thedrifter
10-06-04, 05:29 AM
World War II vet to receive posthumous honor for tracking details of fellow POWS
6:39 a.m. October 5, 2004
BENTON, Ark. – A World War II veteran is being posthumously honored for secretly recording information about hundreds of fellow prisoners at a Nazi prison camp, military officials said.
Marie Hall will formally accept the Legion of Merit medal for her brother, Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Ewell Ross McCright, who died in 1990. The award recognizes meritorious conduct and is the seventh-highest award an armed forces member can receive.
"McCright was a true American hero," Air Force Maj. Gen. Anthony Przybyslawski told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
McCright's B-17 bomber was shot down over France on Jan. 23, 1943. He was captured and interned at Stalag Luft III, the Nazi prison camp for Army Air Corps officers at what is now Zagan, Poland.
At a superior officer's request, McCright secretly recorded the backgrounds and war injuries of 2,194 soldiers at the camp, hiding four ledgers under floorboards and behind walls for nearly two years. When officers were marched 34 miles in the snow to another camp in January 1945, McCright carried the ledgers in place of food.
After the war, the ledgers were copied by the War Department and the originals returned to McCright. Eleven former POWs received Purple Hearts because the ledgers provided proof of their wounds.
When McCright died, a friend presented the ledgers to Arnold Wright, also of Benton, who self-published them in the 1994 book "Behind the Wire: Stalag Luft III, South Compound."
With the backing of five retired Air Force generals, Wright lobbied for a medal for McCright's work.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20041005-0639-posthumoushonor.html
Ellie
6:39 a.m. October 5, 2004
BENTON, Ark. – A World War II veteran is being posthumously honored for secretly recording information about hundreds of fellow prisoners at a Nazi prison camp, military officials said.
Marie Hall will formally accept the Legion of Merit medal for her brother, Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Ewell Ross McCright, who died in 1990. The award recognizes meritorious conduct and is the seventh-highest award an armed forces member can receive.
"McCright was a true American hero," Air Force Maj. Gen. Anthony Przybyslawski told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
McCright's B-17 bomber was shot down over France on Jan. 23, 1943. He was captured and interned at Stalag Luft III, the Nazi prison camp for Army Air Corps officers at what is now Zagan, Poland.
At a superior officer's request, McCright secretly recorded the backgrounds and war injuries of 2,194 soldiers at the camp, hiding four ledgers under floorboards and behind walls for nearly two years. When officers were marched 34 miles in the snow to another camp in January 1945, McCright carried the ledgers in place of food.
After the war, the ledgers were copied by the War Department and the originals returned to McCright. Eleven former POWs received Purple Hearts because the ledgers provided proof of their wounds.
When McCright died, a friend presented the ledgers to Arnold Wright, also of Benton, who self-published them in the 1994 book "Behind the Wire: Stalag Luft III, South Compound."
With the backing of five retired Air Force generals, Wright lobbied for a medal for McCright's work.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20041005-0639-posthumoushonor.html
Ellie