Honors Long Overdue

A World War II veteran who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and retired from the Army shortly afterward is set to receive 10 medals and badges today, 55 years later. Not bad for a guy who left the military because his feet had frozen.

John Medellin, now 77, fought in some of the final battles of World War II as an infantryman in the 26th Regiment of the 1st Division. While many of his contemporaries were honored with medals and accolades following the close of the war, Medellin received only a bus ticket back to his home in Pacoima. No one seems to remember why his medals were never awarded.

Today, in a ceremony at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Lt. Col. Celeo Wright will pin on Medellin a Bronze Star, a Good Conduct Medal, a European-African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, a World War II Victory Medal, a Combat Infantryman Badge, a Service Star, a French Fourragere, a Belgian Fourragere, an Honorable Service lapel button and a Rifleman’s Badge.

Medellin would just as soon not have earned the medals. Few things would have made him happier than to stay in Pacoima in 1944, driving a citrus truck to market each day.

“I kept asking for deferments because I was working in farming,” Medellin said. “Then the day came when they said, ‘No more extensions. You have to go.’ ”

The elder Medellin son, Jesus, had already been drafted to fight in North Africa and Italy. John Medellin did not know his brother had been shot in the shoulder, but he knew other infantrymen had met gruesome fates.

At Medellin’s first landing in Belgium, the gore ceased to be the stuff of hearsay and lore for the 21-year-old San Fernando High School graduate.

“The guy driving the truck dropped us a mile away from the front,” Medellin said. “The driver didn’t want to go any farther. I knew it was bad. I noticed dead Germans, dead bodies on the road. I could hear the artillery shells and mortar shells. I thank God I made it alive.”

The experience of fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, the deadliest land battle of World War II, reminded Medellin of the high cost of the freedoms he enjoyed in Southern California.

“We want to live in a nation that’s free,” he said. “Sometimes that means fighting for it. I went out there because they called me and told me to serve, so I went. Then I was fighting to stay free.”

*

Sloshing through calf-deep snow in the mountains of Belgium, Medellin’s feet froze. He was flown to a hospital in France and later to a hospital in England for treatment of severe frostbite. When he had healed, the Army flew him to Colorado Springs, and in August 1945, gave him his walking papers.

He thought maybe fighting in the battle that ended Germany’s last offensive in what some consider the worst war ever might be worth a bit of bronze and a little ribbon.

“What they’re supposed to give you and what they give you are two different things,” Medellin said. “They gave me the piece of paper that said I was supposed to get the medals, but nothing else. It would be nice to see some generals or high-ranking officials [at the ceremony today]. War is not a party, you know.”

Medellin is one of thousands of World War II veterans, including his brother-in-law Ray Castillo and his deceased brother, Jesus, who did not receive their decorations.

No one seems to recall why the veterans did not receive their medals right after they were discharged. It took the urging of Medellin’s son-in-law, Tom Martinez, a civilian who works at the Air Force plant in Palmdale, and an act of a congressman to cut through the bureaucracy at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

“The veterans’ groups told us if you don’t have someone special making the request, it will just be disregarded because they have too many to work with,” Martinez said.

“It’s a shame that we have a budget surplus and we can’t find a way to fund the records office so we can give our heroes what they deserve.”

*

The records center, a Defense Department office, verifies medal credentials for veterans. A spokesman from the office of U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) said the congressman had little difficulty pushing Medellin’s application through the record center’s three-year backlog of applications.

Despite the military’s slowness in recognizing some of its soldiers, Medellin’s daughters entered the Air Force. His granddaughter, Mia Martinez, will sing the national anthem at this morning’s presentation.