Medal of Honor holder gets presidential nod
By Peter Sachs / The Bulletin
 Oregon's only living Medal of Honor recipient Robert Maxwell, left, of Bend, greets fellow World War II veteran Nick Grego, of New York City, at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Photo by Peter Sachs/The Bulletin. |
On hands and knees, he groped for the grenade, hoping to toss it back over the wall. But he didn't find it until the last second, wedging it between his right foot and the base of the wall when it exploded.
"Waking up after I was knocked out by the grenade, I was alone - there was nobody there," Maxwell, 85, said Sunday, sitting in the marble, air-conditioned lobby of a hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C. The Bend resident was in the nation's capital on Memorial Day to meet a U.S. president personally, one of his greatest dreams.
Under siege from the Germans on Sept. 7, 1944, in the French town of Besancon, near the Swiss border, Maxwell's battalion had moved out.
His commander was about to leave when he regained consciousness.
"We missed being captured by less than three minutes," Maxwell said. "Either captured or killed, one or the other."
Maxwell took the brunt of the grenade's explosion. It ripped away part of his right foot and the muscle of his left bicep. It also gave him a concussion when a piece of shrapnel slammed into his left temple. He spent almost a year recovering from his wounds.
His action likely saved the lives of three other soldiers in the courtyard that night, and for that Maxwell received the Medal of Honor, the rarest and most prestigious of American combat medals.
Today, Maxwell is the only living Medal of Honor recipient in Oregon, and one of only 113 in the nation who are still alive.
But contrary to custom, Maxwell never received the medal personally from the president. He got it from a general instead, while recovering in Colorado. Maxwell's citation was on President Franklin D. Roosevelt's desk at the time of the president's death, and it then slipped through the cracks. So despite sitting as a guest of honor at every presidential inauguration since Dwight D. Eisenhower's, save John F. Kennedy's, Maxwell had never met a president face to face until Monday morning.
It took a small letter-writing campaign and the help of U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., to finally get Maxwell and President Bush in the same room at the same time.
Bend software developer Rick Douthit jump-started the process last year. While helping the veteran create a family DVD, he learned of Maxwell's dream of meeting the president.
Several other veterans at Bend's American Legion post got involved in the effort as well. In mid-March, they sent a letter to the White House with their request for Maxwell and other Medal of Honor recipients to finally receive their medals from the president.
It was only a week ago, on May 22, that Maxwell found out that he would travel to Washington to meet face to face with a president on Memorial Day.
"He had a level of excitement in his voice that I've never heard," Douthit said.
On Monday morning, Maxwell shook hands and was photographed in the White House with President Bush. He then went to the wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery.
"This is one of the greatest honors of my life," Maxwell said.
Later, in the shade overlooking the tomb and with his wife, Bea, at his side, Maxwell looked on through the rising late-morning heat. President Bush stepped slowly forward to place the wreath, bursting with red, white and blue carnations, in front of the Tomb of the Unknowns.
As Bush turned and walked up the 18 steps into the Memorial Amphitheater, Maxwell waved.
Bush noticed and gave Maxwell a thumbs-up in return.