Reply #16: alvin york....

[islandmkl]

read his bio...even the movie was good (Gary Cooper)...

wild youth, raised in a pacifistic household, who only 'calmed down' after the violent death of one of his friends...

applied for conscientious objector status in WWI...was not granted...

went on to receive Medal of Honor in a truly 'hollywood-style' manner...under heavy enemy fire, saving men, capturing enemy soldiers, etc....fairly single-handedly...

in his diary, which he kept for every day from his induction through his discharge, he addresses the desire to have the 'enemy surrender instead of killing them' during his one-man assault on a machine-gun nest...

a fairly technical assessment of the events, especially from the german side of things, is found at:

http://www.historynet.com/alvin-york-and-the-meuse-argonne-offensive.htm