This Wall Street Journal story from Veterans Day (yesterday) is a gripping read. It’s excerpted on a blog called Power Line, since the Journal site requires a subscription to read it. It details how a officer named Capt. Harry Hornbuckle with a small thrown-together company of 80 people were assigned to defend a spot nick-named Point Curly. The squads defending Points Moe and Larry were significantly larger and better-prepared because it was anticipated that they would be the ones encountering all of the resistance. Instead, the Point Curly team finds itself repelling an attack from over three hundred Iraqi and Syrian fighters! They succeeded, and miraculously, not one American was killed…and you’ve probably never heard this story before because the captain was not interesting in doing any self-promotion.

This story of a normal Joe doing his job of fighting an overwhelming battle force while protecting his men, and not thinking of himself as a hero, while assigned to a position with a goofy name… it’s reminiscent of every Robert Kanigher war story I’ve ever read. You know, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company having to take Meat Loaf Ridge. Except that this is a real story.

This is great reading, especially for anyone who thinks that modern warfare is a Nintendo game. Instead, I think some of the combat involved is just as interesting as the period warfare of WWII. Perhaps someone will do a modern war comic covering the War on Terrorism. As it is, I’m looking forward to getting the book (mentioned in the piece) by Retired Major General Robert H. Scales which covers stories like this one.