October 21, 1965 — When vehicles carrying about 60 wounded American soldiers stalled in a swollen river in Korea in 1951, Eugene W. Lillard, of Front Royal, and a native of Luray, was one of four volunteers who went back, under fire, to help rescue them.
Now, 14 years later, Lillard has received a Bronze Star for heroic and meritorious service connected with that event.
Lillard, who served in the U.S. Army for four years, with combat service in Korea during the early 1950s, knew that he had been recommended for the Bronze Star.
“I knew it was coming to me,” he said, “and I never gave up hope that the day would come when I’d get it.”
With the medal came a letter of apology that he had not received this star before, and an explanation that a mistake somewhere along the line had kept the medal from him.
~ From the public archives of the Page News and Courier
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