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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

36. “Get the Hell Out of Here While You Can!“

Chinese soldiers during the Korean War. Imgur

Despite heavy casualties, the communists kept coming, and eventually overwhelmed the unit to the left of Kravitz’s. As a result, the position of Kravitz’s unit became untenable, and American GIs were forced to beat a hasty retreat. Kravitz was an assistant machine gunner, but when the machine gunner was wounded, Kravitz took over and began mowing down the attackers.

When the order to withdraw was issued, Kravitz volunteered to stay behind. Ignoring his comrades’ pleadings to fall back with them, he continued manning the machinegun to buy them enough time to make it to safety. As he poured fire on the advancing enemy, he shouted to his buddies: “Get the hell out of here while you can!“

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.