Comments Re: Leslie H. Sabo, American Hero

There are many pleasures and some pains in writing GeneaBlogie, but I don't think I've experienced anything quite as poignant as some of the comments I got about our piece on Sgt Leslie H. Sabo. I decided to give them upfront exposure and you'll understand why.

Moultrie Creek said...

Craig, thank you for spotlighting these stories. These men are great heroes and deserve our highest honors. My thanks also goes to the people who kept their stories alive and continued the fight to insure those honors were awarded.

Anonymous said...

My name is Rose Mary Sabo Brown. The article you posted is about my husband. I just wanted let you know that this article was wonderful. Thank you so much for recognizing his story. I am anxiously awaiting for him to be awarded the Medal of Honor. He so deserves it. I am so proud of him.

Anonymous said...

My name is Kathleen E. Starkey. I am Rose Mary Sabo Brown's sister. I was introduced to Leslie when I was 12 yrs. old, in which we immediately connected and became fast friends. I loved him like a brother, and he was always there for me when I needed someone to talk to.
A few years later I was asked by my sister and him to be in their wedding. Even though I was just a kid, I felt honored to be apart of something very special. The love that was between them was so real, it made we want to have someone that special in my life too.
The day we found out our beloved Leslie was taken from us, left a hole in all our hearts. We never really knew exactly what happened to him in that foreign country and imaginations all ran wild. When we finally found out the truth about how he died, it gave us closure.
Incidentally, we weren't surprised to find that he died a hero, he was all of our heroes to begin with.
I know in my heart he is in heaven with our Lord Jesus Christ simply because he gave the ultimate gift, his life for his comrades.
He deserves this Medal of Honor, not only for what he did in Vietnam, but for who he was in everyone's life.
I will always love and miss him. Till we meet again in heaven,
your little sister,
Kathy

Anonymous said...

My name is Rick Brown and I was with Leslie Sabo that day in Cambodia May10,1970.The day before I had my 19th birthday and so I was very young.There is not a day since that I have not thought of Les Sabo and the other seven men we lost that day.I am writing this because Les and the rest we lost made it possible that I am here.On Jan 24,2008 I lost my best friend George Koziol to cancer who fought so hard to see that Les Sabo received the Medal of Honor.George was a witness to what Les did and was severely wounded as well.Les Sabo was in the 2nd Platoon and I was in the 3rd Platoon.Les was a man that gave up his life to protect us on that battlefield that day.Les Sabo will always be remember by his Brothers from Bravo Co 3/506 101st Abn

I was glad to bring this story of heroism to our audience. I'm very sorry to hear of the passing of George Koziol who did so much to keep the memory of Sgt Sabo's heroism alive. Now that a date has been set for another overlooked soldier's Medal ceremony, we hopefully can expect Leslie Sabo's family and friends to receive word soon of their trip to the White House. May God bless them.

UPDATE: Date Set for Woodrow Keeble Medal of Honor Ceremony

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Master Sergeant Woodrow Wilson Keeble, who deserved the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Korean War. He didn't get it then, but Congress last month passed a law that authorized the Medal for him now.

Yesterday, I got this comment from "atrulling:"

On March 3,2008 Woody will finally receive his Medal of Honor!!!

And indeed, that is the case. Here is part of the transcript of Friday's "gaggle" in the White House press room by spokesman Scott Stanzel:

WASHINGTON--(February 22, 2008)

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

9:34 A.M. EST

MR. STANZEL: Good morning, everyone. I was going to say, for those of you who have been traveling, welcome back -- but I'm not sure if we have anyone -- you're all well rested.

I'll go through the President's schedule today and then take your questions, and I can do the week ahead at the end.

This morning the President had his normal briefings at 8:00 a.m. And at 10:05 a.m. he's recording the radio address, and the radio address is about the urgent need for Congress to pass legislation to provide our intelligence officials all the tools that they need to protect America from terrorist attacks. So it will be focused on the Protect America Act.

Also want to note that the -- on the Northern Illinois University memorial service, last week the President offered condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the tragic campus shootings at Northern Illinois University. The President has asked Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt to serve as his personal representative at the memorial service at Northern Illinois University. And that occurs on Sunday evening, this Sunday, the 24th. So we have that.

Also another announcement, the Medal of Honor ceremony coming up will be honoring Master Sergeant Woodrow Keeble of the U.S. Army. That will be on March 3rd. The President will posthumously award the Medal of Honor to Master Sergeant Woodrow Keeble. He distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism on October 20, 1951, while serving as the acting platoon sergeant for the support platoon in Company G, 19th Infantry, near Sang San-Ni, Korea.

Q Can you spell that?

MR. STANZEL: Sang San?

Q No, his last name.

MR. STANZEL: Oh, I'm sorry; yes. Master Sergeant Woodrow Keeble, K-e-e-b-l-e.

Q Where was he from, do we know?

MR. STANZEL: I don't know that, we can get that.

Q Can you put out a background paper on this, since it's 1951 -- obviously we don't have all the relevant data.

MR. STANZEL: You don't have AP archives back to '51?

* * *

The "gaggle" is a daily briefing for the White House press corps to keep them up to date on things happening with the President and in the White House. (Those reporters need to read GeneaBlogie! In fact, so does the White House spokesman!)

Seriously, congratulations to MSgt Keeble's family and all those who kept alive the memory of his heroism.

Revealing Heroes

Like most people, I spent some time at the end of last week perusing recently passed congressional legislation. :) (What? You don't?!) Anyway, one piece of legislation that came to my attention last week was HR 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. (For those of you who really are paying attention, HR 1583 was vetoed by the President on December 28, 2007. It was reconstituted as HR 4986, addressing the President's concerns, which are not relevant to our story here. On January 22, 2008, final Congressional action was taken on HR 4986 and the bill was sent to the President. The President signed the bill on January 28, 2008. With respect to the issues addressed here, the two bills are identical).

This bill is the massive (1500+ pages) spending authorization for the Department of Defense for the coming year. In a bill this big, one can always find interesting little items that may go unnoticed by the pundits and the press.Which is exactly why I examine such bills. And in this bill, tucked in about the middle of the bill, under "Military Personnel Policy" is an interesting provision. Subtitle F of Title V of the bill, entitled "Decorations and Awards" contains sections 561-565, each of which begins, "Authorization and Request for award of Medal of Honor to . . . ." By these sections, the Congress intends to rectify historical wrongs or oversights that deprived five military men of their nation's highest honor. The legislation is brief in each case, and it doesn't tell much of the stories of these five men.

GeneaBlogie went behind the legislative language, to uncover five stories of heroism. The five heroes are Privates Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson (Civil War), Master Sgt. Woodrow W. Keeble (Korean War), and Spec. 4 Leslie H. Sabo and PFC Henry Svehla (Vietnam War). Over the next several posts, we'll will tell their true stories.