WWII veteran gets 2 medals after 65 years - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

WWII veteran gets 2 medals after 65 years

LEONI TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Edward Young was in a hurry to get on with life in 1945.

He was 25 years old and had just finished serving the duration of U.S. involvement in World War II. He did not particularly care that he deserved some medals.

"When I got out, I just wanted to forget about the war and go on," said Young. "It didn't bother me if I didn't have the medals."

A lifetime later, they are more important. Young finally received his medals last month at age 90.

"I am very thankful," Young told the Jackson Citizen Patriot. "There are not a lot of us (World War II veterans) left."

Young was raised on a farm in Kentucky but made his way north to Michigan to look for industrial work.

Shortly after his arrival, Young was drafted into the Army in October 1941. Two months later, the nation went to war.

"I was in Oklahoma, pulling guard duty, when they bombed Pearl Harbor," Young recalled. He was 21 years old.

A corporal, Young was assigned to the 249th Field Artillery Battalion.

"My job was in the communications end of it," said Young. "Laying telephone wires, trying to fix telephones when they broke down on us."

In theory, his duty kept Young six miles behind the front lines. But theory did not always translate to reality in the island warfare of the Pacific.

Young fought on Saipan in 1944 and Okinawa in 1945, two long and bloody battles.

"Saipan hit us hardest," Young said. "We lost almost half our infantry."

He still vividly recalls wading ashore on Saipan with his rifle carried over his head. Japanese soldiers were in sight ahead and Navy ships fired shells from behind.

"We got up on a little beach, and every time a round went over my head I went a little deeper into the ground," he said. "You saw arms and legs flying. It was terrible."

Young saw plenty of death but felt destined to survive.

"For some reason, I never thought of getting killed. I had my job to do and I did it," he said.

Japan surrendered shortly after Okinawa and Young came home two months later.

He returned to Jackson and worked 31 years for Kent-Moore Corp. His first marriage ended in divorce and he outlived a second wife. He had two children, five stepdaughters and many grandchildren by blood and through marriage.

Discharge papers stated he earned two medals he never received, but Young never bothered to ask for them.

"I didn't know anything about the medals," Young said. "I didn't even know I had them coming (before being discharged), and I don't know why I didn't get them."

Beginning about two years ago, some grandchildren decided the oversight should not continue. They began asking the government about the medals.

Step-grandson Brent Hendricks of Dayton, Ohio, secured the medals and arranged a presentation ceremony April 26 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton.

Young finally received his World War II Victory Medal and his Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with double bronze stars. He also received a flag that flew over the U.S. Capitol on his 90th birthday in March.

"We had about 40 or 45 people who went down there, mostly family and a few friends," Young said. "It was very nice."

Now the medals are displayed proudly in Young's home.

The same man who once tried to forget the war hopes the medals help future generations in his family remember.

"It's as much for the kids as it is for me," he said.