August 9, 2000
Tiffin man awarded 50-year Korean War medal
By Jefferson Wolfe
Staff Writer
A Tiffin veteran was awarded a 50-year Korean War commemorative medal, to go with the Combat Infantryman's Badge, Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts he earned in two wars.
Richard C. Ward received the medal Tuesday at Ruffing Family Care Center, where he resides. Representatives from the Seneca County Veterans Service Commission presented the medal.
Seneca County Veterans Service Commissioner David Young said Ward was one of 103,000 soldiers wounded in Korea. Another 53,00 were killed.
Ward said he was grateful for the presentation.
"Gentleman, I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you've done," he said as he choked back tears.
Ward spent a total of 5 1/2 years in the U.S. Army in two different stints and was wounded in combat twice. During World War II, he was injured in Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge and during the Korean War, he was wounded during a Heartbreak Ridge battle.
Ward is a graduate of Columbian High School.
"I graduated in '42 and went in right after I graduated," he said. He went to basic training at Ft. Hood, Texas, and then was sent to Europe as an infantryman.
"I fought with General Patton," Ward said. He was wounded Christmas Eve, 1945, while in combat in Bastogne, Belgium.
Ward was hospitalized, but recovered and came home to Tiffin and got a job as a police officer in 1946.
In 1950, Ward received a letter signed by President Harry S. Truman to return to active duty.
"I went down to Ft. Knox, Ky., and took a little refresher course," he said. After that, he was sent to Korea and back into combat.
He was a first sergeant of an infantry company during a Heartbreak Ridge battle in early September 1951, when he earned his Bronze Star.
"We were going up Heartbreak Ridge," Ward said. "The enemy &emdash; the North Koreans &emdash; were in a pillbox on top of the hill."
Ward's company was assigned to take the hill. It had 45 men, of whom three were killed. One of the tactics the North Koreans used was rolling hand grenades down the hill into the Americans.
"Me and another sergeant slipped up the hill at night and, from both sides of the pillbox, threw hand grenades into the pillbox and killed the enemy,' Ward said.
A few days after, however, his company was advancing up a hill and ran into a company-sized element of North Koreans.
"It was September 13, 1951, at 10 after nine in the morning," he said.
In the ensuing fighting, there were a lot of casualties, Ward said, and he was among them. He was taken to Osaka General Hospital in Japan.
"I was in the hospital for several months and they did several surgeries to remove the shrapnel," Ward said. "I stayed longer in the hospital in Japan than I did in Germany."
He recovered and returned home to Tiffin and resumed working as a police officer. He spent a total of 10 years on the police force, from 1946-1956.
"The police department gave me a leave of absence, so I didn't lose my seniority," Ward said. He left the police department in 1956 and went to work for a brokerage company, which took him away from Tiffin for some years, but he returned to the area.