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Roe's Staff To Evidence For Medal
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
It took more than 65 years, but Kenneth Fullen, an 88-year-old World War II veteran, received a set of oak leaf clusters on Monday that represent his third award of the Silver Star medal.
Fullen, who lives in the Ottway community, had previously been awarded two Silver Stars. The decoration is the nation's third highest award for bravery in battle.
He received the oak leaf clusters from U.S. Rep. Phil Roe, R-1st of Johnson City, at the Greene County Courthouse on Monday afternoon.
Roe, a retired physician who served in Korea with the U.S. Army, said his staff worked with the U.S. Department of Defense to determine if Fullen was entitled to a third award of the Silver Star after a Greeneville Sun reporter noticed that an Internet database of Silver Star winners included three references to Fullen.
The Sun reporter had mentioned the third reference to Roe's District Director, Bill Snodgrass, during an Ottway Ruritan Club Veterans Day program last fall at which Fullen was among several veterans honored by the club for their service.
Subsequently, Snodgrass asked other members of the congressman's staff to check with the Department of Defense on Fullen's possible eligibility for a third Silver Star.
Last Friday, Roe's staff notified the Sun reporter that Fullen was, indeed, entitled to a third award of the Silver Star.
"This is a particular honor to be here today," Roe said in presenting the oak leaf clusters to Fullen.
Roe noted that the individual record for receipt of the Silver Star is 10, the number received by the late Col. David H. Hackworth, who died in 2005.
The bronze oak leaves show that a recipient of the Silver Star has earned additional awards (of the same medal), Roe said in presenting the tiny bronze oak leaves to Fullen.
He noted that oak leaves are designed to be displayed on the ribbons that soldiers wear on their uniforms and on the ribbon attached to the medal itself to indicate additional awards.
"This indicates that you have earned your third Silver Star," Roe said. "This is an amazing thing ...
"I wouldn't be able to serve as a congressman, and no one here would be able to be here today except for the things you (and other veterans) did to keep us free."
Roe added, "We have heroes living right here in Greeneville. It makes me feel good to be able to present this."
Fullen's Comment
Fullen replied that he was "glad to do what I did," but said he didn't agree that he was a hero.
He was accompanied on Monday afternoon by Ottway Ruritan Club members Bob Ashton and Ben Losey, who had worked to help Fullen earn recognition for his World War II service.
During an interview before last November's Veterans Day program at the Ottway Ruritan Club, Fullen recalled his World War II service with the U.S. Army's 1st Infantry Division.
Fullen lost the sight in his right eye when he was shot by a German sniper in December 1944.
One Of Most-Decorated
His three Silver Stars, the Bronze Star and campaign ribbons with eight battle stars, from North Africa to the Battle of the Bulge, indicate that Fullen is one of Tennessee's most highly-decorated World War II veterans.
In World War II, the 1st Infantry Division suffered 21,023 casualties among the 43,743 men who served in its ranks.
Its soldiers were presented with a total of 20,752 medals and awards, including 16 Congressional Medals of Honor, according to the 1st Infantry Division Association's Web site.
Known as "the Big Red 1," the division fought all the way from North Africa to Germany during the war. In so doing, the division also tookmore than 100,000 prisoners, according to the Web site.
Killed 45 Of Enemy
The soft-spoken Fullen had told Greeneville Sun Columnist Bob Hurley in 1999 that it was hard for him to talk about the suffering he and other soldiers endured during World War II.
In fact, Hurley wrote, Fullen chose "not to talk about it at all most of the time."
But last November, Fullen spoke briefly about his service.
He said that he won the first of his two Silver Stars for his actions against the Germans in North Africa.
He recalled that he fired a "whole box of ammunition" from a .30-cal. machine-gun into a building occupied by German soldiers who had his patrol pinned down.
"They told me that I killed 45 men," Fullen said. "I don't know, but that's what they told me."
During the North African campaign, Fullen said last November, he went 107 days without having his boots off or changing clothes.
But Fullen says he doesn't know why he received the second Silver Star. "They just gave it to me when I got out of the Army," he said.
Shot By Sniper
He noted that his memory of late-war events is hazy because of the trauma he suffered when he was shot in the head by a sniper near the German city of Aachen in late 1944.
"I was out (unconscious) for 12 days," he said. "The doctors gave me up for dead and quit coming to see me. Later they told me that God must have been looking out for me."
Fullen said that when he awoke in an Army hospital a dozen days after being wounded, he initially feared that he was blind because heavy bandages covered his eyes.
By chance, he said, he discovered when one of the bandages slipped that he still had vision in his left eye.
"A nurse was feeding me, and I told her that I could do it myself," he said, in discovering that he could still see with his left eye.
Fullen noted that he immediately demonstrated to the nurse that he could see well enough to eat without assistance.
For more information and stories, see The Greeneville Sun.
