Staff Sergeant Reckless
c. 1948 – 1968Decorated war horse who made 51 solo trips carrying nearly 9,000 pounds of ammunition under heavy artillery fire during the Battle for Outpost Vegas.
Audie Murphy
1925 – 1971Most decorated U.S. combat soldier of World War II who single-handedly repelled a German company atop a burning tank destroyer.
Bill Millin ("Piper Bill")
1922 – 2010Marched up and down Normandy's Sword Beach under relentless machine-gun fire playing bagpipes to lead Allied commandos on D-Day.
Witold Pilecki
1901 – 1948Voluntarily allowed himself to be imprisoned in Auschwitz to gather intelligence and build an armed underground resistance movement inside the death camp.
Desmond Doss
1919 – 2006Saved 75 wounded soldiers atop Hacksaw Ridge during the Battle of Okinawa without carrying a single weapon.
Irena Sendler
1910 – 2008Smuggled 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto, preserving their true identity records in jars buried under an apple tree.
Nancy Wake ("The White Mouse")
1912 – 2011Top Gestapo target who led 7,000 Maquis guerrillas in attacks against German garrisons and once killed an enemy sentry with her bare hands.
Francis Pegahmagabow
1889 – 1952Most decorated Indigenous soldier in Canadian military history, credited with 378 enemy kills and capturing over 300 combatants.
Léo Major
1921 – 2008Single-handedly liberated the Dutch city of Zwolle in 1945, capturing over 90 German prisoners in a single night.
Nicholas Winton
1909 – 2015Organized eight trains to rescue 669 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, keeping his deed secret for 50 years.
Cher Ami
1918 – 1919World War I homing pigeon that delivered a desperate message despite being shot in the breast, blinded in one eye, and losing a leg, saving 194 Allied soldiers.
Simo Häyhä (The White Death)
1905 – 2002Finnish military sniper credited with over 500 kills in just 100 days during the Winter War—the highest recorded sniper body count in military history.
Bing the ParaDog
1942 – 1955Airborne combat dog who parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and Nazi Germany during Operation Varsity, locating landmines and protecting paratroopers on the frontlines.
Nicholas Alkemade
1912 – 2002RAF tail gunner who survived a 18,000 ft fall without a parachute after jumping from a burning Lancaster bomber over Germany.
Second Lieutenant Marcus 'Falcon' Reed
1922 – 199819-year-old rookie pilot who bolted an improvised steel tube wing turret to his P-40 Warhawk to defend Clark Field against a wave of Japanese Zeros.