Sergeant York and His People

From a hut in the Tennessee Mountains, forty-eight miles from the railroad, the young man set out for World War II. He did not know the customs of this world. Caught by the enemy in the bay of a hill in the Argonne Forest, he did not run away, but sank in the bushes and single-handedly fought a battalion of German submachine gunners until he forced them to descend from the hill with their hands up. There were one hundred thirty-two of them left, and he led them, prisoners, to the American line. Marshal Foch, in awarding him, said: "What you did was the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all of the armies of Europe." His ancestors were reed carvers and Indian warriors. Their lives were filled with the romance of adventure. These were people of strong hatred and tender love. His people lived in the simplicity of a pioneer. This is not a military history, but the history of the creation of man. His ancestors were able to leave him with only one legacy - the idea of American masculinity. In the time that has elapsed since he came down from the mountains, he has done three things, and any of them could mark him with a distinction.