History’s 50 Incredible Badasses You Should Know About – Part 2

A Japanese man named Hideaki Akaiwa lived through the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, then donned scuba gear to save his wife from their flooded home. He successfully saved his wife, then went to his mother’s house, did the same thing and save her too.

In 2012, a 90-year-old man named Jay Leone from Greenbrae, California was shot in the head by a burglar. Not only did he survive, but said: “Fu*k you, you son of a b*tch. Now it’s my turn” and then shot the burglar three times in the abdomen.

CNN medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta saved a Marine's life after he was shot in the head during the opening days of the invasion of Iraq. Without proper tools, Gupta performed the brain surgery with a Black and Decker handheld drill. The Marine lived.

Years after illegally joining the Marines at the age of 14, Jacklyn Lucas snuck onto a ship bound for Iwo Jima, stormed the beach without a rifle, and threw himself on top of two grenades to protect his team. He survived and earned the Medal of Honor at the age of 17. He also served as a paratrooper from 1961-65 to conquer his fear of heights. He once even survived a training jump where both of his parachutes did not open. He fell 3,500 feet and was unscathed.

Erwin Rommel was a highly decorated German officer who during World War 2 humanely treated captured soldiers, ignored orders to kill Jews, civilians and even conspired to assassinate Hitler. He found himself several times behind Allied lines. On one occasion, he stumbled across an allied field hospital. They were low on supplies and he promised to bring medical supplies, after which he drove off unhindered. Later he returned with the promised medical supplies. After Rommel’s death, soldiers on both sides paid respect to his grave and he is the only member of The Third Reich to have a museum dedicated to him.

Pirates kidnapped Julius Caesar when he was 22 years old. His charisma led the pirates to treat him as a friend. He insisted they double his ransom, which they did. He said he would crucify them when free, and it was laughed off as a playful joke. Upon release, he raised a fleet, returned and crucified them.

During World War 2, Medal of Honor recipient Thomas Baker ordered his squad to leave him propped against a tree with a pistol and eight bullets when he was wounded. Later, American forces found the now-deceased Baker in the same spot, holding an empty pistol, with eight dead Japanese soldiers lying around him.

A man named Chesty Puller joined the U.S. Marines as a private, got promoted to Sergeant and then became an officer as a Lieutenant, then got discharged, enlisted as a Private again, then became an officer again, and ended up being a Lieutenant General. He is the only Marine to be awarded five Navy Crosses. During the Korean War, when facing a difficult situation he said, “They’re on our right, they’re on our left, they’re in front of us, they’re behind us; they can’t get away from us this time.” He and his men survived this ordeal.

The first recipient of Victoria Cross was a 20-year-old ship's mate named Charles Davis Lucas who during the Battle of Bomarsund in 1854 picked up a live shell that landed on the deck and threw it overboard. It exploded with a tremendous roar before it hit the water. Thanks to Lucas's action no one on board was killed or seriously wounded by the shell. He was promoted on the spot, rose to the rank of Rear Admiral and married the Captain's daughter.

In 2000, a Mexican woman named Ines Ramirez Perez successfully performed a C-section on herself after 12 hours of continual pain. Despite having no medical training, she used a kitchen knife and three glasses of hard liquor, while her husband was drinking at a bar. After operating on herself for an hour, she reached inside her uterus and pulled out her baby boy. She then severed the umbilical cord with a pair of scissors and became unconscious. She used clothes to bandage her wound after regaining consciousness and sent one of her older sons to find help. She was eventually taken to a clinic and she and her baby boy, both survived.