carrick58 23 Posted January 25, 2012 Matt Lee Shadley Lee Shadley's Great Grandson Mike Sullivan writes: My Great Grandfather was born in Big Bend, California on May 15, 1895. He was a member of the Madasi band of the Pit River tribe. All of our family are proud of the service record or American Indians in our wars, even though at times, we were not classified as citizens. In 1992 my family was contacted by the DOD regarding Lee. He is considered to have been the "most wounded" man to survive in the war. I don't know if that is true, but I do know that he was shot on the 25 of September, 1918 and this resulted, by one late in life count, 175 entry and exit wounds on his body. The machine gun round went through his hip and struck a bag of grenades on the other side causing a large explosion. The reason he didn't die from infection during the three days he was in no man's land was due to not having eaten for a couple days and that the bullets which went in, and the damage from the exploding bag of grenades manage to miss every vital organ! He spent two days in the field before being taken to hospital. There he was more or less given up on, and moved to the hall outside the morgue with other soldiers who were not expected to make it. Later, while at San Francisco's Presidio, in March 1919, he was given the highest "score" of wounds among the convalescent soldiers, 117 at that time. He was awarded a Silver Star, Purple Heart and a $44.00 a month disability payment for his service. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted January 25, 2012 Damn, if that is true, he must have had real good Indian "medicine". I wonder, what you can do with 44 $ - guess it was worth a lot more those days? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Burning Beard 14 Posted January 25, 2012 Big Bend is a place you really have to be going to to get there. I worked in Big Bend for about 4 months is 1969 as a surveyor for the Forest Service. It is really beautiful country but steep and rugged, which probably explains why there was an Indian Village there. Beard Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hauksbee 103 Posted January 25, 2012 It is really beautiful country but steep and rugged, which probably explains why there was an Indian Village there. It probably also explains that he must have been in outstanding physical shape to survive that many wounds, and lay in No-Man's Land for two days with no food. What a guy! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
carrick58 23 Posted January 25, 2012 Talk about a lucky person Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hasse Wind 46 Posted January 25, 2012 Damn, that's one tough guy! And more than a little bit lucky. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
