Bronze Star

Julius Gordon, a combat medic who worehis World War II decorations on his deathbed, died Wednesday of respiratory failure at Cherrywood Healthcare and Rehabilitation Centre in Reisterstown. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 79.Mr. Gordon, known as Jules, enlisted in the Army in 1940. In 1942, he was shipped overseas to the Pacific Theater of operations where he was assigned as a medic to a Marine Corps unit and saw action at Guadalcanal and Bougainville Island.After being discharged in 1945, he returned to Baltimore and owned and operated a wholesale produce business until opening Gordon's Package Goods at Carey and Mosher streets.

Edward H. "Ham" Welbourn Jr., a retired insurance executive and World War II veteran, died April 29 of complications from dementia at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 98. The son of Edward H. Welbourn, who owned Rennous Kleinle Brush Manufacturers in Catonsville, and Emma Dawson Welbourn, a homemaker, Edward Hambleton Welbourn was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville. After graduating in 1934 from the Gilman School, Mr. Welbourn enrolled at Haverford College, where he was a government major and earned a bachelor's degree in 1938.

NEW YORK - Bob Kerrey, a former U.S. senator, has acknowledged that a combat mission in Vietnam for which he was awarded the Bronze Star caused the deaths of 13 to 20 unarmed civilians, most of them women and children. Days before an investigation of his role in the incident was to be published in the New York Times Magazine, Kerrey described his version of the events in interviews with two other newspapers and in a speech. The Times' magazine investigation was carried out jointly with "60 Minutes II," the CBS News program.

William C. Ensor Jr., a retired estate manager and decorated World War II veteran, died Feb. 13 of heart failure at Lorien Mays Chapel. He was 91. The son of farmers, William Clark Ensor Jr. was born in Monkton and later moved with his family to Ruxton, where his father farmed in what is now the Four Winds neighborhood. Mr. Ensor attended Towson High School and enlisted in the Army in 1943, where he served with the 78th Infantry "Lightning" Division in the European theater. Mr. Ensor took part in the Battle of the Bulge and in the capture, intact, of the strategically important Schwammenauel Dam that spanned the Roer River.

Nearly 60 years after he was severely wounded on a World War II battlefield, Stanley Hamilton Jr. accepted one of the nation's most prestigious combat medals yesterday. Hamilton, 78, received the Bronze Star, engraved with his name, in a brief ceremony at Westminster's County Office Building. He was a reconnaissance scout for his platoon and continued his mission even after German tanks destroyed the Allied tanks he was using for cover. In the ensuing battle, he lost part of a lung and sustained injuries that partially paralyzed his left arm and shoulder.

Navy Lt. Melvin Spence Dry dropped out of a helicopter into choppy waters off the coast of North Vietnam in June 1972. On a highly classified mission to rescue two escaped American prisoners of war, he died the moment he hit the water. But because the mission was top-secret, Dry's valor went officially unrecognized. No medals, no commendations and no place of honor among the fallen at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated in 1968. Even his parents were told that he died in a training exercise.

Charles A. Cusumano told his children of the hardships he experienced during World War II, but he had never called himself a war hero until now.More than half a century ago, Cusumano spent three months repairing war planes in New Guinea, suffering a lack of food, bouts of malaria and dengue fever, and an enemy attack that left him with three fractured vertebrae.Yesterday, Cusumano received the Bronze Star his war buddies there got in 1944.Wearing a light blue sport coat and a tie decorated with the stars and stripes, Cusumano stood at attention before a battery of flags in the office of Col. John D. Frketic, garrison commander at Fort Meade.

Charles Sussman, a retired Baltimore County public schools administrator who was a decorated World War II veteran, died of congestive heart failure Wednesday at Sinai Hospital. He was 85 and lived in Pikesville. Born in Baltimore and raised on Bryant Avenue near Druid Hill Park, he worked as a cashier at the popular delicatessen Sussman and Lev, at 923 E. Baltimore St., which was operated by his father, Jacob. While attending City College, where he graduated in 1942, Mr. Sussman befriended Russell Baker, who went on to become a Baltimore Sun reporter, New York Times columnist and author.

