WWII 87th ID medic, recipient of Silver Star, Purple Heart

[mvmhm]

As I recently completely retired as a VFW Service Officer, I decided to take some of my ample free time to hit a couple nearby antique malls. At the first, I found this re-issued Purple Heart; the card with it told the story of his family not wanting his medals. The person who unlocked the cabinet for me told me the soldier had served in WWII, Korea and was killed in action in Vietnam.  I just wanted to get the name to see if there was any info about the man online. There was a plethora of info and photos, so I went back in and made a counter offer and eventually we reached a price we could both live with. I doubt I'll ever be able to get his medals back together again, but you never know. Here's the medal, which has an LI-GI hallmark.

I know some people turn up their noses at re-issued medals, but to me it's still an authorized award from/by the government so it's just as valid as his original medal(s).

 

Mark sends

[mvmhm]

Here's his photo's. According to his hospital card, he was in the hospital for 2.5 years while they did bone grafts to reconstruct his arms:

[mvmhm]

And here's a detailed write-up on him from his local paper:

 

Mark sends

 

"The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Counter-offensive, was a major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II, and took place from Dec. 16 1944 to Jan. 25 1945. The Germans’ initial attack involved 410,000 men; just over 1,400 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns; 2,600 artillery pieces; 1,600 anti-tank guns; and over 1,000 combat aircraft, as well as large numbers of other armored fighting vehicles. These were reinforced a couple of weeks later, bringing the offensive’s total strength to around 450,000 troops, and 1,500 tanks and assault guns. Between 63,222 and 98,000 of these men were killed, missing, wounded in action or captured. For the Americans, out of a peak of 610,000 troops, 89,000 became casualties out of which some 19,000 were killed. The “Bulge” was the largest and bloodiest single battle fought by the United States in World War II and the third-deadliest campaign in American history.

 

Jewel E. Clabo, a company medic, of Sevierville, was among those 610,000 American soldiers. Deeply rooted in Sevier County, Jewel Edgar Clabo was born Jan. 31, 1923 in Nampa, Idaho, where his parents had moved to find work. He was one of nine children of Lewis Richard Clabo and Tisha Rozella Huskey Clabo. His siblings were Winnie (McCarter), Eva (Smelcer, Fain), Luella (Manning), Betty (Maples), Anna Mae, Roy, Fredia (Cole), and Juanita (Rimel). When Jewel was 8, the family moved back to Sevier County. As with millions of young Americans, when called to serve in World War II Clabo answered. He went to the U.S. Army. His first stop was Camp McCain, Mississippi. Clabo met Willard Clauser, the man who became his life’s best friend, on their first day at Camp McCain. Clabo and Clauser belonged in the 87th Infantry Division of the 346th Regiment in Company C. Their next stop was Camp Jackson, South Carolina. They left in the first week of November 1944 for New York City. Deployed to Europe, they arrived in England on Nov. 12, 1944. They went to France for about 10 days before they went into combat. On Dec. 16, 1944, the Germans launched an offensive in France’s Ardennes Mountains, code name Unternehmen Wacht am Rhein (Operation Watch on the Rhine). The French labeled it Bataille des Ardennes. Americans named their response the Ardennes Counter-offensive. History knows it collectively as The Battle of the Bulge. Every veteran of The Battle of the Bulge remembered the cold. When the soldiers got food, it was sea rations, and they were frozen. The men would stick them between their legs or under their arms at night so they could eat them in the morning.The soldiers arrived in Tillet, Belgium, and fought for that town on Dec. 28. German forces attacked with unrelenting viciousness. The Germans were strong, but the Allies proved stronger. Fighting was fierce as men dropped like autumn leaves from trees, yet the Allies with the Americans at the forefront overcame the Germans. Combat waged onward in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on what amounted to the Western Front. Veterans have said that the battle was much worse than movies have shown, or imaginations can imagine. Some men screamed amid the chaotic thunder. Others never had a chance to scream. Death for many came as swiftly as a sigh; for others agony preceded death like the slow ticking of the grim reaper’s clock, long and torturous. As a medic, Clabo most definitely witnessed such nightmarish scenes.

 

When they arrived at the Bulge, it had not snowed yet. But then two or three days later, Jan. 2, 1945, it started snowing and continued for days. By then neither Clabo nor most of the men traveled in trucks or jeeps. They walked everywhere they went, traveling on foot about five miles every day. As a Medic, Clabo never carried a gun during the war. However, his helmet was a constant and welcome companion. He drank water out of it, washed and shaved out of it. By mid-January with his helmet on his head, Clabo separated from Clauser. Clabo’s citation for the Silver Star pinpoints Belgium on the day of Feb. 1, 1945: “Technician Fifth Grade Clabo went forward under heavy sniper and mortar fire to treat four wounded soldiers,” the citation says. “Later, with the assistance of two men, he organized an aid station in a farmhouse and gave efficient treatment to thirty-seven casualties.” Germans surrounded the makeshift aid station. Meanwhile, Clabo and three others tended to the wounded American soldiers for 24 hours. They worked into the night by flashlight. And he even helped several wounded German soldiers, too. When he was caught up on work and didn’t have any more Americans to care for, he took care of the Germans. But the American boys came first. On his last day of combat, Clabo was shot multiple times with a machine gun. He was walking with some soldiers and he was machine-gunned. They were walking in snow. He fell down in the snow. The bullets went through both arms. Clabo lost pieces of bone from each arm. Doctors told him that his arms needed amputation. He pleaded with them. To save his arms, he had two bone grafts. His arms were never the same again. Officially disabled, Clabo returned home to his parents and the hardships of life in Sevierville after the war. Years passed. Clauser had lost track of his friend back at the Bulge in January 1945. He heard that he was badly wounded but didn’t know anything else about him. In the 1950s, Clauser and his wife traveled south from Illinois to Florida on vacation. As he drove through Sevierville, he thought of his wartime buddy, Clabo. He stopped at a barber shop and asked for a fella named Jewell Clabo. Luckily, the barber knew Clabo. Clauser drove a short distance from the barber shop to his buddy’s home, where he was living with his mother and father. The men resumed a friendship that continued the rest of their lives. The war hero who never killed a soul in war, lived the last 8 years of his life at James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center at Mountain Home in Johnson City. He died there on March 8, 2014 at age 91. He is buried in Huskey Grove Cemetery."

[tdogchristy90]

Great presentation, thanks for sharing.

[swabbie]

Second that!  Good research.

[81stDivCollector]

This is wonderful! Nice to see a Purple Heart out there from my hometown! I am writing a book for our local library about the service men from our county!