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Nation Honoring Veterans of World War II
Ceremonies begin at new memorial
and around the nation
May 27, 2004 – The celebration of the World War II
Memorial has begun and veterans of that war are being recognized at the
new memorial in Washington D.C. and around the United States. Here are
stories on two heroes being recognized.
Highly Decorated Female World War II Hero
Honored
 United
Airlines Hosts Reception for Lillian Kinkela Keil Celebrating her Brave
Service to the Nation and as a Flight Attendant
Capt. Lillian Kinkela Keil began her career as a
student nurse in San Francisco and shortly thereafter became a flight
attendant for United Airlines, which honored her at a reception
yesterday, for her heroic service during WW II.
To combine two of her passions - flying and caring
for people - Capt. Keil joined the Army Air Corps as a flight nurse to
serve in World War II. During that time, she flew 250 air evacuation
missions and 25 transatlantic flights, many in extraordinarily dangerous
conditions, including to Normandy during the D-Day invasions, where she
helped evacuate wounded soldiers from the front lines.
She was also part of a team that followed General
George Patton's Army across France with a cargo of crucial supplies like
gasoline, ammunition and weapons. After the war, Capt. Keil returned to
her previous job as a flight attendant for United Airlines.
In 1950, she returned to active duty for the Korean
war as one of only 30 flight nurses, and clocked another 175 missions.
She flew with the First Marine Air Wing and the Kyushi Gypsies to the
Chosin Reservoir, tending to Marines who had been trapped there,
severely wounded, cold and horribly frostbitten, some with only
blackened bone stubs for fingers and toes.
Through it all, Lillian won the hearts and touched
the lives of countless service men. A mother of two daughters and a
grandmother of four, Capt. Keil resides just outside of Los Angeles.
Sixty years after nomination, veteran gets
Silver Star at WWII memorial
 WASHINGTON,
D.C. (Army News Service, May 26, 2004) - As a lieutenant with the French
Resistance, Michel Thomas battled tyranny alongside American troops as
an attached member of the 45th Infantry Division in World War II.
Thomas was nominated for the Silver Star in 1944.
Now 90, he finally has it.
Former Sen. Robert Dole and Sen. John Warner, both
WWII veterans, presented Thomas with the Army's third-highest award for
combat valor at the National World War II Memorial May 25.
"It's taken 60 years," Dole noted of the medal and
official recognition of Thomas' contributions to the allied victory.
"I'm honored to be in his presence."
The private ceremony also included Thomas' adult
children, Micheline and Gurion; WWII comrades Theodore Kraus and Bedford
Groves; and French Ambassador Jean-David Levitte.
Thomas, whose family was killed by Nazis at
Auschwitz, survived two years of slave labor and deportation camps in
Vichy, France, before joining the French Forces of the Interior, Marquis
Commando Group. He fought with them for two years before being attached
to the Army's 1st Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment of the 45th ID.
From August to September 1944, Thomas led
reconnaissance patrols into enemy territory - sometimes three a day and
sometimes alone, without regard for his own safety - to get information
to help allied forces, the award citation said.
"Lt. Thomas was instrumental in capturing many
enemy prisoners whom he personally interrogated and obtained much vital
information,'' said Dole, reading the citation. "His fluent knowledge of
various languages was beneficial in interrogating enemy prisoners and
capturing slave laborers and French civilians."
Levitte thanked Thomas for his service, as well as
the United States.
"From the bottom of my heart, I thank you," the
ambassador said. "The American people saved France twice. We will never
forget."
Thomas expressed gratitude in return, not just to
Levitte, but also to the senators, his comrades and others whose work
led to the medal presentation, such as Alex Kline, a San Francisco
private investigator, and Robert Wolfe, a retired senior archivist with
the U.S. National Archives. Sen. John McCain, who couldn't attend
because of scheduling conflicts, and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney acted on
Thomas' behalf by asking the Army to revisit the award recommendation in
September 2003.
