WWII soldier from western NY OK’d for posthumous medals

By

The Associated Press

Follow Military Times
FILE – This 1940 Valley Bugle yearbook file photo provided by the Gowanda Central School District in Gowanda, N.Y., shows World War II veteran Carroll Heath. Sisters Barbara Thompson Hutchinson and Joyce Thompson Vallone have long known that their distant cousin Heath died in the Philippines during World War II and his remains were never recovered. What they didn’t know until recently is that the young Army private from western New York died while in captivity, one of thousands of Americans to die in Japanese hands after the fall of the Philippines in 1942. It was a revelation that brought Hutchinson to tears. (Courtesy of Gowanda Central School District via AP, File)

GOWANDA, N.Y. — Military officials say medals have been posthumously authorized for a soldier from western New York who died while a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II.

Army officials notified Barbara Hutchinson of Gowanda last month that her cousin, Pvt. Carroll Heath, was entitled to nine decorations, including the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Prisoner of War Medal.

Heath enlisted in the Army after graduating from Gowanda High School in 1940. He was sent to the Philippines, where the Army says he died in late 1942 while a prisoner of the Japanese. His burial place is unknown.

Information on Heath didn’t emerge until earlier this year after a classmate of Heath’s and the classmate’s son noticed his name had been left off the WWII memorial in Gowanda. His name will be added this year.

About 

The Associated Press