{"id":198,"date":"2004-04-01T20:23:52","date_gmt":"2004-04-02T01:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewsingreen.com\/2004\/04\/john-l-levitow\/"},"modified":"2011-02-14T11:37:20","modified_gmt":"2011-02-14T16:37:20","slug":"john-l-levitow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/2004\/04\/john-l-levitow\/","title":{"rendered":"John L. Levitow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Sergeant, U.S. Air Force<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-468\" title=\"levitow2\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jewsingreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/04\/levitow2-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/04\/levitow2-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/04\/levitow2.jpg 256w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>from Sgt. Levitow\u2019s Medal of Honor citation:<\/em><\/p>\n<p>For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty.\u00a0 Sergeant John L. Levitow (then Airman First Class), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism on 24 February, 1969, while assigned as a loadmaster aboard a AC-47 aircraft flying a night mission.\u00a0 On that date, Sgt. Levitow\u2019s aircraft was struck by a hostile mortar round.\u00a0 The resulting explosion ripped a hole through the wing and fragments mad over 3,500 holes in the fuselage.\u00a0 All occupants of the cargo compartment were helplessly slammed against the floor and fuselage.\u00a0 The explosion tore an activated flare from the grasp of a crewmember, who had been launching flares to provide illumination for Army ground troops engaged in combat.<\/p>\n<p>Sgt. Levitow, though stunned by the concussion of the blast and suffering from over forty fragment wounds in the back and legs, staggered to his feet and turned to assist the man nearest to him, who had been knocked down and was bleeding heavily.\u00a0 As he was moving his wounded comrade forward and away from the open cargo compartment door, he saw the smoking flare ahead of him in the aisle.\u00a0 Realizing the danger involved and completely disregarding his own wounds, Sgt. Levitow started toward the burning flare.\u00a0 Sgt. Levitow struggled forward despite the loss of blood.\u00a0 Unable to grasp the flare with his hands, he threw himself bodily upon the burning flare.\u00a0 Hugging the deadly devise to his body, he dragged himself back to the rear of the aircraft and hurled the flare through the open cargo door.\u00a0 At that instant, the flare separated and ignited in the air, but clear of the aircraft.\u00a0 Sgt. Levitow, by selfless and heroic actions, saved the aircraft and its entire crew from certain death and destruction.\u00a0 Sgt. Levitow\u2019s conspicuous gallantry, his profound concern for his fellowmen and his intrepidity at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty are in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Air Force and reflect great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of his country.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-470\" title=\"levitow moh\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jewsingreen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/04\/levitow-moh.bmp\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sergeant, U.S. Air Force from Sgt. Levitow\u2019s Medal of Honor citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his own life above and beyond the call of duty.\u00a0 Sergeant John L. Levitow (then Airman First Class), U.S. Air Force, distinguished himself by exceptional heroism on 24 February, 1969, while assigned as a loadmaster aboard a AC-47 [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[26,27,30],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-04 21:24:21","action":"Draft","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jewsingreen.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}