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Warren WWII Navy officer gets long-overdue Purple Heart
SEE ALSO: FREE MEALS/DEALS FOR VETS
WARREN
It was Atty. David R. Chenoweth’s day.
On Saturday, his family pulled off a surprise 93rd birthday celebration at which he was presented the Purple Heart he earned on Iwo Jima during World War II but had never received.
Family and friends gathered at Enzo’s Restaurant to celebrate and honor Chenoweth, a well-known retired attorney and vice president and trust officer for the former Union Savings and Trust Co.
Mayor William D. Franklin presented him with a proclamation declaring Nov. 8 as “David Chenoweth Day” in the city.
Chenoweth enlisted in the Navy on April 28, 1942, and was commissioned an ensign in 1943. Assigned to the Fleet Marine Force, Pacific, he was promoted to lieutenant and saw action against Japanese forces at Kwajalein, Guam, Peleliu and Iwo Jima while serving aboard the USS Denver, a Cleveland class light cruiser.
Chenoweth received numerous decorations, including the Bronze Star, which after the war in 1950 was replaced with a Silver Star by the secretary of the Navy.
But it was the medal he didn’t receive, the Purple Heart, that perhaps best revealed his heroism.
A Purple Heart is awarded to an armed forces member who is killed or wounded in action.
By 1945, Chenoweth was assigned to the 5th Marine Division, which saw its first combat during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Chenoweth, a naval gunfire liaison officer, landed with the Marines, and on Feb. 20, was seriously wounded by shrapnel from an enemy mortar shell while coordinating naval gunfire.
Chenoweth refused to be evacuated and continued to perform his duties that day and through the night. Under heavy enemy fire and suffering painful wounds, he directed the fire of naval vessels until his unit’s attack on Mount Suribachi was complete.
To this day, Chenoweth carries a physical reminder of that battle: shrapnel embedded in his left shoulder.
What he didn’t have, until it was presented to him Saturday, was the Purple Heart, the timely awarding of which his family believes fell through the cracks when he left active duty Jan. 20, 1946, and transferred to the Naval Reserve. He retired on Aug. 1, 1959, as a lieutenant commander.
But Chenoweth wasn’t only a warrior for his country. He was a businessman, attorney, community leader and teacher.
Born in Cleveland, he graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and from the University of Michigan Law School in 1948. That year, he was admitted to the Ohio Bar, moved to Warren and was hired by Union Savings.
A member of First Presbyterian Church of Warren for more than 50 years, he has served on the boards of the Warren Salvation Army and Oakwood Cemetery Association. He taught real-estate law at Kent State University at Trumbull.
Chenoweth also is a family man.
He and his wife, Olwen “Babs” Chenoweth, who died Aug. 21, 1989, were married May 12, 1945.
They raised three children: daughters Mary Ramba of Cocoa, Fla., and Constance Davis of Warren, with whom he makes his home; and a son, Richard of Howland. He has seven grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.
Chenoweth’s children planned the celebration, and his daughter, Constance, with the assistance of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office, arranged for him to receive his long-overdue Purple Heart.
The award was presented by Herman Breuer, director and service officer of the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission, and Gary Gutelius, who has a Purple Heart and is a member of the commission.
When asked how it felt to finally have the medal, Chenoweth said, “Well, I’m the same guy.” Then, turning to his son, he added: I only wish your mother could be here.”
He said he knew he was entitled to receive the medal, “but never got around to it.”
Of getting the medal, Chenoweth said modestly, “I can’t say that I’m a hero. I just kind of did what was asked of me.” He survived his injuries and the war, he contended, because he “just had a lot of luck.”
Chenoweth expressed appreciation for Saturday’s recognition and party, saying, “What an evening. I’ll remember this forever. This celebration is something. I’m so completely surprised.”
Ramba, Chenoweth’s oldest daughter, said of her dad: “If you asked him a question about the war, he would keep you there forever,” but no gruesome details, just the events in the order in which they happened.
Ramba said one of her fondest memories was going for rides and driving through cemeteries all over Ohio with her father.
“I would get a history lesson, and he’d start talking about things that happened during his childhood. It was great fun. You couldn’t find a better, kinder dad,” she said.