20+ Military Retired

12/22/2025

11/15/2025

11/15/2025

11/04/2025

Joe Hooper was nothing short of legendary. Enlisting in the Army in 1960, after a brief stint in the Navy, was assigned to the 501st Infantry/101st AB. He served 2 combat tours in Vietnam, a small part of his 17 year career. On top of earning 37 citations for valor, to include 8 Purple Hearts, he retired as a Captain (even though he never went to college and only had a GED). While in Vietnam he was credited with 115 enemy kills, 22 of which occurred in one single day.

On Feb. 21 1968, his team began assaulting a heavily defended enemy position along a river bank when it encountered a withering hail of fire. Hooper rallied several men and stormed across the river, overrunning several bunkers on the opposite shore. With utter disregard for his own safety, he moved out under the intense fire again and pulled back the wounded.

During this, he was seriously wounded, but he refused medical aid and returned to his men. He then single-handedly stormed 3 enemy bunkers, destroying them with hand grenades and rifle fire, and shot 2 enemy soldiers who had attacked and wounded the Chaplain (You just don’t mess with the Chaplain). Hooper then destroyed 3 more buildings housing enemy riflemen. At this point he was attacked by an NVA officer whom he killed with his knife.

Finding his men under heavy fire from a house to the front, he proceeded alone to the building, killing its occupants with rifle fire and grenades. Despite the multiple wounds and loss of blood, he continued to lead his men.

He then took out 4 more bunkers by himself and raced across an open field, still under enemy fire, to rescue a wounded man who was trapped in a trench. Upon reaching the man, he was faced by an armed enemy soldier whom he killed with a pistol. Moving his comrade to safety and returning to his men, he neutralized the final pocket of enemy resistance by fatally wounding 3 North Vietnamese officers with rifle fire.

Hooper then established a final line and reorganized his men, not accepting treatment until this was accomplished and not consenting to evacuation until the following morning.

10/21/2025

10/01/2025

09/26/2025

09/08/2025

Possibly the best hummingbird feeder!

09/07/2025

08/16/2025

📅 August 16 — Tech. Sgt. Daniel Keller’s Air Force Cross Action

On this day in 2017, TSgt Daniel P. Keller, a Kentucky Air National Guard combat controller with the 123rd Special Tactics Squadron, displayed extraordinary heroism during a 15-hour battle in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, against 350 Islamic State fighters.

After an IED blast killed four and wounded 31—including Keller, who suffered a traumatic brain injury—he fought through his injuries to call in airstrikes, repel an enemy assault less than 150 meters away, and move 13 critically wounded teammates to safety under heavy fire. When medevac helicopters couldn’t find the landing zone, Keller sprinted into the open, exposing himself to enemy fire to guide them in.

Even after the mission was aborted, he helped load the wounded into vehicles and volunteered to es**rt them on a 2.5-kilometer movement, repelling a three-sided enemy attack along the way. For his gallantry in action, Keller was awarded the Air Force Cross—the nation’s second-highest award for valor in combat.