Daniel Inouye, is the senior US Senator from Hawaii and third in succession for presidency of the United States. Oh, and it doesn’t just stop there; this guy is a goldmine for amazing facts. He’s also the highest-ranking Asian American politician in American history, the 2nd longest serving US senator in history, and the first Japanese American to serve in the US House of Representatives.
Inouye was a second lieutenant during World War 2. On April 21 1945, he was leading an assault on a heavily-defended ridge in Tuscany, Italy that served as a strongpoint along the strip of German fortification known as the Gothic Line. When he stood up to attack, he was shot in the stomach but ignored the wound and continued fighting and leading his troops.
When Inouye lifted his arm to throw his last grenade into the fighting position, a German inside fired a rifle grenade that struck him on the right elbow and severed most of his arm and left his own grenade “clenched in a first that suddenly didn’t belong to me anymore.” As the inside reloaded his rifle, Inouye pried the live grenade from his useless right hand and into his left, and then threw it into the bunker with the German Inside.
He got up one more, but was instantly shot in the leg, and finally fell unconscious. When he briefly awoke as he was being carried away, he ordered his worried men to return to their positions since “nobody called off the war!”