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Lenny Kravitz’s Hero Uncle and Other Lesser Known American Heroes

Khalid Elhassan August 18, 2020 35 min

American Revolutionary War - United States — The British surrender at Yorktown. Library of Congress

37. A Hero Emerges

An American machinegun position during the Korean War. Encyclopedia Britannica

In March, 1951, thousands of miles away from Brooklyn, on the other side of the globe, PFC Leonard M. Kravitz was in war-torn Korea. On March 6^th, Kravitz, of Company M, 3^rd Battalion, 5^th Regimental Combat Team, attached to the 24^th Infantry Division, was attached to Company L as an assistant machine gunner.

He was in a defensive position near Yangpyong, when his unit was hit by powerful attacks from communist forces. Kravitz’s unit beat back two probing attacks, but was then subjected to a full onslaught that unraveled their position. It was then that the hero in Kravitz rose to the surface, as he sprang into action to save his comrades. He did, but paid a dear price: his own life.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.