Posted on 04/14/2004 5:17:42 PM PDT by SandRat
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| A photograph of Cpl. Edward Beal, who posthumously received the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroic action in the Korean War. Beal was killed in action on Jan. 1, 1951. (Ed Honda-Herald/Review) |
FORT HUACHUCA - A half century in the making, closure finally came to the family of Army Cpl. Edward Beal.
Beal's sister, Frances English, was presented the nation's second highest medal for combat bravery - the Army Distinguished Service Cross - on Tuesday afternoon for his service during the Korean War.
"I said I wasn't going to cry, but I am," she told U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., after he pinned the medal on her dress.
Kolbe said it was "the incredible heroism on the part of Cpl. Beal so that others could live" that led to the award that is second only to the Medal of Honor.
Slightly more than two months after Beal's death in combat while manning a machine gun trying to turn back a division-sized attack by the Chinese Communists during the Korean War, the Distinguished Service Cross was approved for the soldier.
A still emotional English remembered her brother, who like her went to Catholic schools in Douglas.
Beal was two years older than she. That small age difference meant they had the normal brother and sister rivalry and silly arguments.
"We always complained to mom about one another," she said as a smile formed on her face as the tears of remembrance clouded her eyes. "But we were really close."
She and her brother had another brother, Thomas, who now lives in San Francisco, and a sister, Ida, who is now dead.
When Edward Beal was 17, he quit school and wanted to enlist in the Army.
By then the family had moved to California.
At first his mother refused to sign the papers so her underage son could enlist, "but he told her he would lie about his age," English said. Her mother relented and signed the papers.
After joining the Army, she said her brother told his mother not to be surprised to see some officers come to the home to tell the family he had been killed.
English said she thought that comment was ghoulish, and it upset their mother.
"I told him not to say things like that," English said. "But it was ironic that later it happened."
An Army car pulled up outside the family home on a day in 1951. An officer came to bring the initial bad news that her brother was missing in action.
A couple of months later, the news came he had been killed in action.
The family was distraught. It would not be until after the fighting stopped the Korean War when an armistice was signed that her brother's body finally came back to the United States to be buried.
She moved back to Douglas and recently was going through the boxes of Beal's personal belongings that had been sent to the family.
In one of the boxes was her brother's Purple Heart Medal and a copy of a letter stating he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
But there was no Distinguished Service Cross in any of the boxes.
Through some friends, English approached Kolbe trying to have the medal presented.
Kolbe said in the 1970s the main record storage area for military documents in St. Louis suffered major damage from a fire. The proof was finally found the medal had been approved, but there was no indication of it being presented.
The ceremony Tuesday remedied the oversight.
As Kolbe presented her the medal, he said he was presenting it on behalf of a grateful nation.
For English and other family members who attended the ceremony, the Distinguished Service Cross awarded to Cpl. Edward N. Beal for protecting his fellow soldiers of Company A, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, was received by equally grateful relatives.
(Excerpt) Read more at svherald.com ...
BY BILL HESS Wednesday, April 14, 2004 12:40 PM MDT
Herald/Review
FORT HUACHUCA - It was the last day of 1950 when a major Chinese Communist offensive in North Korea hit the Army's 19th Infantry Regiment.
The first day of 1951 would be the final day for 20-year-old Cpl. Edward N. Beal.
A machine gunner, the Douglas native put his weapon to such good use that the Chinese division abandoned its main frontal assault on Beal's company that was mainly directed at high positions occupied by the unit.
After withdrawing the Chinese attempted a new tactic, a side attack, but Beal anticipated the maneuver and had his machine gun in place for the assault.
The end result of the two attacks on Dec. 31, 1950, was that Beal was credited for killing 150 of the enemy.
On Jan. 1, 1951, Beal's company was ordered to withdraw in face of large Chinese Communist forces who were gathering for an all-out attack.
Beal volunteered to stay behind to protect his company's withdrawal. He was last seen delivering heavy machine gun fire on the attacking enemy.
Source: General Orders 138, Eighth United States Army Korea, March 13, 1951.
Beal volunteered to stay behind to protect his company's withdrawal. He was last seen delivering heavy machine gun fire on the attacking enemy.
Sounds like he should have gotten the Medal of Honor if you ask me.
Doesn't an MoH recommendation require 2 witnesses?
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