He joined the Army when he was old enough, but then the World War II ended before he saw combat.  Returning home, he worked hard as an auto-mechanic and married his sweetheart...a young Japanese girl who had spent the war in an American Internment camp.  Then came Korea and, though he had already "served his time", he served once again.

One dark night he faced the enemy alone, fighting them hand to hand to allow the rest of his soldiers to withdraw to safety.  Somehow he survived both the darkness and the enemy, only to be captured.  Twenty-eight months as a prisoner of war followed, nights of torment when he imagined that he would one day be released by the enemy and courts martialed by his own country for loosing so many of his soldiers.  The young corporal didn't realize how many lives his lone stand in the darkness had saved.  At home the story of his heroism couldn't be told for fear his captors would kill him.  Only upon his release did he learn that his name had been added to the list of our Nation's greatest heroes.