Army veteran receives medal earned in WWII
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Sixty-two years after he was almost killed by a German grenade, Army veteran Wayne T. Alderson still asks himself why he was spared while four of his good friends died.
"The first thing I am going to do if I get to heaven," Mr. Alderson said, "is ask God why I lived while they died."
Yesterday, the Canonsburg native finally received the Silver Star he had earned for combat heroism during the closing weeks of World War II in Europe. The medal is awarded for gallantry in action.
Mr. Alderson, now 80, and his wife, Nancy, have lived for many years in Pleasant Hills.
In 1945, he was 18 and a private first class, serving as a scout with the 7th Infantry Regiment of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. In March, his unit had broken through German defensive positions, known as the Siegfried Line, when they faced a heavy counterattack.
"You are going to get killed," Mr. Alderson said a friend from Canonsburg had warned him a few days earlier. "You are too reckless."
His friend, Joe Stankowski, had arranged a transfer for him into a safer job in his own unit, but Mr. Alderson declined to go.
"I said I am not going to leave my buddies," he recalled.
When the Germans counterattacked with tanks, Mr. Stankowski's position was overrun, and he was killed. His was the first of several deaths that left Mr. Alderson the lone survivor among five soldiers in what he called his "band of brothers."
The death that hit him hardest was that of his friend "Red" Preston, a 22-year-old from Derry, N.H.
"To this day, I still have dreams about it," he said.
His strong memories of that day include firing at and killing the German soldier who hurled the grenade at his position. He remembers the explosion that left him with shrapnel wounds to the head and Mr. Preston bracing him as he was falling.
"He said, 'Don't worry. ... I'm with you,' " Mr. Alderson recalled. German snipers were shooting at anything that moved, and his friend used his body to protect him. "He put himself between the sniper and me."
Mr. Preston was hit in the head and died.
"I was like a wild man -- an animal," Mr. Alderson said, recalling his friend's death.
Despite his own serious wounds, he began firing back at the Germans. In field reports written after the engagement, he was credited with breaking the enemy assault.
Still facing deadly danger from snipers, he had to crawl to an aid station. His head wounds were so severe that he was pronounced dead at one point. He spent parts of the next eight years in military hospitals. He credits his wife, the former Nancy Holt, with helping him turn his life around. They have been married since 1953.
Mr. Alderson received his long-delayed medal yesterday from U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, and retired Air Force Major Al Smith, representing U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle. D-Forest Hills. The ceremony was held in the Soldiers & Sailors National Military Museum & Memorial in Oakland.
Mr. Alderson, a longtime labor-management consultant, is in line for a second honor next week. He is part of a group of distinguished veterans being inducted into the memorial's Hall of Valor on Memorial Day.
Mr. Alderson is the subject of "Stronger Than Steel," a book by R.C. Sproul. The volume tells the story of Mr. Alderson's career as what he calls a "labor-management peacemaker."
First Published May 20, 2007 10:52 pm
