Jason B. Whitman

🇺🇸 Most Badass Americans You Don’t Know D-Day Edition: John J. Pinder Jr. Technician Fifth Grade John J. Pinder Jr. landed on Omaha beach on his birthday. He didn’t make it off. Born June 6, 1912, in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, Joe Pinder was the oldest of three children. His father worked in the steel industry. He graduated as valedictorian of Butler High School in 1931. Pinder spent the next several years as a right-handed pitcher in the minor leagues. He played six seasons in the farm systems of the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, Washington Senators, and Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1941 he won 17 games and was still chasing a shot at the major leagues when the war came. He entered the Army in January 1942 after Pearl Harbor. Assigned as a radio operator with the 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, he fought in North Africa and Sicily. In Sicily he earned a Bronze Star for staying at an observation post under fire. On June 6, 1944, Pinder landed with the first waves on Omaha Beach on his birthday. Communications were shattered. His job was to get a working radio ashore. He made it off the landing craft. They were 100 yards off the beach. Then he was hit. A round tore into his face after only a few steps off the boat. Pinder held the torn flesh of his face together with one hand, carried the radio with the other, and delivered the radio to his unit, while wading thru waste deep water. That should have been enough. It wasn’t. Weakened and bleeding, he turned around and went back into the surf and fire three more times to salvage communication equipment. He even recovered another workable radio. On the third trip machine gun fire hit him again, this time in the legs. Still he kept going. Weakening but exposed on the beach, he helped get the radios working so the men around him could call for support. While doing so, he was hit for the third time and killed. Medal of Honor. Posthumous. It was presented to his father on January 26, 1945. Pinder was initially buried in Normandy. In 1947 his family brought him home to Grandview Cemetery in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania. He was the only professional baseball player awarded the Medal of Honor in World War II. John Pinder is an American Badass Thank you, John! 🫡🇺🇸