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They were both immigrants. They were both drafted. They both died heroically for their adopted land. The stories of both were lost to history, and then found again. One of them has been finally awarded a posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor. The other is still waiting.
President Barack Obama last week presented the Medal of Honor to an Austrian-born U.S. army hero killed during the Vietnam War.
And the story of Specialist Leslie H. Sabo Jr., and the actions he took in his final moments, almost exactly mirror the heroics of Kerry-born Corporal Patrick Sheahan of New York, who was killed in an earlier war, Korea.
Sabo was killed in 1970 during an operation inside Cambodia.
Sabo saved the lives of several of his fellow soldiers. He grabbed an enemy grenade, tossed it away and shielded a wounded comrade with his body, saving his life.
"Although wounded by the grenade blast, he continued to charge the enemy's bunker. After receiving several serious wounds from automatic weapons fire, he crawled towards the enemy emplacement and, when in position, threw a grenade into the bunker."
Sabo destroyed the bunker, but the explosion also killed him.
The 42-year gap between Sabo's heroic action and his deserved securing of a Medal of Honor was caused in part by a request by his commanders for the honor being misplaced in the National Archives. The National Archives recently admitted that it had lost track of Patrick's Sheahan's papers.
Sheahan won the Silver Star for his last action and was not proposed initially for the Medal of Honor. However, the U.S. ambassador to Ireland at the time told the Sheahan family that the young corporal, who had previously won a Bronze
Star for gallantry, deserved the
nation's highest award for bravery in combat.
And his bravery would appear to be on a par with Sabo's.
This, in part, is the official account of Sheahan's final action: "Stiff enemy opposition prevailed and the sweeping fire of a hostile machine gun soon pinned down the platoon and halted the advance up the hill. Corporal SHEAHAN, realizing the gravity of the situation and aware that the enemy weapon must be neutralized, courageously crawled forward under the lethal hail of fire and completely destroyed the emplacement with accurately thrown hand grenades. Uncertain as to whether all the enemy soldiers had been killed by the explosions, he rose to his feet and, rushing forward, fired a long burst into the smashed entrenchment, eliminating all possible opposition.
"It was while thus revealed to the enemy, as he carried out his single handedly brave action that corporal SHEAHAN fell, mortally wounded by the savage fire of an adjacent automatic weapon."
