Real Heroes - Jim Corbett and Silver Star Recipient Jack Gallapo

Silver Star Marine Jack Gallapo(white shirt) and fellow Korea Marine Jim Corbett in Leo Orange.

There is a Man Lair in my neighborhood. It is a private property not far from my Morgan Park Home. In this real estate opportunity, everyday, there meets a congress of extraordinary men.

They are a parliament of retired cops, firefighters and venture capitalists. Each morning between 7 AM and 9 AM these men meet for coffee and beefy bonhomie.

It was my honor to join them recently, in spite of my being as yellow as a duck's foot.

Two of these worthies are retired Chicago Firefighters and Korean War Marines - Retired CFD heroes James Corbett and Jack Gallapo. Jack Gallapo is in the hospital,at the moment.

In 1950, Jack Gallapo was a kid in Korea. His exploits as Marine can be read by clicking my post title.

Here is a story from his friend and fellow Marine and Chicago fireman James Corbett.

" His outfit was overrun by the Reds. Jack was wounded several times and brought to an aid station during the fighting retreat known as the Chosin Reservoir. The Chinese over ran the hospital and killed all of the doctors and medics in the tent where Jack was being operated on. The medics and doctors fell over his already shot-up body on the stretcher. The Reds took off his boots. It was fifty below zero. Jack was wounded and left for dead with dead men covering him and his boots were stolen by the Reds. He was badly frost bitten. Ironically, had Gallapo been evacuated earlier when a helicopter took off with two other wounded Marines, He would have died. The chopper was shot down. The Marines retook the hospital tent where Jack was freezing and he was saved. Shot up, frost-bitten but saved."

Years later Jack Gallapo helped save or recover victims of Our Lady of Angels fire.

The New York Times this morning wanted America to know that the kids from Occupy Wall Street are our new Progressive Leaders and Heroes.

The young people in Zuccotti Park and more than 1,000 cities have started America on a path to renewal. The movement, still in its first days, will have to expand in several strategic ways. Activists are needed among shareholders, consumers and students to hold corporations and politicians to account. Shareholders, for example, should pressure companies to get out of politics. Consumers should take their money and purchasing power away from companies that confuse business and political power. The whole range of other actions — shareholder and consumer activism, policy formulation, and running of candidates — will not happen in the park.

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University

I'll take my cue from the men who have coffee in the Morgan Park Man Lair, thanks so much for the suggestion, there Jeff.


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/the-new-progressive-movement.html?_r=1