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Former Warren educator Albert Rich honored posthumously with Bronze Star Medal
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Atty. Gary Rich hoped he would be able to honor his father, Albert Rich, with the Bronze Star Medal his father earned while serving as a machine gunner in the Army in the Philippines and New Guinea during World War II.
But Albert Rich died at age 90 on Jan. 3 this year, a short time before officials were able to deliver the medal.
Monday, at the Warren offices of U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, Albert Rich was honored posthumously with the medal, which is the fourth-highest award for bravery, heroism or meritorious service in the armed forces.
“At least he has it today,” Gary Rich said after the presentation by Maj. Brian Crock with the Ohio Army National Guard, range operations manager at Camp Ravenna.
Gary Rich said his father was a humble man and probably would not have wanted to attend Monday’s ceremony. But he survived despite his time in combat, endured a great deal and was a target of the enemy by virtue of being a machine gunner in 1944-45.
Albert Rich, who worked 34 years as an elementary-school principal at four Warren schools, was a Campbell native.
According to research from Herman Breuer, director and service officer of the Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission, Albert Rich was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge, Asiatic Pacific Theater medal with one bronze service star, Philippine Liberation Ribbon with one bronze service star and the Good Conduct Medal for fighting in Luzon, Philippines, and New Guinea.
The Bronze Star was created in 1944 to honor ground troops, who suffered “the heaviest losses ... in the Army” and led “miserable lives of extreme discomfort.” They engaged “in personal combat with the enemy,” Breuer said.
“He said he didn’t take a bath for six months,” Gary Rich said of his father. “The clothes rotted off his back.”
Ryan said the Bronze Star Medal “is a way to remember” such veterans “in the spirit of what they gave to us.”
“His grandchildren will reflect on what he did — giving, suffering, all the things they went through,” Ryan said.