MILESFORTIS – Page 471 – ESSE SINE METU IN FACIE INIMICI TUI. TUENDAM INOPS ET FACERE NON MALI.

Building Defenders for Our Schools and Churches

Ask someone if they can shoot a gun and you are sure to get memorable answers. You hear about their relatives or their family friends who taught them. Ask them if they passed any shooting qualification tests and you’ll find that most have not, at least not recently. Last week I watched a group of volunteer defenders in Arizona train and test to become the emergency first responders for their schools and churches. They learned to stop the threat and treat the injured victims until police and EMTs arrive. These volunteers are not your average Joe or your average Jane.

It is true that almost half of us live with a gun in our home. About 17 million of us go on to get a concealed carry permit and carry a personal firearm in public. Fewer of us learn armed defense and practice the required skills so our responses are subconscious. Said another way, few people drive their gun as automatically as they drive their car.

Like driving a car, we are describing both mental and physical skills. Frequent review lets you easily recognize a lethal threat when you see it. Making those physical skills feel routine lets you present your firearm without looking for your holster. Just like driving your car, everyone thinks they shoot well until we actually measure their performance.

The defenders in this class looked to refine every movement with their firearm. Rather than saying, “But that is the way I’ve always done it,” they had the humility and willingness to learn. They asked how to improve time after time. They showed an inspiring eagerness to change and grow.

It helps to know your limits. How accurately can you shoot if accuracy is all that matters? How fast can you go before you become erratic? It takes both speed and precision to be a good defender. They need both without sacrificing too much of either. These volunteer first responders learned better techniques in a day, but it takes patient practice to make those new refinements smooth, consistent, and routine.

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Three Pro-Rights Bills Passed by Texas Lawmakers

Three pieces of legislation backed by the National Rifle Association were passed by the Texas Legislature over the weekend and sent to Gov. Greg Abbott, who has already signed one of the measures.

According to the NRA, the three bills are:

House Bill 1760, which has already been signed into law, provides a solution to allegedly “roving gun-free” school zones, which apply to school events occurring away from the school campus. This legislation limits “gun-free” restrictions to facilities actually owned and controlled by schools, or where high school, collegiate and UIL activities described in the State Penal Code (Section 46.03) are held.

House Bill 2837, which is awaiting Abbott’s signature, is designed to protect the privacy rights of people who purchase firearms and ammunition by preventing financial institutions from requiring the use of a firearms-specific merchant category code (MCC) when such purchases are made. This bill thwarts efforts by gun control groups to essentially separate gun and ammunition purchases from other retail buying with a unique MCC as established by the International Organization for Standardization. The NRA contends anti-gunners were looking for a way to create a defacto registry of gun owners, since the federal government is prohibited by law from doing so.

House Bill 3137 prevents local governments (city and/or county) from requiring firearm owners to obtain liability insurance, under the state firearms preemption law.

The gun prohibition lobby portrays Texas as something of a no-man’s land, and the media focuses on mass shootings there, while essentially supporting states such as California, with its strict gun laws, but which also has mass shootings.

Anti-gunners were busy this session in Austin, where, according to NRA figures, there were a dozen bills aimed at so-called “universal background checks,” eight so-called “red flag” bills, nine bills proposing restrictions on magazine capacity, and a whopping 21 bills that would have placed restrictions on firearms or ammunition sales to young adults.

Man charged after fatally shooting suspect who allegedly tried to rob him in Queens

KEW GARDENS, Queens (WABC) — A man in Queens has been charged after he shot and killed another person who was allegedly trying to rob him, police reported.

Officials say the shooting happened in a driveway on 82nd Avenue in Kew Gardens at around 2 a.m. Wednesday.

The 32-year-old was armed with a sharp object and attempted to rob a 65-year-old of money and cigarettes, authorities said.

The 65-year-old, identified as Charles Foehner, pulled a silver handgun and shot him as many as five times.

In surveillance video viewed by Eyewitness News, the assailant confronts Foehner from 40 feet. Foehner waves him off, raising his left hand, but the assailant continues to approach aggressively. With that, Foehner draws his gun from 20 feet. When the assailant waves an object and lunges, Foehner fires from 8 feet.

He then called 911, stating he was in a shooting and the gun was in his jacket pocket. He voluntarily surrendered to responding officers.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene and a pen was discovered in his right hand.

The 65-year-old was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm, according to a spokesperson for the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

The Queens district attorney will need to determine whether it was a case of self-defense.

