Recipients of the Medal of Honor were in the news recently, and not in a pleasant way. One of the few remaining recipients of the Vietnam War, David Dolby, died. The Pennsylvania native was 64, making him one of the younger living heroes.
I was fortunate to have met him in Albuquerque in 1989. I recall him as a not very talkative person, but we conversed during the three-day weekend.
He was a young machine-gunner in 1966 when his unit came under enemy fire. During the four-hour firefight he dragged several wounded comrades to safety while firing at the enemy. He was credited with killing three enemy machine-gunners and crawling to within 50 feet of enemy bunkers to throw smoke grenades to mark them for air strikes.
Military life must have appealed to him as he served five tours in Vietnam and married a Vietnamese wife who died several years ago.
He died in his sleep while on vacation in Idaho.
A year after his action the award was draped around his neck by President Lyndon B. Johnson. He did not make a career of the Army but returned to his native Pennsylvania to work in the construction trade.
In 1999 he was one of 20 recipients who attended a Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City. All were offered a visit to Fort Leavenworth, but only two of them accepted. He was not one of them, and as far as I know he never visited this area.
The other recipient newsmaker received his award during the Indian Wars. He was Pvt. James Sumner of the 1st Cavalry, and his citation is typical of Indian War write-ups. It says only “Gallantry in action.”
A national TV program expanded that only a tad by saying that he saved a child from drowning in a river in Arizona. Not sure where the gallantry would be in that if no enemy forces were involved.
The TV announcement got a bit murky. It said his award was presented in 1903 by Civil War hero and later president U.S. Grant. That would have been a bit hard as he died in 1885.
The Medal of Honor book cleared things up with his deed having been done in 1869. It was presented on Valentine’s Day, 1870, which could have been done by Grant.
I think 1903 is the year he died. He was buried in California in a private cemetery north of Los Angeles that held 3,000 graves. All upright tombstones have been removed as have many of the remains.
Sumner’s remains and tombstone are still there, which is the reason he was in the news. It seems the former cemetery has been renovated into a dog walk, and this old hero’s grave is being walked over by rich peoples’ dogs.
The property belongs to a park and recreation department, and the director was quoted on TV as saying “We’re treating him pretty darn well except for the poop.”
Doesn’t sound like pretty darn well treatment to me. And it may not be cleared up real soon as the seven-acre area is valued at $4 million. That’s a pretty expensive dog walk park in my book.
I never saw this in the papers and it was only on TV once. Ergo I have no update, but with a $4 million price tag I doubt this dilemma will be solved in the near future. Sounds like sad treatment for a hero. But I understand the bottom line, and four mil is a pretty hefty line.
John Reichley is a retired Army officer and retired Department of the Army civilian employee.
