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Who were these men?

 

The men who received medals from the Soviet Union represented a vast cross section of the United States. Prior to the war, some of the men were unemployed. Others worked in construction. Some were farmers. A few had prior military service. Many of the officers had already graduated from college and some were well established as successful lawyers, engineers, and businessmen. With the start of the war, some were drafted, some joined voluntarily. All of them, however, found themselves on the front lines, sailing through the frozen waters in the Arctic convoys of the Murmansk Run or in the North Atlantic, defending civilization against the Axis forces of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

 

Their wartime experiences varied greatly. Some saw action in every theater while others, following the event for which they earned their award, returned to the United States and remained in support and administrative roles. A handful, showing the same toughness that earned them commendations for valor in the most extreme circumstances, even ended up on the wrong side of military law and found themselves in the brig. Sadly, a small number of recipients did not make it through the war. Several died from illnesses acquired while on the Arctic convoys, others died during fighting in the Pacific. One of the most famous recipients died from his own hand after conducting an amazingly successful tactical operation.

 

Following the end of the war, a handful of the men remained on active duty and made the service their career. Others returned to the lives they had known before the war. Some of the men went to college, others returned to their farms or factories. Some became immensely successful, to include a state lieutenant governor and a Secretary of the Navy. Others sadly faded into obscurity, dying without family and without anyone to remember who they were or what they had done. It is for all of these men that I wrote my book; to serve as a rememberance of who they were and what they did, no matter what turns their lives took.

 

The list of recipients, in alphabetical order:

 

William R. Abbott

Norman O.W. Adams Jr.

Arthur L. Adler

Edward T. Anderson

Emmett D. Anderson

Philip R. Anderson

Clyde N. Andrews

Howard M. Avery

Letson S. Balliett

Robert L. Baughan

Donald S. Biggs

Roy M. Billings

Renald H. Blake Jr.

Jules H. Bloch Jr.

Ralph E. Boucher

Eli P. Bourg

Maurice Breen

Rufus T. Brinn

Alex X. Brokas

Willard W. Brown

Philip B. Brown

Thomas E. Brown

Robert E. Buckbee

Howard E. Carraway

William A. Carter

Milton C. Casey

Oswald I. Cassidy

Joseph J. Chatterton, Jr.

John H. Church, Jr.

William Cole

Wilbur P. Collins

George C. Cooper

John Corbus

Kendall H. Cram

John H. Currant

Walter R. Daley

Lowell L. Davis

Garnett C. DeBaun

Eaton P. Decottes

Louis DeGennaro

Thomas E. Delate

James J. Delhom

Marcel Desgalier, Jr.

Thomas J. Dixon, Jr.

Charles E. Dole

Francis L. Duncan

Bradford M. Dyer

George A. Enloe

Arthur L. Farmer

William H. Farrar

Edward M. Fetherston

Frederick S. Fink, Jr.

Junior C. Forney

Wilma S. Fowler

Albert D. Friday

Gallegos, Faustin

John W. Gannon

Frank C. Gay

Ward L. Gemmer

Robert C. Giffen

Joseph T. Gillen

Norman C. Gillette

George C. Goddard

Harry M. Gossman

Cecil B. Graff

Ernest E. Grandey, Jr.

William J. Green

John G. Grotenrath, Jr.

Walter J. Gudat

James N. Guyton, Jr.

Leland Hall

Harold L. Handshuh

William T. Harkins

John H. Harmon

Leonard E. Harmon

Charles C. Harris

John H. Harshaw

Sidney M. Hay

Cecil R. Haycraft

Robert W. Hayman

Elbert S. Heim

Robert G. Henderson

Alexander S. Henry

Henry K. Hewitt

Harry W. Hill

Richard E. Hocken

Edward C. Hoban

Norman D. Hodson

Norman C. Hoffman

Gerald G. Hogan

Stewart B. Holt

Romuald P. Holubowicz

Robert B. Hopgood

Joseph D. Horn

Leonard D. Horton

Merlin G. Houdeshell

Mason M. Houghton

Blake C. Howard, Jr.

Bert J. Hudson

Blake Hughes

Paul L. Hunsinger

Charles H. Hutchins

Norman E. Hyams

Kyle V. Johnson

Roy W. Johnson

Dallas H. Jones

Harry Jones, Jr.

David M. Kellogg

Thomas Kinaszczuk

Sheldon H. Kinney

Paul B. Kinney

William R. Kirby

Elden S. Kirby

Lewis W. Kroeger

Rudolph H. Kroetz

Alexander Lague

John L. Laird

Maurice E. Larson

Ernest J. Lazetera

Joseph D. Leahy

George B. Lennig

Paul O. Lessard

Julius W. Lintlom

Arthur D. Maddalena

Jeremiah E. Mahoney

Bernard A. Malloy

Clarence H. Marihugh

Louis D. Marks

Donald F. Mason

Andrew O. Mathson

Albert Maynard

John W. McDole

Arthur McDonald, Jr.  

John A. McGinnis

William M. McLane

John T. McNaughton

Michael L. Merlo

Robert C. Millard

Wesley N. Miller

Don P. Moon

Howell S. Murray

Oman A. Nelson

Edwin B. Newman

Thomas Nightingale

Robert A. Nisbet

George J. Norton

Howard E. Orem

Joseph O'Savage

John J. Ours

Mario J. Pagnotta

Milton Parker

Raymond P. Peer

Luther W. Perdue

James W. Pernell

Francis P. Perret

Willie H. Phillips

David A. Pickler

Francis C. Pollard

Wallace S. Porter

David O. Puckett, Jr.

Floyd E. Richards

Robert B. Ricks

Howard S. Roberts

Rex E. Robertson

Daniel J. Rooker

Charles Rotz

George D. Roullard

Wilson D. Rutherford

Harry F. Ryan

Irving R. Saum, Jr.

William A. Schilbe

Gustav W. Schill, Jr.

Dan R. Schwartz

Norbert L. Schwartz

William A. Sessions

William S. Sharp

Milton J. Sherbring

Francis M. Shipley, Jr.

Bernard C. Sissler

Harvey C. Smalley, Jr.

George T. Smith

Harrison Smith

William B.C. Smith

Herbert M. Sonneborn, Jr.

Percy L. Spann

Gifford H. Starnes

Milton A. Stein

Jack H. Stewart

Richard M. Stone

Merrill R. Stone, Jr.

John R. Sulton, Jr.

William Tepuni

Allan A. Thompson

Paul W. Thompson

Theodore S. Thueson

Kenneth W. Tipping

Senua Trahan

Frank F. Townsend

Charles M. Ulrich

Donald L. Vandiver

Charles E. Walters

Robert H. Wanless

John B. Watson

Paul N. Webb

Lloyd R. Weeks

Brian G. Welch

Robert Wilcox

James D. Williams

Hubert Williams

Harry P. Wilson

Junior Wishon

Albert F. Wohlers

Morton E. Wolfson

Kenneth L. Wright

Hugh P. Wright

Albert O. Yingling

Gilbert S. Young

 

© 2014 by Dave Schwind.

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