The 32-year-old had many prior arrests for robbery, burglary, drug possession, and other related charges.

Several of Foehner’s neighbors told Eyewitness News they are sympathetic.

“He was protecting himself. So how can I blame him? You know, unfortunately, the guy had to lose his life. I don’t wish that on anybody. But this is the circumstances when you randomly just rob people. You never know what you’re going to get,” neighbor Vercelle Evans said.

In the minutes before the shooting, investigators believe the assailant went on a rampage, inexplicably smashing windows in two neighboring buildings. Foehner lives around the corner with his wife, where he is well-liked. Sources say he has an active NYPD firearms permit.

Angel Rodriguez lives down the hall.

“If video shows that, you know, he was acting in in self-defense and the guy was actually trying to harm him, then I you know, I believe we should be able to protect ourselves,” neighbor Rodriguez said.

Katz says the case is complicated.

“This is a complicated case and we’re going to review the evidence,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said before the charges came down. “We just went to the crime scene. I will have comments for you after we investigate it.”

NSSF COMMENDS NORTH DAKOTA GOV. BURGUM FOR SIGNING SECOND AMENDMENT FINANCIAL PRIVACY ACT

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF^®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, commends North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum for signing legislation to protect the financial privacy of purchases with credit cards at firearm retailers. Gov. Burgum signed the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act to prohibit the use of a special Merchant Category Code (MCC) for credit card purchases and prevent personal financial information from being shared by financial institutions.

“Governor Burgum is putting gun control special interests in ‘woke’ Wall Street financial corporations on notice that their attempts at antigun policies end at North Dakota’s borders,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “North Dakotans legally purchasing firearms and ammunition should never be threatened by private financial service providers or government authorities by having their name and financial data being added to a government-accessible watchlist simply for exercising their Second Amendment rights. Governor Burgum is ensuring North Dakotans won’t be held captive by the radical ‘woke’ antigun agenda that seeks to weaponize credit cards in gun owners’ wallets against them. Gun owners should worry about what’s in their wallet, not who’s in their wallet.”

Gov. Burgum signed the Second Amendment Financial Privacy Act (HB 1487). The law prohibits financial institutions from requiring a firearm retailer-specific code that is different from that of other sporting goods or general merchandise retailers.

In late 2022, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced it would create a unique MCC, at the behest of Amalgamated Bank which has been described as the Left’s Private Banker, that would allow credit card companies to monitor transactions at firearm retailers. Credit card companies suspended plans to implement the use of unique firearm retailer MCCs after significant opposition by NSSF and several state governments.

North Dakota joins Florida, West Virginia, Mississippi and Idaho in enacting laws to protect firearm purchasers’ privacy when using credit cards at firearm retailers. Legislation similar to these state laws is pending in Congress.

Ocasio-Cortez Throws Hissy Fit Over Twitter Parody Account

Oregon’s magazine ban, pistol purchase permitting scheme set for trial

Oregon’s narrowly-approved Measure 114 has been on hold for the past several months thanks to a circuit court judge’s injunction, but a separate federal lawsuit is set to go to trial next week, and gun owners are hoping that the ballot initiative will be struck down entirely by the courts.

U.S. District Judge Karen Immergut declined to issue a temporary restraining order of her own shortly after the law was approved by less than 51% of voters last November, ruling that the magazine ban was presumptively constitutional on the theory that the magazines aren’t likely protected by the Second Amendment in the first place, but even if they are, banning them is okay because its meant to address “unprecedented societal concerns” about mass shootings. Now she’s set to preside over a five-day trial that will delve more deeply into the constitutional questions surrounding Measure 114’s ban on commonly-owned magazines, with the state of Oregon and Measure 114’s defenders arguing that the bans are a life-saving necessity and opponents maintaining that the ban is a violation of our fundamental right to armed self-defense.

Immergut last week denied each side’s motions to rule in their favor without a trial.

“The record contains genuine disputes of material fact, which would benefit from full development through trial,” she wrote.

She said she’ll consider whether large-capacity magazines “constitute a dramatic technological change from earlier firearms capable of firing more than 10 rounds.”

Immergut also noted that she’ll take up the constitutionality of the gun permit requirement under Measure 114, but she likely won’t consider how it will be applied in reaching her opinion.

Measure challengers contend the permits will deprive law-abiding citizens of guns because state police haven’t yet hired sufficient staff to handle the anticipated increase in background checks required to obtain a permit.

“Evidence about future implementation is not ripe for determination in this trial,” Immergut said.

