Last weekend my family and I were going through my mother’s personal effects. She passed away on Christmas Day. In her papers I found a bundle of orders from the 7th Infantry Division. My father had been an infantryman in the 7th through five campaigns in the Pacific. None of us had ever known he received a Bronze Star for valor. His citation is below:
Headquarters Seventh Infantry Division
APO #7 c/o Postmaster
San Francisco, CA.
7 March 1945
General Orders #30
Award of the Bronze Star Medal (Posthumous)
Award of the Bronze Star Medal
Award of the Oak Leaf Cluster
Section I
Award of the Bronze Star Medal,-—By direction of the President, under the provisions of Executive Order No. 9419, 4 February 1944, (Sec II, Bull No.3, WD 1944) and pursuant to authority contained in AR 600-45 (Decorations) , 22 September 1943, as amended by Change No.3, 25 April 1944, a Bronze Star Medal is awarded to the following-named military personnel:
Sergeant FV, (then Private First Class),(Service Number), Infantry, United States Army. For heroic achievement in connection with military operations against the enemy on 16 November 1944 during the Leyte Island Operation. During an attack in the foot hills west of Guinarona, Sergeant FV was a member of a rifle squad enveloping an enemy position containing two machine guns and four riflemen. Moving in from the left the squad was held up and to get to the position they had to move about fifty yards in the open. Under heavy machine gun and rifle fire, Sergeant FV made a one-man assault and firing his weapon as he moved, he succeeded in wiping out four riflemen and the two machine gunners. This display of courage and utter disregard for his own personal safety was a determining factor in his platoon completing its mission without further casualties.
In light of this recent family discovery, it sickens me to see what we award the Bronze Star for these days. We coddle our enemies and one day they will kill us.