Today is Memorial Day, when we honor all those brave military heroes of our past who gave the last full measure of devotion so we could live in freedom.
In the great patriotic hymn “Battle-Hymn of the Republic,” Julia Ward Howe wrote, “As [Christ] died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!” And hundreds of thousands of Americans throughout the 250 years of our history have indeed died to make men free.
“On May 7, 1945, in the town of Volary, Czechoslovakia, at about 8:20 am local time, [Army] private first class Charles Havlat became the last American to die in combat in the European theater of operations during [WWII],” shares This Date in History. Havlat was 35 years old at the time, and he was part of a reconnaissance patrol that Nazi soldiers ambushed.
When several of the American soldiers were seriously wounded, Havlat hurried to their aid without thought for himself “and was instantly felled by a sniper’s bullet. The announcement that German forces had agreed to a ceasefire reached Havlat’s patrol just ten minutes after he died,” a tragic circumstance. But his bravery has lived on many decades after his death. Remarkably, “Havlat died less than 20 miles from the birth place of both his parents.” He returned to his parents’ homeland as an American to liberate it.
Memorial Day heroes: Charles Havlat, Miguel Keith, Dan Bullock pic.twitter.com/SeIRkqa91L
— Catherine Salgado (@CatSalgado32) May 26, 2025
War History Online shares the story of Lance Corporal Miguel Keith, a machine gunner in Vietnam in 1970. His platoon came under heavy enemy firer. Keith was wounded, but refused to be evacuated, instead running across terrain under fire to check on the security of U.S. positions. He also continued to rain accurate fire from his machine gun down on the enemy.
Keith saw a group of enemy soldiers moving toward his platoon’s command post. With no thought for his own safety, he charged forward, moving through a hail of gunfire. He took down three of the enemy soldiers and forced the others to retreat, buying valuable time for his fellow Marines.
But then a grenade exploded near Keith. Still refusing to stop fighting despite his injuries, he moved toward 25 enemy soldiers, killing four of them and scattering the others. Unfortunately, the enemy also hit him, and this final wound proved fatal. After such bravery, you will not be astonished to hear that he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
Like Keith, Dan Bullock fought and died in the Vietnam War. Bullock had “always wanted to be a Marine,” This Date in History states. He wanted to join the Corps so much that he altered his birth certificate to enlist in the Marines at only 14 years of age. He made it through boot camp and had been in Vietnam for less than a month when he volunteered for a nighttime patrol and was killed in action. At only 15 years old, Bullock was the youngest American casualty of the Vietnam War.
Americans of all ages and backgrounds have given their lives over the last 250 years so that we could live in freedom. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, the world — particularly the United States of America — can never forget what they did for us.