Based on Immergut’s previous ruling, it seems pretty clear that she’s looking for ways to justify the ban, and as Reason’s Jacob Sullum noted shortly after she declined to issue a TRO, she seems willing to twist the words of the Supreme Court in order to do so.

The FPC cites a couple of real-life cases that suggest magazine capacity can be crucial in fending off armed home invaders. More generally, it notes that shots fired in self-defense often miss their target, even when fired by trained police officers. Measure 114’s exemption for police officers recognizes that fact, the FPC says, and “the average Oregon citizen has just as much right as a police officer to defend herself with standard capacity magazines.”

For Immergut, however, the crucial point is that situations where Oregon’s magazine limit would impair self-defense are “exceedingly rare.” In effect, she is suggesting that arms are not covered by the Second Amendment unless the government agrees that they are “necessary”—and not for “lawful purposes” generally but for self-defense in particular.

Immergut even questions whether “large capacity magazines” are “in common use” for “lawful purposes,” which seems undeniable given how many law-abiding Americans own them. “Plaintiffs have not shown that magazines capable of accepting more than ten rounds of ammunition are firearms in ‘”common use” today for self-defense’ and thereby covered by the plain text of the Second Amendment,” she writes.

The Supreme Court has said that the central component of the Second Amendment is self-defense, but nothing in Heller, McDonald, or Bruen suggests that only arms that are in common use for self-defense are protected. If so, that would set up a bizarre standard that would allow for single shot bolt action hunting rifles to be banned, while protecting the handguns that were the primary target of gun control activists for decades.

While self-defense may be at the heart of the Second Amendment, the text plainly (and simply) refers to the right to keep and bear arms. Unless the state of Oregon can come up with longstanding historical analogues to banning commonly-owned arms (which they’ve so far been able to do), the state’s ban should be overturned by Immergut. I’m not all that confident the judge will apply the Bruen test appropriately and fairly, especially given her initial opinion, but unless she’s engaging in some anti-gun activism from the bench it shouldn’t be a close call to find in favor of the plaintiffs when the trial concludes next week.

May 31

1775 – A month after the battles of Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts, the Mecklenburg Resolves, annulling and vacating all laws originating from the authority of the British King or Parliament, and ending recognition of the Crown’s power in the colony of North Carolina are adopted by the Mecklenburg County Committee of Safety.

1790 – Congress enacts the first copyright statute, the Copyright Act of 1790.

1862 – During the Peninsula Campaign; outside Richmond, Virginia, Confederate forces under General Joseph E. Johnston engages Union forces under General George B. McClellan

1864 – During the Overland Campaign; at Cold Harbor, Virginia, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee engages the Army of the Potomac under General Ulysses S. Grant.

1879 – Gilmore’s Garden in New York City is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

1889 – After several days of heavy rain, the earthen work South Fork Dam of the Little Conemaugh River fails, sending a 60 foot wall of water over the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania killing over 2,200 people.

1921 – A race riot in Tulsa, Oklahoma results in the deaths of an estimated 55 to 300 black people.

1924 – A fire at the Hope Development School in Playa Del Rey, Los Angeles, California, kills 24 people, mostly disabled children.

1951 – Under authority given by the Constitution in Article I, Section 8, which provides that “The Congress shall have Power….To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval forces“, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 United States Code §§ 801–946 takes effect as the legal system of the U.S. Armed Forces.

1955 – The U.S. Supreme Court expands on its Brown v. Board of Education decision by ordering district courts and school districts to enforce educational desegregation “at all deliberate speed.”

1971 – In accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed by Congress in 1968, observation of Memorial Day occurs on the last Monday in May for the first time, rather than on the traditional Memorial Day of May 30.

1973 – The Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

1977 – The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, running from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska is completed.

1985 – 41 tornadoes strike Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and Ontario, Canada leaving 76 dead.

2008 – Usain Bolt breaks the world record in the 100m sprint, at 9.72 seconds.

2013 – A record 2.6 mile wide, multiple vortex, EF5 force tornado, strikes El Reno, Oklahoma, killing 8 people, 4 of them ‘storm chasers’ and injuring 151 more.

2019 – A disgruntled city employee commits mass murder at a municipal office building at Virginia Beach, Virginia, shooting and killing 12 people and wounding 4 others before being engaged and killed by Police.

2020 – SpaceX Crew Dragon 2 Endeavour docks with the International Space Station and astronauts Hurley and Behnken transfer over to spend 62 days in space.

