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Posted on 08/22/2009 8:33:11 AM PDT by Peter Horry
MOUNT PLEASANT -- Five dark-suited FBI agents showed up at Patriots Point on Friday with two Civil War-era Medals of Honor.
And while the agents had few details about the investigation it took to bring the medals to their new home, they didn't mince words when it came to describing the kind of people involved in the theft of the nation's highest military honor.
"I can't imagine anything more despicable than taking away the honor of those people who earned those medals," said David Thomas, South Carolina special agent in charge.
The FBI investigates stolen and counterfeit Medals of Honor nationwide. A judge, a police chief and a mayor are among those who have been arrested in these types of cases.
(Excerpt) Read more at postandcourier.com ...
A remarkably similar crime happened about a year and a half ago at the New Zealand Army Museum at Waioru, where about a dozen of the Victoria Crosses awarded to New Zealand troops were stolen from a locked display case, including the only Victoria Cross-and-bar ever awarded to a combat soldier, Charles Upham VC.
Our nation went into shock, and then into mourning, at the thought of these irreplaceable treasures ending up in some secret, private collection somewhere outside our shores.
Excellent police work resulted in their return. And, naturally, security at the Museum has been beefed up considerably.
Well done.
Upham won his first VC on Crete in May 1941, commanding a platoon in the battle for Maleme airfield. During the course of an advance of 3,000 yards his platoon was held up three times. Carrying a bag of grenades (his favourite weapon), Upham first attacked a German machine-gun nest, killing eight paratroopers, then destroyed another which had been set up in a house. Finally he crawled to within 15 yards of a Bofors anti-aircraft gun before knocking it out.
When the advance had been completed he helped carry a wounded man to safety in full view of the enemy, and then ran half a mile under fire to save a company from being cut off. Two Germans who tried to stop him were killed.
The next day Upham was wounded in the shoulder by a mortar burst and hit in the foot by a bullet. Undeterred, he continued fighting and, with his arm in a sling, hobbled about in the open to draw enemy fire and enable their gun positions to be spotted.
With his unwounded arm he propped his rifle in the fork of a tree and killed two approaching Germans; the second was so close that he fell on the muzzle of Upham’s rifle.
During the retreat from Crete, Upham succumbed to dysentery and could not eat properly. The effect of this and his wounds made him look like a walking skeleton, his commanding officer noted. Nevertheless he found the strength to climb the side of a 600 ft deep ravine and use a Bren gun on a group of advancing Germans.
At a range of 500 yards he killed 22 out of 50. His subsequent VC citation recorded that he had “performed a series of remarkable exploits, showing outstanding leadership, tactical skill and utter indifference to danger”. Even under the hottest fire, Upham never wore a steel helmet, explaining that he could never find one to fit him.
His second VC was earned on July 15 1942, when the New Zealanders were concluding a desperate defence of the Ruweisat ridge in the 1st Battle of Alamein. Upham ran forward through a position swept by machine-gun fire and lobbed grenades into a truck full of German soldiers.
When it became urgently necessary to take information to advance units which had become separated, Upham took a Jeep on which a captured German machine-gun was mounted and drove it through the enemy position.
At one point the vehicle became bogged down in the sand, so Upham coolly ordered some nearby Italian soldiers to push it free. Though they were somewhat surprised to be given an order by one of the enemy, Upham’s expression left them in no doubt that he should be obeyed.
By now Upham had been wounded, but not badly enough to prevent him leading an attack on an enemy strong-point, all the occupants of which were then bayoneted. He was shot in the elbow, and his arm was broken. The New Zealanders were surrounded and outnumbered, but Upham carried on directing fire until he was wounded in the legs and could no longer walk.
Taken prisoner, he proved such a difficult customer that in 1944 he was confined in Colditz Castle, where he remained for the rest of the war. His comments on Germans were always sulphurous.
For his actions at Ruweisat he was awarded a Bar to his VC. His citation noted that “his complete indifference to danger and his personal bravery have become a byword in the whole of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force”.
After his release from Colditz in 1945 Upham went to England and inquired about the whereabouts of one Mary (”Molly”) McTamney, from Dunedin. Told that she was a Red Cross nurse in Germany, he was prepared, for her sake, to return to that detested country. In the event she came to England, where they were married in June 1945.
Back in New Zealand, Upham resisted invitations to take up politics. In appreciation of his heroism the sum of £10,000 was raised to buy him a farm. He appreciated the tribute, but declined the money, which was used to endow the Charles Upham Scholarship Fund to send sons of ex-servicemen to university.
Fiercely determined to avoid all publicity, Upham at first refused to return to Britain for a victory parade in 1946, and only acceded at the request of New Zealand’s Prime Minister.
Four years later he resisted even the Prime Minister’s persuasion that he should go to Greece to attend the opening of a memorial for the Australians and New Zealanders who had died there – although he eventually went at Kippenberger’s request.
In 1946, Upham bought a farm at Rafa Downs, some 100 miles north of Christchurch beneath the Kaikoura Mountains, where he had worked before the war. There he found the anonymity he desired.
