Leslie Sabo
Leslie Halasz Sabo ( Hungarian : László Halász Szabó ; born February 22, 1948 in Kufstein , Austria , † May 10, 1970 in Se San , Cambodia ) was a soldier in the United States Army during the Vietnam War . Was used Sergeant Sabo in the 506th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division . He fell on May 10, 1970 in Cambodia in the Battle of Se San. Although he was proposed for the Medal of Honor award only a few months after his death , the official award did not take place until 42 years later, as the necessary documents over decades were undetectable.
biography
Childhood and youth
Leslie Halasz Sabo, Jr. was born on February 22, 1948, the third son of Elisabeth and Leslie Sabo in Kufstein. The Sabo family was a middle-class family whose youngest son was killed in an Allied Air Force bombardment at the age of one during World War II . The middle son Georg was born in 1944. With the occupation of Hungary by the Soviet Union after the end of the Second World War, the family lost their property and decided in 1950, because a communist regime was now being installed in Hungary, to emigrate to the United States .
The family's father, who previously worked as a lawyer, attended night school to become an engineer. The family settled in Youngstown , Ohio upon arrival and later moved to Ellwood City , Pennsylvania . The father raised the two sons in a patriotic sense. Sabo graduated from Lincoln High School in 1966 and then attended Youngstown State University . However, he broke off his training at the university and worked in a steel mill. His friends and family described him as a loving, easy-going and always in a good mood boy with a preference for billiards and bowling .
Military career
Sabo was recruited into the US Army in April 1969 and moved to Fort Benning , Georgia for basic training . While on vacation, he married Rose Sabo-Brown, the daughter of a World War II veteran who had been awarded a Silver Star . Leslie and Rose met in 1967 and honeymooned in New York City after completing paratrooper training in September and October 1969 . Then Sabo was subordinated to the Bravo Company of the 3rd Battalion of the 506th Paratrooper Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division.
In January 1970 his unit was relocated to Vietnam . The unit was repeatedly involved in minor skirmishes with the North Vietnamese during the first few months of its deployment .
On May 5, 1970, Sabo's unit was attached to the 4th Infantry Division and took part in a secret mission in Cambodia. The group was transferred across the border by helicopter as part of this operation and was far from other allied units. The purpose of this mission was, with the aid of heavy air support, to prevent the vital transport of supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail for the Viet Cong . During the first five days of the operation there was heavy fighting with the numerically superior North Vietnamese troops.
Medal of Honor
On May 10, 1970, Sabo's Platoon was part of a commando company that took them to Se San, Cambodia, along with two other Bravo Company platoons. The aim of the company was to attack units of the regular Vietnamese People's Army , which were using the area around Se San as a rallying point for a planned offensive. On the way to the scene of action, the unit was ambushed by around 150 enemy soldiers. This argument was later described in the book Forgotten Honor by Eric Poole, a reporter for Elwood City Ledger, and known in the United States as the " Mother's Day Ambush ."
Sabo, who marched at the end of his unit, was able to repel attempts by the Vietnamese to encircle his unit and overrun it. In the course of the clashes, a North Vietnamese soldier threw a grenade near a wounded US soldier. Sabo ran out of cover and threw himself over his wounded comrade before the grenade exploded. Despite being wounded, Sabo then counterattacked and attacked an enemy trench with a hand grenade, which resulted in the deaths of two North Vietnamese soldiers. After this close combat, the Americans ran out of ammunition and Sabo again exposed himself to enemy fire to organize ammunition from previously killed soldiers for the rest of his unit.
Sabo began by distributing the ammunition he had previously collected from wounded and killed comrades to the rest of the unit. As night fell, the North Vietnamese focused their efforts on fighting the American MedEvac helicopters, which later evacuated more than two dozen wounded US soldiers from the combat area. As a result of the North Vietnamese firepower focusing on the helicopters, the Bravo Company platoon managed to break the North Vietnamese pincers and join two other platoons who were also in distress. This could relieve them.
When the first helicopter landed and came under fire from the North Vietnamese, Sabo again left his cover and offered fire protection to the personnel until his ammunition ran out while two wounded comrades were evacuated . He suffered several serious wounds from enemy fire while attempting to reload his M-60 . Already badly wounded, Sabo crawled forward towards the North Vietnamese positions, pulled the safety pin from a grenade and threw it at the last possible moment on an enemy bunker. The resulting explosion destroyed the bunker, but also killed Leslie Sabo herself.
A total of seven other members of his platoon were killed and another 28 wounded in these fighting. The North Vietnamese troops lost 49 soldiers.
Subsequent recognition
Although Sabo was promoted to the rank of sergeant posthumously , the circumstances leading to his death remained unresolved for many years. The military officially reported that Sabo was killed by a sniper while he was guarding an ammunition bunker in southern Vietnam.
Shortly after Sabo fell, his company commander proposed him to be honored with the Medal of Honor , but unfortunately all records of his deeds and the request of his superior were lost. It wasn't until 1999 that Alton Mabb, a veteran of the 101st Airborne Division and a columnist for the Union's magazine, discovered Sabo's files while searching for documents in the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. Mabb published an article about Sabo's heroic deed in his magazine and wrote to US Congressman Corrine Brown requesting that he forward his recommendation for a posthumous medal ceremony. Brown supported Mabb's cause, and in 2006 the Secretary of the Army , Francis J. Harvey , recommended that Congress award Sabo the Medal of Honor. However, there were some delays as the final text of the honor was controversial in Congress. The Sabos family then decided to personally contact US Congressman Jason Altmire , who should support the award at the Department of Defense again. In March 2010, Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh recommended that Sabo be awarded a Medal of Honor . On April 16, 2012, it was announced that the family would receive the medal from President Barack Obama during a ceremony in the White House, 42 years after Sabo died.
Memorials
Sergeant Sabo is honored at a memorial for the B Company in Marietta , Ohio , home of its former commanding officer. Sabo's name also appears on the Memorial Wall of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Panel 10W - Line 15.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Timesonline article: [1] Author: Eric Poole, Accessed: June 24, 2012
- ↑ Pittsburgh Post Gazette article: [2] Author: Eric Poole, Retrieved April 7, 2012
- ↑ Article of the US Army [3] Author: Jaqueline M. Mills , Accessed: May 30, 2012
- ↑ Article of the Business Insider Archived Copy ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Author: Eloise Lee, New York , Retrieved May 30, 2012
- ↑ Homepage of the US Army: [4] Author: Elizabeth M. Collins, Accessed: June 24, 2012
- ↑ TheWallUSA: [5] Accessed: June 24, 2012
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sabo, Leslie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sabo, Leslie Halasz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American soldier |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 22, 1948 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kufstein , Austria |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 1970 |
| Place of death | Se San , Cambodia |