Multi-National Division – Baghdad
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – One South Carolina Army National Guardsman lists his hobbies as genealogy and military history. Luckily for him, these two interests overlap, as he is a descendant of a long line of war fighters dating all the way back to the revolutionary war.
Staff Sgt. James Wylan Lamb, 44, of Columbia, S.C., said his great-great-great-grandfather, Daniel McKenzie fought in the American Revolutionary War, and was one of the defenders of Fort Sullivan (now called Fort Moultrie) during the British attempt to invade Charleston.
After their cannon balls were unable to penetrate the palmetto logs, which comprised the fort, the British retreated from Charleston on June 28, giving the young United States one of its earliest victories. Today, this historic battle is commemorated by the white palmetto tree on the flag of South Carolina.
During the American Civil War, Lamb's great-grandfathers served on opposite sides of the conflict, participating in notorious battles such as Vicksburg, Shiloh, Munfordsville, Five Oaks and the Battle of the Crater.
During World War II, Lamb's father, Staff Sgt. Waylen "Pete" Lamb, was a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division. During the D-Day invasion in June, 1944, he parachuted into occupied France six hours before the Allied invasion of Fortress Europe. Several months later, he parachuted into German controlled Holland, as part of the ill fated Operation Market Garden. Months later, Pete Lamb was at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, where the commander of the surrounded American forces, General McAuliffe, curtly responded to German demands for their surrender with the resounding retort, "Nuts!"
For his courageous service to his country, Pete Lamb received two purple hearts and a Bronze Star, with Valor. Upon his passing in 1968, he was buried with full military honors.
Considering this distinguished family history, it is unsurprising that James Lamb chose to enlist in the Army in 1987.
"My father had the greatest influence on me," he said. "It was truly something to see pictures of him in his full dress uniform with all his awards, and to attend reunions of his regiment and listen to him and his buddies tell their war stories."
Now he has his own war stories to tell. In October, 2006, his South Carolina National Guard unit, the 151st Field Artillery Brigade, was sent to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. As an intelligence liaison officer for the Multi-National Division–Baghdad's fire and effects cell, Lamb is the "go between" the 1st Cavalry Division's artillery fire control center and its intelligence section.
Lamb is returning to the United States a war veteran later this month.