BLUF
My hat is off to the commies. They found a weak portion of the nation and convinced them that submission is strength and not cowardice. Your blue-haired, trans-pansexual sister-in-law will proudly move into a pod she shares with an “undocumented” Honduran serial rapist while calling you a bigot for not complying.

The Democrats’ Greatest Achievement: Convincing Idiots That Tyranny Is Virtue

I have to give it to the ~~progressives~~ Marxists–they sure know how to play the long game.

The far lefties have spent decades demonizing conservatives, Republicans, and white Christians as hateful, racist, terrorists, hell-bent on oppressing minorities, and, lately, guilty of taking down our American democracy, while at the same time assuring their minions they are morally superior to these same liberty-embracing crowd.

OPINION-O-RAMA! Many leftists are self-hating cowards who need to feel supreme over a group of people, and those people would be you and I. But what do I know? I’m just a former self-hating coward leftist who used to look down on people like you until a friend — whom I’ll call a true son of liberty — shook the stupid out of me.

Leftists, desperate to feed their cowardice — rather than starve it to death and replace it with courage — eat up their phantom supremacy by swallowing whatever self-righteous balderdash their Democrats masters throw at them, even if that means slowly stripping away their own freedoms.

Those at the top of the Democrat hate pyramid have learned they can thrust tyranny on their myrmidons if they just thinly disguise it with a bogus sense of virtue. The weak are easy prey.

Die-hard leftists will trip over themselves in a desperate attempt to out-virtue signal their Bolshie friends, and if that means cutting off their noses to spite our Constitution-loving faces, so be it.

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2 charged in carjacking attempt near Ford City Mall where victim shot suspect

CHICAGO (WLS) — Two people have been charged after an attempted carjacking near Ford City Mall in which the victim shot and wounded one of the suspects, Chicago police said.

The incident occurred Sunday in the 7600-block of South Cicero Avenue.

Police said the 24-year-old victim was approach by the two suspects, one of whom produced a handgun and fired. The victim returned fire and shot one of the suspects in the thigh, police said.

Police said the victim is a valid FOID/CCL holder.

The two suspects were arrested in the 7400-block of South Cicero Avenue and the 2700-block of West 68th Street Sunday night, police said.

Tuesday morning, police said, 21-year-old Anton Cheeks and 18-year-old Travell Quadir Deal, have each been charged with attempted vehicular carjacking and are due in bond court Tuesday.

Armed Women of America National Conference Opens Doors to Public

2023 Armed Women of America National Conference Opens

Names like Lena Miculek, Mike Seeklander, Miyo Strong of SmartDefense, Terry Vaughan, Nikki Burgett, Cheryl Todd of Gun Freedom Radio, Karen Butler of Shoot Like a Girl, Shelley Hill of The Complete Combatant, Vicki Farnam, and more are all bringing some of the best techniques and education to one spot this August.

2023 Armed Women of America National Conference

Covering topics like off-body carrying, staying calm in a crisis, safeguarding life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, self-defense, developing a personal response plan for an active threat, and so much more, the National Conference & Leadership Summit is personal protection education for women at its best.

Included in this action-packed weekend is hands-on shopping with industry brands like Ruger, Glock, Crossbreed Holsters, Gunsite Academy, Laser Ammo, ErgoGrips, Walkers, MantisX, Premier Body Armor, OTIS Smart Gun Care, CoolFire Trainers, Taurus USA, and many more. Topping it all off is plenty of social networking, add-on pre and post-conference workshops, and fun! Where else can you get this much content and connection in one place? Nowhere.

Previously reserved for chapter leadership, the Armed Women of America is opening its annual conference doors to all members, skill levels, and interests. Beyond that, in recognizing the incredible growth in women shooters, they are opening weekend EXPO to the general public. All of this offered for hundreds less than a single ticket to a Taylor Swift concert.

If you’ve not heard of the Armed Women of America (AWA), they are a non-profit organization with chapters across the country where women gather regularly to learn and grow in their abilities to handle firearms safely, responsibly, and competently. They offer a welcoming, non-intimidating place for women to learn more about topics including firearms safety, personal protection, concealed carry, mindset and so much more. The meetings offer classroom and range time, all under the guidance of certified women instructors who volunteer their time. Their vision is that women have the skills, mindset, and training to defend themselves and those in their care.

Nothing nationally newsworthy here is there? /sarc

Chicago shootings: 53 shot, 11 fatally, in Memorial Day weekend gun violence across city

CHICAGO — It’s been a violent and deadly Memorial Day weekend in Chicago with at least 53 shot, 11 fatally, police said.

