• RI.'s Most Decorated Veteran Faces Battle Over Medal - New London Day
• A heroic Vietnam vet's last medal raises questions - Boston Globe

Sister of fallen Korean War vet given overdue medal More than a half century after Army Cpl. Edward Beal was killed in the Korean War, his family has been given his bravery medal. The Army Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest medal for combat bravery, was given to Beal's sister, Frances English. Beal was killed in 1951 while manning a machine gun trying to turn back a division-sized attack by Chinese fighters. azcentral.com 14 Apr 04

Vets plan to honor Donald Clayman, WWII hero Brig. Gen. Donald Clayman died in 1987 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He fought across Europe during World War II and served also in Korea. He was wounded 11 times in World War II, eight times by small arms fire, three times by artillery fire. At one point he commanded the 346th Regiment of the 87th "Golden Acorn" Infantry Division. Veterans of the 87th and Battle of the Bulge would like to honor Clayman — a man they served with but never knew. Clayman was awarded 11 Purple Hearts, the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze and Silver Stars, the French Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor. democratandchronicle.com 16 Nov 04

Vietnam Vet, Journalist Hackworth Dies Retired Army Col. David Hackworth, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran who spoke out against the war and later became a journalist and advocate for military reform, has died. He was 74. At 40 he became the youngest full colonel in Vietnam, where he served for nearly six years. He won some 80 medals in his career, including two Distinguished Service Crosses, 10 Silver Stars and eight Purple Hearts. He came under fire because of his role in a 1996 Newsweek investigation of whether Adm. Michael Boorda wore medals for valor that he did not deserve. Boorda, the Navy's top admiral, committed suicide rather than face disgrace, and some in the Pentagon blamed Hackworth. Then, CBS reported that Hackworth may have worn a ``Ranger'' tab he did not earn. An audit by the Army's chief of awards and decorations, found he was issued the Ranger tab improperly, but that he should have been issued other medals and was not. There was no indication Hackworth wore any medals beyond those issued him by the Army. guardian.co.uk 6 May 05

• Coalition Special Police Advisor to be honored for valor The Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq will host an award ceremony to bestow the Distinguished Service Cross to U.S. Army Colonel James H. Coffman. The Distinguished Service Cross will be presented to Col. Coffman for his actions while fighting to relieve the Commando defenders of the 4-West Police station against heavy insurgent attack last November. This the first time the medal has been awarded in Operation Iraqi Freedom. blackanthem.com 22 Aug 05

• Army Colonel Receives Award for Valor sfgate.com 24 Aug 05

World War I fight forged Fredericksburg heroes In the fall of 1918, men from Fredericksburg found themselves on a foggy hillside in northeastern France. The area was known as the Argonne Forest, and the men of Fredericksburg's Washington Rifles, Company K, 116th Infantry, 29th Division, had been ordered to go "over the top" at dawn. They were to assault German and Austrian trenches along a fortified hilltop known as Malbrouck. As the cold dawn broke and they moved forward into the open fields, they were preceded by a screening artillery bombardment. Attacking uphill, with little cover, they passed through bands of barbed wire and met withering fire from hidden German MG nests. An enemy counterbarrage opened, trapping them along the wire before the enemy trenches. However, under the leadership of Capt. Alexander Stone of Fredericksburg, they charged forward and took the enemy lines at the point of the bayonet. In the action on Malbrouck on Oct. 8, 1918, and in the next few days, these men would suffer nearly 30 percent casualties. Capt. Stone was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor) for his gallantry. fredericksburg.com 13 Oct 05

WW II vet in Airmont seeks Medal of Honor Framed on the wall of Sydney Germansky's apartment are 10 decorations for Army service in World War II, the Distinguished Service Cross, Purple Heart, Bronze Star, Combat Infantryman Badge and other medals for the battles he fought in Germany and France. What's missing, Germansky said, is the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. Germansky said his commander told him he would be nominated for the decoration after he completed a daring rescue mission at sea. Germansky took his effort to obtain the medal to Rep. Benjamin Gilman, who left office in 2002 after almost 30 years in Congress. Germansky said Gilman had filed papers on his behalf. Germansky said he was credited with saving British personnel on a 100-foot steel barge loaded with tons of nitroglycerin and stranded off the coast of England in October 1944. Germansky, then 19 and all of 138 pounds, volunteered to jump from a tugboat's stern onto the barge to tie a cable line onto the distressed vessel. It was 11 a.m. in a steady rain, and the sea was rocking the tugboat and the barge up and down like pistons. "They couldn't throw a cable to tie up the barge," Germansky recalled recently, sitting in his wheelchair holding his papillon, Lacey. "They wanted a volunteer and no one stepped forward. My commander looked at me. I was scared, but I told him I could make it. I guess I was a wild kid back then. "All they told us was the barge was in danger. The boat was jumping up and down in the water. So was the tug. If I fell into the water, I would have been eaten by the propeller." He jumped and made it onto the barge. "I removed the the 1-inch line from my waist and tied up the barge," Germansky recalled. "A 2-inch line was added, and I looped it around." Germansky said he decided not to chance jumping back onto the tugboat and went into the bottom of the barge. There he saw the danger that his commander hadn't mentioned. "All I saw was sawdust all over the floor and cases and cases of nitroglycerin — enough to blow up all of Rockland County," he said. "He didn't mention anything about nitroglycerin. I sat there for more than two hours as they towed the barge into Portsmouth. I was never so scared in my life." After they arrived on the shore, Germansky said, his commander told him he would be recognized for what he did and that he would put him in for the Medal of Honor. thejournalnews.com 20 Feb 06

• Secretary of Army recommends Medal of Honor for Keeble The secretary of the Army is recommending the nation's highest military honor for the late Woodrow Wilson Keeble, a man known as Chief who is credited with saving his fellow soldiers' lives during the Korean War. Keeble would be the first Sioux Indian to receive the Medal of Honor if it is approved. Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey said in a letter to Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., on Wednesday that he will recommend the medal be awarded to Keeble, a member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe who died in 1982. Keeble was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, with more than 30 citations, including four Purple Hearts and the Army's second-highest commendation, the Distinguished Service Cross. Fellow soldiers, family members and others have been urging Congress for years to award Keeble the Medal of Honor. They say he deserves the nation's highest military honor for his actions in Korea in 1951, when he saved his fellow soldiers' lives by taking out more than a dozen of their enemies on a steep hill, even though he himself was wounded. "After giving this request my careful and personal consideration, it is my recommendation that the award of the Medal of Honor is the appropriate award to recognize Master Sergeant Woodrow W. Keeble's gallant acts," Harvey said in the letter. "This brave soldier clearly distinguished himself though his courageous actions." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and President Bush still must approve the medal. grandforks.com 31 May 06

Man charged for wearing medals prosecutors say he didn't earn A North Fond du Lac man faces a federal trial for wearing military medals or decorations that prosecutors say he didn't earn. Sixty-year-old William James Richardson is charged in federal court with a misdemeanor of knowingly wearing without permission a badge authorized by Congress for the country's armed forces.Former members of the Fond du Lac American Legion say Richardson wore medals in public including a Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest award for valor. They say he's not eligible to wear those medals. wbay.com 23 Jun 06