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There's a chance. There's also a problem. The U.S. Army has acknowledged that Corporal Patrick Sheahan, winner of the Silver and Bronze stars in the Korean War, might be eligible for the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In a letter to John Leahy, who has been leading the campaign for the highest military honor for fellow Kerryman Sheahan, the assistant chief of the army's Awards and Decorations Branch, Lt. Colonel Michael A. Ries, stated that Sheahan being awarded posthumous U.S. citizenship amounted to "new, substantive evidence," that would permit the Silver Star being submitted "for a one-time reconsideration," such a reconsideration being elevation to the Medal of Honor.
But added Ries in the letter: "However, this office still requires a copy of his (Sheahan's) original award recommendation packet before we can forward this request to the Board."
The letter advises Leahy that a copy "may be located" at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland.
But as the Echo previously reported, the National Archives, which stores vast amounts of records on military personnel, has apparently lost track of Sheahan. In a response to a recent letter from Leahy, the archives office said it could find no record of Sheahan in the casualty lists linked to the Irishman's final battle.
"We have examined casualty lists for Cpl. Sheahan's unit, the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division, but were unable to locate any listing for him," the NA response to Leahy stated.
The archives office also said that it had examined command reports from the 7th Infantry Regiment for October 1951. "We did not locate a mention of Sheahan," the letter stated, while acknowledging that such records rarely cite individual names.
Meanwhile, Medal of Honor hero, Navy SEAL Michael P. Murphy, will be remembered on Saturday, June 23 with a memorial run on Long Island.
According to organizers, the Murphy family is attending along with crew from the USS Michael Murphy, a destroyer that will be formally commissioned later this year. Details at www.runaroundthelake.com.
