WAR VETERAN GIVES MEDAL TO STATEHOUSE
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins
Associated
Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio –Almost 50 years have passed since Ronald Rosser received the Congressional Medal of Honor—the country’s highest distinction for military valor—for his actions during a day of deadly fighting in the Korean War.
Over the years, Rosser came to a decision
that led to his donation of the medal to the Statehouse in a Veterans Day
ceremony Nov. 11. "I realized this medal
really doesn’t belong to me anymore," he said.
"I was merely holding it for the next generation."
Rosser told about 70 veterans and family
members that he couldn’t stand the thought that the medal might end up in a
drawer or hanging on someone’s wall. "I
wanted it to be someplace where it could do some good, where it could teach
children what this country’s worth," said Rosser.
Rosser was a 22-year-old corporal on
Rosser was a forward observer with the
company’s lead platoon when it came under heavy
fire. In three charges over several
hours, Rosser killed at least 13 Chinese soldiers, according to his Medal of
Honor citation.
As his platoon withdrew, "though himself
wounded, (Rosser) made several trips across open terrain still under enemy fire
to help remove other men injured more seriously than himself," the citation
said.
Rosser, now 70, grew up one of 17 brothers
and sisters near Crooksville in southeastern
Rosser donated the medal the same week that
a religious ceremony in
Rosser doesn’t dispute the events described
in Associated Press reports about Nogun-ri and other
killings by
"Sometimes innocent civilians get caught in
a thing like that," he said.
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