Nearly 40 years ago, Lloyd E. Jones took a bullet for his country. He was only 23 years old, an engine man on a boat patrolling Vietnam's Mekong Delta, when his crew came under attack. For three months, he clung to life in military hospitals, hoping to return to his parents and two younger siblings in Pasadena. But the wounds were too serious, and Jones died in the spring of 1969. Over the years, LeRoy Jones never stopped thinking about his older brother, with whom he briefly served in the Navy before Lloyd Jones went to Vietnam.

Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr. and Charles Shyab both earned the Bronze Star for their valor in battle, but neither soldier collected his medal. At a recent ceremony at Fort Meade, the two veterans, who served in battles more than two decades apart, stood together and received the Bronze Star, awarded for valor and meritorious service. Officials also awarded each a congressional citation and an American flag that has flown over the Capitol against a background of plaudits from a U.S. senator, Army officers and a roomful of young soldiers.

John Morgan "Nemo" Robinson, a retired operator of a Chesapeake Bay summer resort and decorated World War II veteran, died Saturday of a heart attack at Anne Arundel Medical Center after undergoing brain surgery a week earlier. The Severna Park resident was 90. Born and raised in Catonsville, he was a 1938 graduate of Catonsville High School and spent another year at Polytechnic Institute. He gained the nickname Nemo as a child because he had long blond curls like a lion in the "Little Nemo" comic strip.

Raymond Griffith Sinclair Jr., a retired Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. executive who was a decorated World War II Marine, died Monday of congestive heart failure at Stella Maris Hospice. He was 92. Born and raised in Collingswood, N.J., Mr. Sinclair was a 1938 graduate of the Pennington School in Pennington, N.J. Mr. Sinclair interrupted his college studies at Washington College to enlist in 1942 in the Marine Corps. After being commissioned a second lieutenant in 1944, he joined the 4th Marine Division in the Pacific.

Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr. and Charles Shyab both earned the Bronze Star for their valor in battle, but neither soldier collected his medal. At a recent ceremony at Fort Meade, the two veterans, who served in battles more than two decades apart, stood together and received the Bronze Star, awarded for valor and meritorious service. Officials also awarded each a congressional citation and an American flag that has flown over the Capitol against a background of plaudits from a U.S. senator, Army officers and a roomful of young soldiers.

Two Army veterans, who tended to comrades injured in battle in wars that were more than two decades apart, received long overdue military honors Friday before an audience of family, friends and some 200 members of the Armed Forces at Fort Meade. Dr. Charles E. Rath Jr., an Army captain and surgeon 67 years ago during World War II, and Charles Shyab, a medic during the Vietnam War 45 years ago, both received the Bronze Star from Col. Jeremy Martin, commandant of the Defense Information School at the Army post in Anne Arundel County.

John Y. Crow, a retired salesman of dairy products and a decorated World War II veteran, died of complications from pneumonia April 8 at Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in Southern Maryland. He was 89 and had lived in North Baltimore. Born in Uniontown, Pa., and raised in Towson, he was a 1941 graduate of Towson High School. He earned an animal husbandry degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he also attended a Reserve Officers' Training Corps program. He went into military service in the Army.

Thomas W. Brundige III, a retired lawyer and decorated World War II veteran, died Aug. 31 of respiratory failure at Keswick Multi-Care Center in Baltimore. The former longtime Stevenson resident was 90. The son of a lawyer and a homemaker, Thomas Worthington Brundige III was born in Baltimore and raised on Winston Avenue in Govans. After graduating from City College in 1938, he enrolled at the Johns Hopkins University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1942. While at Hopkins, he completed reserve officers training, was commissioned a second lieutenant and entered the Army.

Louis Rice Witt Jr., a retired petroleum equipment executive and decorated World War II veteran, died of congestive heart failure Sunday at Union Memorial Hospital. The Catonsville resident was 84. Born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and earned a degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He joined the Army and landed at Marseille, France, in October 1944. He served in an infantry unit that was trucked to the front near Baccarat in the Lorraine province.

James Keefe Donahue, former president and CEO of Industrial Shows of America Inc. who also was producer of the International Auto Show and Chesapeake Bay Boat Show, died June 23 of heart failure at Good Samaritan Hospital. The Lutherville resident was 88. Mr. Donahue was born and raised in Arlington, Mass., and was a 1942 graduate of Belmont High School. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and served with an infantry unit in Europe, receiving a battlefield commission. At the Battle of the Bulge, he established a roadblock that held off the advance of a German unit.