Jack Churchill
I love this guy, he is classed on Wikipedia as an 'eccentric WWII soldier' who fought throughout World War II armed with a bow, arrows and a claymore. He once said "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed". I'll just use a few wiki quotes to underline how cool this guy is:
In May 1940, Churchill and his unit, The Manchester Regiment, ambushed a German patrol near l'Epinette, France. Churchill gave the signal to attack by cutting down the sergeant with his barbed arrows.He led two companies in the raid on the German garrison at Vaasgo, Norway. As the ramps fell on the first landing craft, Churchill leapt forward playing the "March of the Cameron Men" on his pipes. The Commandoes destroyed the battery and eliminated the garrison.Leading from the front, Churchill infiltrated the town with only a corporal in support. He kidnapped a sentry and forced him to make his comrades surrender. Churchill and the riflemen walked out of town with 42 prisoners and a mortar squad.Churchill went to Palestine in 1948. He rescued 700 Jewish doctors, students and patients from a hospital under attack from Arab militants and his squad of 12 men escorted them to safety.Joe Kittinger*
On August 16, 1960, Joe Kittinger was strapped into an specially modified U.S. Air Force balloon and set off on an ascent into the clouds. After 4 hours he reached the edge of space at a record breaking attitude of 102,800 feet (approx 20 miles above land). At that height he was basically in outerspace with very little atmosphere and an outside temperature at 100 degrees below zero.
Then Joe did something that showed he had the biggest balls on the planet....he jumped out.
There's a brief interview with him about the jump here
Boards of Canada used some of the footage that Joe and the balloon camera shot in their video for "Dayvan Cowboy." You can see it here.
This video is incredible, everybody needs to watch it right now. Joe is still in the Guiness book of records today as the only man ever to break the sound barrier without a vehicle and live to tell the tale.
*courtesy of Angel_Anger on SA
