Kubacki, Milford to Recognize Medal of Honor Recipient
Posted
Staff Report-
MILFORD – Syracuse and Milford officials are working to place road sign markers entering and exiting Milford on Ind. 15.
State Representative Rebecca Kubacki, law enforcement officer Kyle Dukes and Milford Town Council President Doug Ruch are working to place the signs in honor of World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Second Lt. Harry Michael, according to a press release provided by Kubacki.
The Congressional Medal of Honor is the nation’s highest military award. Michael was honored for his bravery while leading his 80th Blue Ridge Infantry Division platoon in an assault on a forest ridge near Neiderzerft, Germany.
Before he fell, he had captured more than 70 Germans, liberated two American prisoners of war and silenced a row of enemy pill boxes and two machine gun nests in a series of advances, the press release states.
Honoring Michael was an idea brought to Kubacki by Dukes, who had read about Michael and felt heroism such as Michael’s should never be forgotten.
It was his idea to place signs in Milford as a reminder of the sacrifices made by Michael for freedom.
Dukes gave Kubacki a packet of information he accumulated from family and friends.
On March 11, 1945, Michael wrote to his fiancee, “We are still resting. Didn’t know that today was Sunday until about 1300. Went to mass and communion today. Gosh, for some reason, it made me feel so good.”
Michael was killed by a snipers bullet March 13, 1945, two days after his 23rd birthday.
“I cried when I read that,” Kubacki is quoted as saying in the press release. “As a mother it touches my heart that so many young. brave sons and daughters lost their lives to give us the freedoms we tend to take for granted.”
Honoring Michael and all of the fallen soldiers is only fitting, Kubacki said.