In 1962, he was persuaded to denounce the British government’s attempt to enter the Common Market: “Britain will gradually be pulled down and down,” Upham admonished, “and the whole English way of life will be in danger.” He reiterated the point in 1971: “Your politicians have made money their god, but what they are buying is disaster.”
He added: “They’ll cheat you yet, those Germans.”
From the Telegraph.uk
You know, only a depraved person would steal something like a medal of honor. I don’t care how much they want the item just because they cannot purchase it openly for their “collection.” It isn’t their medal, it wasn’t awarded to their family member, they have no justification at all for having it in their possession.
My grandfather got the Purple Heart from WWI and it will be handed down to my son and grandson and his male heirs. It fills my heart with pride every time I see that folded flag and that medal. It’s MY Family’s Medal and it will never be sold to a collector. Not even for a Trillion Dollars.
How about being searched because you were wearing your CMH? This is what happened to Joe Foss in Phoenix
That's really despicable, and was done by alleged Americans working for our alleged government.
(grin!) Charles Upham VC was a remarkable man, ay.
There’s an excellent biography about him called “Mark of the Lion” by Kenneth L Sandford. I bought my copy to read on a long flight from Auckland to Honolulu back in 2006, enroute to a Guardian Angels conference.
On my way to the airport to go home, I met a young American sergeant who was posting back to Iraq. We got talking, and as I couldn’t find any other paper to write on I had him sign the back flyleaf of “Mark of the Lion”, with his e-mail address so we could correspond.
We’ve since exchanged messages a couple times, and my copy of “Mark of the Lion” is made just that much more special for having been signed by this brave American soldier. It just seems fitting and appropriate that it be so.
When I was reenacting I remember buying a Civil War Medal of Honor medal that was a replica. I looked around for it a few minutes ago and can’t find it so I can’t post a photo.
Why anyone would be so low as to steal an original is beyond me.
“Mark of the Lion” sounded like a good read. There must not be many copies around tho’. Lowest price (used) on Alibris is $50.00 - for a paperback, no less! I’ll have to check at the library, maybe they can dig one up through interlibrary loan.
“It’s MY Family’s Medal and it will never be sold to a collector. Not even for a Trillion Dollars”
I know the sentiment, the family items I have, including a portrait of my gggrandfather (in uniform) with my gggrandmother, (he was in a hospital in Charleston, SC and she took a stagecoach to visit him) are NOT for sale.
I have a small collection, got most of it from flea markets (in the late 60s and early 70s before everything was junk) and some items I found with a metal detector (tomato farmers used to let you hunt their fields outside Charleston in the winter). I would never consider acquiring a medal of valor (don’t remember seeing one for sale but have seen many other items that I could not conceive someone parting with) and if I did I would try to return it to it’s rightful owner.
Post 8
I had the pleasure of meeting Charles Quincy Williams (US Army, Vietnam) and two other MOH recipients (think one was Webster Anderson, don’t remember the other) on the USS Yorktown a number of years ago. The MOH, like other awards, is a testament of extraordinary actions by extraordinary men, a faker may fool many people but they will never fool the fellow in the mirror.
The only action I ever saw was the siege of Shorty’s during the battle of the “strip”. I was one of the “walking wounded” and received the proper “recognition” but it wasn’t a Purple Heart.
Not only brave but smart too. Can't beat that. Up New Zeland. Must make old Diehard proud, eh?
Post 15
Thanks for the link, I thought James Elliott Williams may have been the third MOH recipient in the group I met (they were three of them), but wasn’t sure. It also must have been 1979-1980 when I met them, didn’t realize it had been that long... must be getting old.
It makes me sad, and somewhat angry, when I reflect on men like this and then see the craven behavior of many of our elected officials.... these men, and the citizens they fight for deserve better. The Vietnam era warriors were also treated shamefully upon returning home, closes I have been to being ashamed of my country.... so far.
These are the other two MOH recipients I mentioned here http://www.homeofheroes.com/moh/citations_1960_vn/williams_charles.html and here Http://www.homeofheroes.com/gravesites/states/pages_af/anderson_webster_sc.html .
> “Mark of the Lion” sounded like a good read.
I think you’d really enjoy it. It is an excellent read, really well written as a labor of love by one of our best historians. He was writing a definitive History of one of New Zealand’s greatest sons, and it shows!
> There must not be many copies around tho’. Lowest price (used) on Alibris is $50.00 - for a paperback, no less!
Hmmm... US$50 is pretty expensive for that book — that’s over NZ$100. I paid something like NZ$32 for my copy, and that was the “Airport Price”.
I should be able to find a local copy for less than that... Standby...
It’s a Penguin paperback, new, nicely bound and an excellent addition to any library, particularly if military history is of interest to you.
(Checking...) The ISBN: 0-14-301864-7
I’ve checked our local New Zealand bookstores and located a copy for you at NZ$32.00 + shipping, here: http://www.paperplusbooks.co.nz/default.aspx?x=search&stype=bookdetail&id=1005311
They ship to the United States by Air Mail. Their rates are here: http://www.paperplusbooks.co.nz/default.aspx?x=plugin&p=html&id=129
Even if shipping is NZ$20 you’d still be ahead of the game.
(We aim to please!)
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