The shooting victims range in age from 2 to 77 years old, representing every part of the city.

The violence occurred despite a collaborative public safety effort that the new mayor hopes to implement all summer.

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[California) SENATE PASSES BILL TO EFFECTIVELY BAN NEW PISTOL SALES IN CALIFORNIA

A measure that greatly expands the mandate for firearms technology that isn’t on the market won easy approval in the California state Senate last week.

California Sen. Catherine Blakespear’s SB 452 passed on a 29-10 vote on May 24 and goes to the state Assembly for further consideration. The Encinitas Democrat argues that the bill “simply puts to use readily available technology to help law enforcement catch criminals” by banning all sales or transfers of any semiautomatic pistol after July 2027 unless it has been verified as having a microstamping-enabled action.

Despite Blakespear’s assertions that microstamping, a process that etches unique identifiers on expended cartridge cases, is available, no such guns are in production.

Anywhere.

In 2013, Kamala Harris, then the California attorney general, put the state’s long-dormant microstamping requirement into effect, requiring new pistols certified for commercial sale be able to mark expended brass with a microscopic array of characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol upon firing.

Since then, the state’s roster of approved handguns has shrunk, with only legacy semi-autos – which were grandfathered – and revolvers currently listed. For example, the roster contains no approved Generation 4 or Generation 5 Glock handguns, all of which debuted after 2013. Likewise, the SIG P365, one of the most popular carry pistols in the country, cannot be found on the list.

Larry Keane, general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, one of the groups currently challenging the 2013 law, told Guns.com previously that the state is experiencing a “slow motion handgun ban as fewer and fewer models are allowed to be sold in the state. California is to handguns what Cuba is to cars; only old models are available.”

Blakespear’s legislation, backed by anti-gun groups such as Brady and Everytown, would effectively close off access to even these legacy guns by creating a separate and distinct restriction on the sale or transfer of any semi-automatic handgun by a licensed dealer unless it is capable of microstamping.

However, the state has seen its current law in troubled waters, with a case brought against it drawing heat from a federal court earlier this year. That court, in the case of Boland v Bonta, saw the California DOJ hit with a preliminary injunction as the case proceeds.

“The microstamping provision requires handguns to have a particular feature that is simply not commercially available or even feasible to implement on a mass scale,” U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney’s order reads.

Meanwhile, SB 482, which is co-sponsored by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is now in the Assembly, where Dems hold an overwhelming 3/4 (62-18) majority.

May 30

70 – During the Roman empire’s siege of Jerusalem, Titus and his legions breach the Second Wall of Jerusalem. Jewish defenders retreat to the First Wall.

1431 – In Rouen, France, Joan of Arc is burned at the stake as a heretic by an English dominated tribunal.

1539 – Hernando de Soto lands at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.

1806 – Future President Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel over personal insults.

1854 – The Kansas-Nebraska Act, establishing the US territories of Kansas and Nebraska and repealing the Missouri Compromise, is signed into law by President Franklin Pierce.

1868 – Decoration Day, the predecessor of the modern Memorial Day, is observed in the U.S. for the first time after a proclamation by John A. Logan, head of the veterans group, The Grand Army of the Republic.

1883 – A stampede on the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge in New York kills twelve people.

1899 – Pearl Hart, a female outlaw of the Old West, commits one of the last stage coach robberies, about 30 miles southeast of Globe, Arizona.

1911 –Ray Harroun driving the Marmon Wasp wins the first Indianapolis 500 motor race, at a blistering average speed of 74.602 miles per hour.

1922 – The Lincoln Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C. by former President and then Chief Justice of the United States, William H. Taft.

1943 – Dr. Josef Mengele becomes chief medical officer of the Zigeunerfamilienlager -Romani family camp- at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1948 – A dike along the Columbia River breaks during a flood, obliterating Vanport, Oregon and killing 15 people.

1958 – The remains of two unidentified American servicemen, killed in action during World War II and the Korean War, are buried along side the Unknown Soldier of World War 1 at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.

1971 – The Mariner 9 probe is launched from Cape Canaveral on a mission to map the surface, and to study changes in the atmosphere and surface of Mars.

1972 – In Ben Gurion Airport (at the time, Lod Airport), Israel, 3 members of the Japanese Red Army attack and kill 26 people and injure 78 others before 2 are killed and the last wounded and arrested.

