Medal of Honor winner Jake W. Lindsey, whose heroism in World War II and the Korean War earned him the nickname ``one-man army,'' was buried with military honors. Lindsey, who died of a heart attack Monday at age 67 at his home in this southeast Mississippi town, was buried Thursday at Whitehouse Cemetery. Lindsey was the 100th U.S. infantryman to receive the nation's highest military honor. He won 16 medals in all, including four Purple Hearts. He won the medal for an action in late 1944 in the Huertgen Forest near Hamich, Germany. Lindsey, then a 24-year-old technical sergeant, was part of a platoon that had been reduced from six men from 40 in four days of fighting. The platoon captured its objective but faced an enemy counterattack. Although wounded in the knee, Lindsey faced a German infantry company backed by five tanks. He killed at least 20 Germans, knocked out one of the tanks and then, after running out of ammunition, used his bayonet in hand-to-hand combat. ``His unerringly accurate fire destroyed two enemy machine-gun nests, forced the withdrawal of two tanks and effectively halted the enemy flanking patrol,'' according to his citation, read by Gen. George C. Marshall. When Lindsey was presented the medal before a joint session of Congress in 1945, President Harry S. Truman was said to have whispered to him: ``I'd rather have the Congressional Medal of Honor than be the president of the United States.'' During the Korean War, he single-handedly killed 150 Chinese soldiers in one night, said Ron Busby, who is familiar with Lindsey's exploits. Lindsey also taught Special Forces courses in hand-to-hand combat and parachuting. After retiring from the military, he spent 10 years with the U.S. Forest Service. The Isney, Ala., native spent most of his life in Waynesboro. Survivors include his wife, Lucille, two sons, two daughters and a granddaughter.
