Lewis Millett

I've fought in three wars, and volunteered for all of them because I believed as a free man it was my duty to help others under the attack of tyranny. Just as simple as that.

Colonel Lewis Lee Millett Sr. (December 15, 1920 – November 14, 2009) was a United States Army officer who received the Medal of Honor during the Korean War for leading the last major American bayonet charge.

Quotes

Beyond Glory (2003) interview

Note: Edited interview transcript featured in Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in their Own Words (2003) by Larry Smith, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, hardcover, pages 143-157.

• I'd forgotten all about it. But I was the only Army colonel ever convicted of desertion and subsequently pardoned by a President- thirty years later. And got away with it. It was like when they court-martialed me. They did it just to clear the record. I was only making a statement against draft dodgers. It's illegal, you know. An officer can't just go and do things like that, in a uniform.
  • p. 156

• [Regarding other Medal of Honor recipients] I've never worked at a job to make money. I think most of them try to live up to the Medal and protect and not disgrace it. I have not met any that I would say did not deserve it. And they're a hell of a gang of people. You got every conceivable race, religion. What they have in common is courage, or the absence of fear in a critical situation. It's having courage when it counts.
  • p. 156

• I believe in freedom, deeply believe in it. I believed as a free man it was my duty- and I'm not Jewish- tbut I think it was my duty to help the Jews be freed of a son of a bitch like Hitler. That's why I deserted and went to Canada: to fight against Hitler. I've fought in three wars, and volunteered for all of them because I believed as a free man it was my duty to help others under the attack of tyranny. Just as simple as that. Now, I'm so damn old I can't do it. But that's my belief: if free men don't help others to retain or regain our freedom, then we'll lose in the final analysis.
  • p. 156-157

Quotes about Millett

• Capt. Millett, Company E, distinguished himself by conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty in action. While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position, he noted that the 1st Platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire. Capt. Millett ordered the 3d Platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the two platoons, and, with fixed bayonet, led the assault up the fire-swept hill. In the fierce charge Capt. Millett bayoneted two enemy soldiers and boldly continued on, throwing grenades, clubbing and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement. Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest of the hill. His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder. During this fierce onslaught Capt. Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation until the objective was taken and firmly secured. The superb leadership, conspicuous courage, and consummate devotion to duty demonstrated by Capt. Millett were directly responsible for the successful accomplishment of a hazardous mission and reflect the highest credit on himself and the heroic traditions of the military service.
  • Citation for the Medal of Honor awarded to Millett, presented by President Harry S. Truman on 5 July 1951 at the White House, Washington, D.C.[1]