"It is with great pride that I stand here with you
today, and with our fellow comrades in that worthy battle to defend both
freedom and the sanctity of human life,'' Thomas said, reading his
prepared remarks. "I am deeply moved and humbled by this gesture from
each of you, and immensely honored to receive this recognition from the
United States of America. Thank you."
Afterwards, Thomas said he was deeply moved by
receiving the medal, especially at the memorial, and with all of the
people who traveled to witness the presentation.
Kraus, who witnessed many of Thomas' deeds as a
Counter Intelligence Corps agent and commander, came from Connecticut
for the ceremony. He was elated to see his friend honored after all this
time.
"I've had tears in my eyes all day," Kraus said.
"It's the culmination of a great effort by many people."
Gurion Thomas said that while his father has shared
the stories of his service over the years, he never held any bitterness
or regret that the Silver Star nomination didn't move forward, until
now.
"He did not fight for medals, that's why he didn't
pursue it,'' said Gurion Thomas. "He felt that fighting with the U.S.
forces was honor enough. He's always said the American Army is the best
fighting force in the world and he was honored to serve with them."
Momentum for the award started building about two
years ago, after a reporter for the Los Angeles Times wrote an article
about Thomas' biography, "Test of Courage," by Christopher Robbins. The
book recounts a number of incredible feats by Thomas: his 1943 escape
from Klaus Barbie, known as the Butcher of Lyon, and his later testimony
against Barbie in his 1987 war crimes trial; and his participation in
the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp, where Thomas
interrogated and photographed workers with ithen-Lt. Col. Wilson Gibson,
who died in 1947 in New Orleans.
Robbins also described Thomas following a truck
convoy to a paper mill near Munich in May 1945, where he prevented the
Nazi Party's worldwide membership card file and other Third Reich
documents from being destroyed; and how, in 1946, Thomas and Kraus
together captured Gustav Knittel, a notorious war criminal who was
eventually convicted for his role in the Malmedy massacre of American
prisoners of war at the Battle of the Bulge.
Thomas, and many others, believed the Times'
article attacked his reputation by questioning the credibility of his
accounts. That's when Kline, the private investigator, got involved.
Although Thomas had many documents to back up his claims, Kline's
research unearthed more and led to Wolfe, who examined the documents
Thomas still had in his possession and verified their authenticity.
Wolfe also wrote a paper that described how Thomas was responsible for
saving the documents, which were instrumental in the iNuremberg war
crimes trials and became the centerpiece of the Berlin Document Center.
Wolfe said he and others knew a CIC agent save the
records from being destroyed, but the agent's identity was a mystery
until he was asked to verify Thomas' account. Wolfe said he made it a
point not to meet or speak to Thomas, who was a stranger to him, until
the day Thomas delivered the documents he still had possession of.
"One of the documents had Heinrich Himmler's
signature,'' Wolfe said, referring to the Nazi general who headed Adolph
Hitler's secret police. "I ran my fingers over it and the raised
signature told me it was original. I looked at Michel and said 'You're
the guy.'"
The two have since become friends. Any suggestion
that Thomas lied or exaggerated about his history makes Wolfe bristle.
"He did a job few of us did, or could have done,"
said Wolfe, also a WWII veteran. "And I'm a twice-wounded infantryman."
Thomas sued the Times and the reporter who wrote
the "Larger Than Life" article for libel, but a judge dismissed the suit
before it went to trial, ruling that the article was more of a
commentary piece than a hard news story, and protected by the First
Amendment since Thomas was a public figure.
The Silver Star and all of the ceremony surrounding
it is vindication for his father, Gurion Thomas said.
"To be honored finally by the U.S. government and
military means a lot right now,'' he said.
Kline agreed. After three years of working to
repair Thomas' reputation and getting congressional leaders involved in
the medal pursuit, Kline felt exhilarated as he watched Warner pin the
star to Thomas' chest.
"All of the delays actually worked in our favor,"
Kline said. "We're here in front of the World War II memorial. There's
just no better place to do this. And to have it presented five days
before the dedication by the man (Dole) who spearheaded the effort to
get it built is just incredible."
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