FAIRCHANCE, Pa. — Many people know they have family members who served in the military, but sometimes you don’t know how involved they were. One Fayette county woman found out through letters; she was the niece of a war hero and a Medal of Honor recipient. Carolyn McKinney never met her uncle, Alfred L. Wilson, who served as a medic in World War II.
“This was written in September, October 19, 1944, he says to my mother; ‘I haven’t as yet received any boxes, and I don’t think we’ll get them to Christmas,” said Carolyn McKinney. ”I know God will take care of us. I really have changed my way of living, and we do all I can for God now, and when I get home,” McKinney said while reading from the letter. She then paused, looked up, and said, “Unfortunately, he never made it home to make good on that promise.”
She knew little about him before she was given a box of 90 old letters written to her mother. A.L. Wilson received the nation’s highest military decoration, the medal of honor for saving at least ten men after being attacked in France. He has injured himself but refused to leave the battlefield until the other men were given medical attention. Wilson eventually was unable to help others and gave other men commands on how to take care of injured soldiers before he lost consciousness.
Over the Memorial Day weekend in Fairchance, community members of the small town in Fayette County dedicated two new plaques to commemorate A.L. Wilson’s actions after finding it weathered, worn, and forgotten.
Fellow veteran Chuck Dean admires the sacrifice; “Drag yourself from one body to the other and then finally get so weak that you’re just giving commands, tells me a lot about his character so the more we worked, it was like a labor of love. In WWII thousands of Fayette Countians went to war, and he’s the only one that got the Congressional Medal of Honor, that is saying something right there.”
The Medal of Honor museum estimates more than 3,500 men and women were awarded the only military medal worn around the neck. According to Solider and Sailors Museum, Western Pennsylvania has thousands of veterans and 83 Medal of Honor recipients, 40 from Allegheny County. The soldiers who were given the medals span over seven different conflicts, from the Civil to the Iraq War.
Carolyn McKinney hopes people take the time to learn about their family history; “his DNA is still my DNA, it is my children’s DNA it’s part of who we are.”
Since learning about her war hero uncle, she wrote a book with his letters to honor him and included interviews with fellow soldiers who knew her uncle. This Memorial Day, which many people think of ]as a day off, she hopes people remember those like her uncle who gave the greatest sacrifice.
“He’d never got to wear that ribbon of blue,” said Carolyn McKinney. “So it’s very important because these are the men that this generation and our generation should be looking at for role models.”
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