SERGEANT YORK

Alvin Cullum York (1887-1964), an American hero in World War I (1914-1918) whose life story was later made into a film. In October of 1918 York was part of a patrol of seventeen men ordered to take out a German machine gun emplacement. After the group lost half its men, York took command, single-handedly shot 25 enemy gunners and captured 132 prisoners, following which he was promoted to sergeant. Upon returning home from the war, he lived on a farm and established an industrial school and a Bible school for the education of rural youth.