Humble Hero: The Tale of Sgt. Alvin York

The New York Times newspaper called him 'the war's biggest hero' in 1919, but this hero was a man who didn't want to fight. Born in December of 1887 in Tennessee, Alvin York was a simple man, raised in mountains where he fished and hunted for food and helped raise his ten brothers and sisters.

After his father died, Alvin became the main provider for his family. His skill with his rifle won target-shooting contests in his county. Alvin was a roughneck, a man who liked to drink, gamble and fight - until around 1915, when he met a young woman named Gracie Williams. She tamed Alvin and soon he gave up his rough ways and became a member of her church. He recalled, "I used to drink a lot of moonshine. I used to gamble my wages away week after week. I used to stay out late at night. I had a powerful lot of fistfights… I knew all the time I was going along this kind of life, deep down in my heart, that I was doing things that were not right."

He received his draft notice in 1917, calling him to active military duty. He was 29 years old. York had difficulty accepting the call from his government, ordering him to go fight a foreign enemy in a foreign land. Still, his ancestors had served in various wars since the American Revolution. "My ancestors would want me to do whatever my country demanded of me," he said, but he felt that he would betray his religious beliefs if he killed others. He prayed about it and ultimately obeyed his call to duty. Nevertheless, he wrote, "I don't want to fight" on his registration form. Though serving as a Conscientious Objector, once his decision to serve his country was made, he gave his country his best.

York traveled to Georgia for his military training, and then, in May of 1918, he landed in France, arriving just in time to take part in the last major Allied offensive of the war, in the Argonne Forest.

York was ordered to take his squad of men and attack a German machine gun position. He and his men managed to surprise the enemy, a group of about twenty men and their Major, and took them prisoner without a shot being fired. But then, the German major gave a shout, and York and his men were suddenly attacked by another group of Germans. He guessed there were about thirty of them. Surrounded on three sides, York kept shooting. "It was awful," he wrote later. "Our losses were very heavy."

An expert shot, York had learned to pick squirrels out of trees and hit turkeys with one shot back home, and he put his skills to good use in France. Every time a German lifted his head to shoot at him, he quickly aimed and fired. He recalled, "All the time, I kept yelling at them to come down. I didn't want to kill any more than I had to. But it was they or I. And I was giving them the best I had."

The German Major who had been captured earlier finally spoke up and told York that he would tell his men to surrender if he would just stop shooting. Only eight of York's men had survived the German's attack, yet suddenly they found themselves in charge of eighty captured Germans. He had the German officer walk in front of him and as they started back toward their own lines, they met group after group of Germans. He told the German major to order the men to give up, and after seeing York's skill with his rifle, the German major didn't hesitate to order their surrender.

By the time they reached their American lines, the number of German prisoners had grown to 132 prisoners, including three officers. After they got the prisoners back to their lines, York reported to his commanding officer. After York reported that he had fired twenty-eight shots at the enemy, American officers went back to the scene to discover what happened. They weren't sure whether to believe him or not, but at the scene, they counted twenty-eight dead Germans. Because of York's calm bravery, German machine guns, small arms and ammunition were captured as well.

York didn't gloat over his deeds. He felt bad about having to kill human beings, even if they had been the enemy. Having accompanied the American officers to the scene of their battle, he prayed for the dead from both sides.

For his amazing feat, York was awarded the highest medals three different countries had to offer. He was given the American Medal of Honor, American Distinguished Service Cross, the French Croix de Guerre and the Italian Croce de Guera. He was also promoted to sergeant, and from then on was known as Sergeant York.

After the war, York quickly returned to the hills and woman he loved so much. He and Gracie were married in June 1919, a little over a week after he returned to the United States. While York may have been a hero, he lived the life of a simple and humble man. He and Gracie had seven children and he spent the rest of his life living according to his faith and helping others. He raised money to build a school, ran it for a while and then lived the rest of his life mostly hunting and farming.

Proud yet uncomfortable with the attention that was paid to him just before he returned home to a hero's welcome, York wrote in his diary, "It was very nice. But I sure wanted to get back to my people where I belonged, and the little old mother and the little mountain girl who were waiting. And I wanted to be in the mountains again and get out with the hounds, and tree a coon or knock over a red fox."

Sergeant Alvin York died in 1964 at the age of seventy-six and is buried in his family plot in Pall Mall, Tennessee. When he died, President Lyndon Johnson released a statement that said, in part, that Sergeant Alvin York was "a symbol of American courage and sacrifice" who "epitomized the gallantry of American fighting men and their sacrifices in behalf of freedom."

Sergeant York was many things to many people; country gentleman, hunter, farmer, family man. But his country will forever know him as 'Sergeant York: the greatest civilian soldier'.