Army corrects 70-year-old mistake with Bronze Star Medal

Award posthumously given to Family of Sgt. Frank Maresca

Fort Belvoir, Va. (Aug 21, 2014) - It was an emotional moment at U.S. Army Garrison Fort Belvoir Headquarters Building, July 31, as Headquarters Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Philip Lenz corrected a historic wrong by awarding the Bronze Star Medal posthumously to a brave WWII Soldier.

The children of Technician 5th Grade Sgt. Frank J. Maresca, Laura Dudko and Frank Maresca, Jr. accepted the honor in their father's place, 70 years after he stepped out of the safety of his foxhole near San Vittore, Italy, under heavy fire to rescue a wounded British Soldier. Maresca administered First Aid to the Soldier and helped get him to an aid station.

"His chest would have been out to here," Dudko said of her father, holding her arms out in front of her chest. "He would have been beaming. I'm proud."

Three generations of the Maresca Family were in attendance for the ceremony, right down to Maresca's great-grandchild Malika Haro, 6; they were joined by a full house of Fort Belvoir garrison staff.

"We're shocked with the turnout. It's absolutely beautiful," Dudko said. "That made the whole day."

The Family said they were humbled by the number of people who packed into the conference room at the garrison headquarters to learn about their father, who served as a pigeoneer in during World War II.

"It's really overwhelming. I had no idea that this many people would be interested in an event that happened so long ago," Maresca, Jr. said. "I really must tell you, I've never been so proud to be an American as I am today. It's really quite stirring to be here."

Lenz said the Family has been working to have their father honored ever since they heard he had been denied the Bronze Star due to the nationality of the man he saved.

"Sgt. Maresca's commander at the time told him in the aftermath, 'Had that been a U.S. Soldier, you would have received the Bronze Star medal,'" Lenz said. "Having heard the story from their father years later, the Family set to work to see if they could correct this misguided notion and have their father honored."

With the help of U.S. Rep. Gerry Connelly (D-Va.), a recommendation for a Bronze Star Medal was finally approved. While the congressman was unable to attend, he sent a member of his staff, Billy Montgomery, in his place.

"Our Army warrior ethos states in part, 'I will never quit, I will never leave a fallen comrade.'" Lenz said. "Notice that we intentionally use the word 'comrade' and do not distinguish between U.S. Soldiers, and those of our allies and partners who often fight right alongside of us.

"Sgt. Maresca exemplified the Army ethos long before the Army codified it. It didn't matter to him that the wounded Soldier was British. He only saw a fellow comrade in need, and risked his life to save him."

Lenz believes Maresca's chain of command did, in fact, have the authority to request or issue the Bronze Star for bravery.

"It was that chain of command's decision," he said.

And so, for 70 years the Family awaited the decision that came this year to finally correct the wrong.

"I'm proud of my father for his service to our country, his unselfish act of bravery and the recognition being bestowed upon him here today is really gratifying to our Family," said Maresca, Jr. "My sister and I really want to thank the Army for taking the time and the effort to review the circumstances around this case, and recommending the award to the President."

Before the war, Maresca, a Brooklyn, N.Y. native, worked with his father at the Family produce store. In his spare time he raced pigeons, a skill that would come in handy after he was drafted. The Army identified this skill during his intake, and he was quickly classified as a pigeoneer.

"In talking with the Maresca Family, when the Army saw that he had experience with pigeons, they immediately sent him over to the Signal Corps and put him to work in a hobby that he loved and continued to enjoy after his service," Lenz said.

Maresca, like many Soldiers, brought a unique background that made him invaluable beyond his Army training.

"Part of (the strength of the Army) is the individual contributions that the Soldier makes to the mission," Lenz said. "Many times this isn't just the military training that we provide, but there are unique experiences, interests, skills and even hobbies that can sometimes bring unexpected contributions in unexpected ways -- such was the case with Sgt. Maresca."

Dudko and Maresca, Jr. remember their father's love of birds long after his military service.

"He loved his pigeons," Dudko remembered. "Actually he loved all birds. Anytime any one was wounded or anything, he just took it in to the house and we fixed him up and let him go. He just enjoyed it. It just became a pastime for him. He loved it."

The Army used pigeons to send secret messages during conflicts. Lenz said a radio transmission could reveal the unit's position, so the Army turned to trained pigeons to communicate. The birds were fitted with a tiny capsule on their leg which contained a rolled up scroll with the message on it.

"It's a credit to the Army that they figured out how to use something like that," Maresca, Jr. said. "Back in those days, millions of men were being drafted into the Army. They were able to capitalize on not only my father's, but I'm sure thousands of others with different kinds of specialties that otherwise would not have been identified."

Lenz said it's hard to imagine using such an antiquated technology just 70 years ago.

"Two-thousand years ago the Romans used pigeons to send signals. Even in WWI they did that," he said. "You'd think in the time span between WWI and WWII that the technology would have advanced, but even still, the pigeons and the messages that they carried were often times in emergencies a supplemental means of communication. It was a vital contribution to the battlefield commanders."

In a chilling, somber moment during the ceremony, Maresca, Jr., played a three-minute recording of his father recounting the day in 1944 that he earned his Bronze Star. The recording was made days before he passed away in a Fairfax hospital.

"They were pumping and pumping and pumping shells, and all a sudden I heard 'I'm hit! I'm hit!'"

The senior Maresca remembered finding a stretcher and aiding the Soldier before they could get him to a medic.

"We took the stretcher and we laid him down on it and took whatever rag we had on us and tried to stop the flow of blood," the elder Maresca explained in the recording. "The next day, the captain of the company came over to us … and he wrote a letter to the company headquarters about what we did. He told us if he (the British Soldier) was an America, they would have gave us the Bronze Star."

Instead, Maresca was given a citation from the Army for his bravery.

"He demonstrated unselfish bravery by leaving the relative safety of his own foxhole under heavy enemy fire to save the life of a person he didn't even know," Maresca, Jr. said. "I often wonder, what makes ordinary people -- in this case, a grocery clerk with the equivalent of a 10th-grade education -- what makes people like this demonstrate such acts of bravery? I still don't understand it.

"I think the truth is that my father and the others that distinguish themselves in combat are really no ordinary people," Maresca, Jr. said.

Lenz said the Bronze Star was another reminder of the great generation of Soldiers that battled in the World Wars.

"Having observed the 70th anniversary of D-Day just recently, we're reminded of how important it is for us not to let those stories go and to instead actively work to ensure those stories are told," he said. "We're gathered here today to remember the service and the story of a member of that greatest generation who is no longer with us, but his legacy remains with his children, Frank (Jr.) and Laura.

"Thank you to the Maresca family for allowing us to do what should have been done 70 years ago," Lenz said in closing the ceremony.