WW2 Vet Awarded Medals 60 Years Later
An 84 year old WW2 veteran received the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal after almost 60 years.
From the St. Pete Times:
War tactics have come a long way since a 20-year-old James "Ray" Scrivener joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942.
The use of satellite imagery to map out enemy territory didn’t exist during World War II. So military strategists relied on soldiers to fly overhead with huge cameras and snap shots of the Japanese army’s location - photographs they used to help plan attacks.
As an aircraft flight engineer, Scrivener flew 37 combat missions in the Pacific Theatre in one such unit. He served as a technical sergeant with VMD-254, a photo reconnaissance squadron.
When he got out of the military and got married, he thought nothing of receiving any honors for his service. Scrivener said his colonel told him that his discharge certificate "didn’t reflect everything it should have." But he didn’t mind much. He was ready to move on with life.
That all changed three years ago, when Scrivener reunited with a military buddy and found out that he was eligible to received the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Almost 60 years later, he finally will.
During a private service at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Fourth Assault Amphibian Battalion Marine Corps Reserve Training Center in Tampa, U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young will present Scrivener with the overdue honors.
"I was glad to do it," Scrivener, 84, of Largo, said of his military duties. "I wouldn’t want to do it again, but I wouldn’t give the experience way."
Scrivener joined the Marines one month after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Because the legal age to join the military then was 21, he had to get his parents’ permission to enlist.
He said he could have avoided the draft because he was a railroad worker, an important job to the country at that time. He decided to fight instead. …
The WW2 vets were a great generation much different
from the "TeddyKennedyJohnKerryCindySheehanized Left Wing Moonbats". The WW2 Vets were true heroes as are our soldiers fighting for our freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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