This man led quite a history during WW II. He was at Pearl Harbor and fired a machine gun at Japanese planes. Later, he parachuted into France during D-Day as a member of the newly formed 101st Airborne, but became the most famous for his role in the Battle of the Bulge.
Born sometime in 1915, he died Jan. 5, 2009, at the age 93. He graduated from West Point in 1939 and retired from the Army as a Lt. General in 1969.
At the Battle of the Bulge, he was present at US hq at Bastogne, Belgium, when 4 German couriers arrived with the demand to surrender in two hours or be annihilated. Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe, upon hearing the demand, laughed and remarked, "Us surrender! Aw, nuts," and then was wondering how he should respond.
Kinnard suggested, "Why don't you just say nuts!" McAuliffe then scribbled the reply, "To the German commander. Nuts!! The American commander."
On the way back to their lines, American officers explained to the puzzled Germans that "Nuts!" meant "Go to Hell."
The 101st then held out for four more days before the siege was lifted.
In the 1960s, Kinnard developed the Army's helicopter air assault concept at Fort Benning which was used so successfully in Vietnam.
One of teh Greatest. -GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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