David Rubitsky

Rubitsky fought in the New Guinea campaign as a communications sergeant in Company E, Second Battalion, 128th Regiment, 32nd Infantry Division. According to Rubitsky, on December 1–2, 1942 during the Battle of Buna, he singlehandedly defended a bunker with a ".30-cal. machine gun, a .45-cal. pistol, a rifle and grenades." Allegedly, he beat off the Japanese after a 21-hour battle in which he killed 500 to 600 of the enemy, including wounded men he later shot or bayoneted. Afterward, his company commander, Captain Joseph M. Stehling, surveyed the site and recommended Rubitsky for the Medal of Honor. Stehling's superior, battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Herbert A. Smith, passed the recommendation along to Colonel John W. Mott, the division's chief of staff who was temporarily in command of three regiments, including Rubitsky's unit. According to Smith, Mott stated, "You mean a Jew for the Congressional Medal of Honor?", then "just laughed and walked away." By the reckoning of the Jewish War Veterans of America, only two were awarded to Jews during World War II. Rubitsky did not receive a lesser award either. After the war, Rubitsky joined the merchant marine. More than 30 years later, he settled down in Milton, Wisconsin. ==Investigation==

During a 1986 reunion of the 128th Regiment, Rubitsky's former commanders discovered he had not been awarded the Medal of Honor. Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, Retired Major General Herbert Smith provided a statement of his recollections, supporting Rubitsky. Rubitsky also obtained an old photograph taken from the body of a Japanese officer during the war; the inscription in Japanese on the back purports to have been written by a Colonel Yamamoto, who supposedly planned to commit suicide for his part in an attack in which "600 fine Japanese soldiers died because of a solitary American soldier." Most of Rubitsky's supporters accepted the decision. However, Joseph Stehling responded by stating, "The Army can say what it wants, but let me say this: The stench of those decaying bodies that day in the jungle stayed with me for years." As a result, he was made an honorary Member of the Order of the British Empire. ==Death==

Rubitsky died on June 28, 2013, at the age of 96 in East Moline, Illinois. ==References==