Las Cruces,
Dec 11, 2003 -
It took many years because of bureaucratic hang-ups, but two local veterans on Wednesday finally received military medals for their service in World War II and the Korean War.
Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., whose office worked to obtain the long-overdue medals, presented Hatch resident Juanita Lucero, widow of Cpl. Antonio Lucero, with her late husband's Army Good Conduct Medal, the World War II Victory Medal and the Europe/Africa/Middle East Campaign Medal. Still due for Antonio Lucero, who died in 1997, is the Presidential Unit Citation.
"It means a lot; it means a lot," Juanita Lucero said. Her son will place them above a mantelpiece in his Anaheim, Calif. home, she said.
Antonio Lucero, who farmed cotton and ran a grocery store in his hometown of Hatch after the war, served three years in the Army from 1942 to 1944 but spoke little about his wartime experiences, his widow said.
"Like everybody else, he didn't want to talk about what happened there," said Juanita Lucero, who carried a framed black and white photograph showing her husband as a young man in uniform. "They had a rough time there."
Also honored Wednesday in Pearce's Las Cruces office was 70-year-old Jack Chapman, who enlisted in the Army three days after his 16th birthday and ended up spending almost three years in a North Korean prisoner-of-war camp, starting in 1950.
Pearce pinned a Bronze Star medal with a "V" for valor on Chapman's lapel.
"We've said always that we need to honor those who served before," Pearce said. "We give you thanks as a nation for your service."
A citation accompanying the Bronze Star said Chapman, then a 17-year-old private first-class, displayed heroism when his heavy weapons platoon, part of the 31st Infantry Regiment, was caught in a fierce battle on Nov. 29 and 30, 1950. Chapman's unit was in a roughly 900-man column near the Chosen Reservoir when they were ambushed by an overwhelming force of Chinese troops.
Under intense fire, the citation says, a gunner assigned to a 75-mm recoilless rifle abandoned his position. Chapman, who had already sustained three wounds, "volunteered to take the gunner position and continued to fire the 75-mm recoilless rifle until his ammunition was exhausted."
Chapman, who received four more injuries during the fight, said he believes he only survived because the freezing temperatures at the time clotted his blood and prevented him from bleeding to death.
