in line to the Presidency.

It wasn't just his service to the Senate since 1963. It was his service to his country during World War II. Let's talk about how he left medical school to enlist when the government was interning Japanese Americans. Let's talk about how he was part of the 442nd, the most decorated unit in American history. Let's talk about how he raided two German bunkers, got shot in the stomach, kept firing his Thompson, lost his arm from an enemy grenade, refused medical treatment, and still kept fighting until he passed out.

But he didn't receive the Medal of Honor until 2000, as his actions weren't considered worthy of the award at the time. Don't get me wrong; the Distinguished Service Cross is incredible, but his complete badassness was something that we only hear in legends.

This guy was my hero. I can't even begin to think I'll ever be a fraction of what this guy was in his life. Like Major Richard Winters, I am sad to hear that another great soldier and citizen has passed.

Tomanta

Inouye is one of the proud few to be immortalized as a Badass of the Week.

I wish the Wikipedia entry included this tidbit:

When the men in his unit came to the hospital and recounted the events to Inouye, his exact words were, "No, that can't be... you'd have to be insane to do all that."

Giggles_Funsworth

After reading the Badass of the Week writeup, and the piece the LA Times did on him I was weeping. We are poorer without him. I particularly liked the below quote:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-daniel-inouye-20121218,0,1353389.story?page=2

On May 27, 1947, Inouye was honorably discharged with the rank of captain and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, to go with a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts and 12 other citations. In 2000, President Clinton upgraded his cross and other medals won by Japanese Americans to the Medal of Honor, the military's highest award.

Despite those tributes, the honor Inouye most often displayed was a pin denoting his receipt of the Good Conduct Medal as a teenage private.

"You don't really earn a Purple Heart," he recalled in 2010. "The enemy shoots you — you try to avoid it." The Medal of Honor, he continued, "was temporary insanity. I look at the citation and I say, 'No, I couldn't have done that.'"

But "to behave yourself among men, older men, it takes special effort. And I did not want to dishonor my family."