1979 – Downeast Flight 46, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, crashes on approach to Knox County Regional Airport in Rockland, Maine, killing 17 of the 18 passengers and crew aboard.

2020 – The SpaceX Crew Demo-2 Endeavour, the first crewed orbital spacecraft to launch from the United States since 2011, with astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken aboard, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center.

77-year-old Ann Arbor man saves himself from home intruder

ANN ARBOR, MI (WXYZ) — A man in Ann Arbor is safe this morning after scaring off an intruder during a terrifying home invasion. The 77-year-old man says he didn’t let fear keep him from defending his home.

The frightening incident unfolded at a home on Arbordale near West Stadium Boulevard.

“I don’t look for trouble,” Craig said. “It found me.”

Trouble may have found this 77-year-old man from Ann Arbor, but it didn’t stay long.

Craig lives alone so when he heard someone trying to open the screen door, he, “came out to investigate the noise…the guy had come over the kitchen window over the sink and was turned toward me about 15 feet,” he recalls.

Face to face with his intruder, he yelled and then pulled out his pistol.

“I got off one shot at him. I hope I scared him, but I missed him.”

The potential thief got the point and quickly left the same way he got in.

“He went out headfirst,” Craig said.

Thankfully, damage to Craig’s home is minimal. Just a broken window frame and a few dings, And the intruder didn’t get away with anything.

Craig says he has no regrets. “Cause he was younger than me. No doubt stronger than me. I am 77 years old and it was in my house and I defended myself and I’d do it again,” he said.

‘He’s home’: Missing for 73 years, Medal of Honor recipient’s remains return to Georgia

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment made a desperate retreat as North Korean troops closed in around them. A wounded, 18-year-old Army Pfc. Luther Herschel Story feared his injuries would slow down his company, so he stayed behind to cover their withdrawal.

Story’s actions in the Korean War on Sept. 1, 1950, would ensure he was remembered. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, which is now displayed alongside his portrait at the National Infantry Museum, an hour’s drive from his hometown of Americus, Georgia.

But Story was never seen alive again, and his resting place long remained a mystery.

Medal of Honor-Remains Identified — This undated photo shows the late Army Cpl. Luther H. Story. The Army said Friday, May 19, 2023, that the remains of Cpl. Luther H. Story will be buried May 29 at Andersonville National Cemetery near the soldier’s hometown of Americus, Georgia. President Joe Biden announced last month that scientists had positively identified Story’s remains. (U.S. Army via AP)

“In my family, we always believed that he would never be found,” said Judy Wade, Story’s niece and closest surviving relative.

A Memorial Day burial with military honors was scheduled Monday at the Andersonville National Cemetery. A police escort with flashing lights escorted Story’s casket through the streets of nearby Americus on Wednesday after it arrived in Georgia.

“I don’t have to worry about him anymore,” said Wade, who was born four years after her uncle went missing overseas. “I’m just glad he’s home.”

Jimmy Carter, 98, has been under hospice care at his home in Plains since February. Jill Stuckey, superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, said she shared the news about Story with Carter as soon as she heard it.

“Oh, there was a big smile on his face,” Stuckey said. “He was very excited to know that a hero was coming home.”

Story grew up about 150 miles (241 kilometers) south of Atlanta in Sumter County, where his father was a sharecropper. As a young boy, Story, who had a keen sense of humor and liked baseball, joined his parents and older siblings in the fields to help harvest cotton. The work was hard, and it didn’t pay much.

Story left school during his sophomore year. In the summer of 1950 he deployed with Company A of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment to Korea around the time the war began.

On Sept. 1, 1950, near the village of Agok on the Naktong River, Story’s unit came under attack by three divisions of North Korean troops that moved to surround the Americans and cut off their escape.

“Realizing that his wounds would hamper his comrades, he refused to retire to the next position but remained to cover the company’s withdrawal,” Story’s award citation said. “When last seen he was firing every weapon available and fighting off another hostile assault.”

Story was presumed dead. He would have been 18 years old, according to the birth certificate Wade obtained.

In 1951, his father received Story’s Medal of Honor at a Pentagon ceremony. Story was also posthumously promoted to corporal.

About a month after Story went missing in Korea, the U.S. military recovered a body in the area where he was last seen fighting. The unidentified remains were buried with other unknown service members at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 7,500 Americans who served in the Korean War remain missing or their remains have not been identified. That’s roughly 20% of the nearly 37,000 U.S. service members who died in the war.

President Joe Biden announced the breakthrough April 26 in Washington, joined by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.