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Wilbur Lewis Finally Receives His Soldier’s Medal – Six
Decades Later
Sojourner’s Staff
He waited 64 years to
receive his Soldier’s Medal for individual heroism, but on
Wednesday, October 28, during a ceremony in which he was
surrounded by his wife and children, Wilbur Lewis finally
achieved the long overdue recognition for his bravery and
quick-thinking action on June 6, 1956 when he saved a fellow
soldier’s life.
Lewis, a private first
class, a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne
Division, had returned home from Korea where he earned a
Purple Heart when he was wounded in action, having been hit
in the face with shrapnel. He was stationed at Fort Bragg in
North Carolina where the young paratrooper continued his
service.
“Like floating on a
cloud,” he has said of the sensation he feels after the
chute opens. During a practice jump, a fellow soldier’s
parachute failed to open and the soldier dropped rapidly,
hitting Lewis’ chute and falling into Lewis grasp.
“His chute collapsed or
something,” said Lewis years later recounting the dramatic
events. “So I grabbed him and told him ‘we would go down
together.’” The two continued their drop, falling, as Lewis
recalled, “twice as fast, maybe 10 times as fast,” as their
fellow paratroopers. But they hit the ground uninjured.
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