Fights of Their Lives

War can produce some unlikely heroes, but Walter Ehlers seemed destined for glory from the moment he put on a U.S. Army uniform in World War II.

Ehlers, now 76, had an opportunity to sit out the war as a clerk-typist, but asked to be assigned to the infantry. Before the war was over, the Buena Park resident and Kansas native had earned four Purple Hearts and a fistful of medals for valor, including the Medal of Honor.

On Saturday, Ehlers and 14 other veterans, all recipients of the nation’s two highest military awards for bravery, were honored at American Legion Post 291. They were treated to a parade of boats in Newport Harbor and dinner at the post hall.

Five of the honorees had been decorated with the Medal of Honor, and nine had received the Distinguished Service Cross (Army), Navy Cross (Navy and Marines) or the Air Force Cross.

Recipients of those medals are eligible for membership in the Legion of Valor, which could be the most exclusive and integrated club in the United States.

Ginny Mora, one of more than 500 who gathered for dinner and to honor the heroes, said, “America needs more celebrations like this.” She said her father was a career Army soldier who fought in Vietnam and “never received a thank-you from America.”

“This event is simply to recognize what these men did. There’s nothing more to it. It’s not Veterans Day, Memorial Day or the Fourth of July,” Mora said. “It’s just a day to say, ‘Thank you for your contribution to America.’ ”

For Ehlers and the other veterans, Saturday’s celebration was an opportunity to recount frightening events that occurred on faraway battlefields, where citizen-soldiers became national heroes.

Ehlers earned the Medal of Honor in the Normandy hedgerows on June 9 and 10, 1944, when he was a staff sergeant and squad leader with L Co. 3rd Battalion 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division (the Big Red One).

In two days, Ehlers killed at least 18 German soldiers and saved dozens of soldiers in his company by silencing several enemy machine-gun positions and a mortar emplacement. When he took out the mortar position, Ehlers charged the enemy crew with a fixed bayonet, attached to his M-1 rifle.

“They were terrified and so was I,” Ehlers said. “When they saw my bayonet they began running and I had to shoot them.”

When Ehlers landed on Omaha Beach on D-day, June 6, 1944, it was his third invasion landing. Previously, he had landed in North Africa with the 3rd Infantry Division and at Sicily with the 1st Division. He received his first battle wound at Sicily.

Between June and September 1944, Ehlers was wounded three more times. But none of those injuries was as painful as the hurt Ehlers felt when his older brother, Roland, was killed on D-day. Until the Normandy invasion, the Ehlerses had served in the same company, and Roland had been wounded at Sicily. On the day of the invasion, they were in the same battalion but in different companies.

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Retired Marine Col. William E. Barber, who earned the Medal of Honor at the frozen Chosin Reservoir in Korea, said that the “confusion of war means that sometimes others whose actions are more deserving of recognition are not recognized.

“I can tell you that there are hundreds if not thousands of common soldiers whose sacrifice was greater than ours, but they were never honored,” said Barber, 78, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Then-Capt. Barber was commanding F Co. 2nd Battalion 7th Marine Regiment on Nov. 28, 1950. His rifle company of about 160 men occupied a hill guarding a vital pass that was being used by the withdrawing column of Marines and soldiers.

Surrounded and outnumbered, Barber and his riflemen withstood two nights of human wave attacks by Chinese soldiers, beating back the enemy each time in hand-to-hand combat. During the fight, Barber was hit by machine-gun fire in his legs but continued to lead his men, who were finally relieved by another Marine battalion on Dec. 2.

Barber, who lives in Irvine, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his leadership and valor.