Alvin Cullum York was born in rural Pall Mall, Tennessee. Raised in the mountains, he learned to shoot guns when he wasjust a boy, becoming an expert with both a pistol and rifle before histeens. Under the influence of his high school girlfriend--and hisfuture wife--Gracie Williams, he also became a devout born-againChristian and gave up the drinking, brawling, smoking, gambling andbare-knuckle fighting that marked his early days. When the US declaredwar on Germany in April 1917, York was drafted into the army, where hesought exemption as a conscientious objector, but was turned down.Inducted into the 328th Infantry Regiment on November 24, 1917, hedistinguished himself in basic training until he was ordered to shootat human forms on the target range. After days of soul-searching, Yorkreconciled himself to military service and completed his training, andhis unit sailed to France the following spring. His regiment wasassigned to the Meuse-Argonne salient during the final great Alliedoffensive from September to the war's end on November 11, 1918. OnOctober 8, 1918, York, then a corporal, was part of a company assignedto attack a heavily defended hill near Chatel-Chehery. Pinned down byintense machine-gun fire, York joined a squad of 17 men that attemptedto outflank the German position from the rear of the hill. Aftercapturing 20 German soldiers, the Americans were discovered by otherGerman troops in neighboring trenches, who opened fire on them. Withinminutes the squad was down to seven unwounded men, York included. Thesquad's officers and NCOs had all been killed or wounded, meaning thatYork was now in charge of the squad's survivors. He took his rifle andworked his way to a point near the occupied German trenches that werefiring on his squad. From that position he shot and killed 17 Gemansoldiers one after the other, then shot eight more with his pistol,killing three and wounding five. The surviving Germans had had enoughand surrendered en masse to York; the final tally of captured Germansoldiers, counting the 20 the squad had taken earlier, was 132. AlvinYork managed to work his way with his squad and the 132 prisonersthrough the bombed-out wasteland and back to the headquarters of the328th Regiment. York was promoted to sergeant and awarded theCongressional Medal of Honor for his amazing feat. At the end of thewar he returned to Tennessee, in 1919, married Gracie and settled on afarm presented to him by his home state. The modest hero turned downmany offers for endorsements, claiming "this uniform ain't for sale,"and used the proceeds from the book and movie of his lifeSergeant York (1941)) to establishschools for poor mountain children. During World War II York served onthe Tennessee draft board and was a colonel in the Tennessee StateGuard, commanding the 7th Regiment. Alvin York died in his home inNashville, Tennessee, on September 2, 1964.