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First Posted: 5/10/2010
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — A western Pennsylvania soldier who died trying to save his buddies from an ambush during the Vietnam War four decades ago is again being recommended for the nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor.
Leslie Sabo, 22, of Ellwood City, died in Cambodia on May 10, 1970 during an ambush that killed seven of his comrades in the 101st Airborne Division.
Sabo was recommended posthumously for the award but never received it, and the issue was forgotten until 1999, when a writer for the division association magazine came across Sabo’s records at the National Archives. Now, the Army has again recommended that the medal be awarded to him.
“This brave soldier clearly distinguished himself through his courageous actions,” Army Secretary John McHugh wrote in a March letter to Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa. “The Army and our nation are forever grateful for his heroic service.”
President will now decide whether to sign the nomination, and the White House will not comment on the issue. But Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary Sabo Brown, says she has no doubt about the outcome.
“Two soldiers came to my house 40 years ago to tell me my husband was killed,” she said. “And now two soldiers are going to come to my house again and tell me that he has received the Medal of Honor.”
Of the 2.1 million men who served in Vietnam, only 246 have been awarded the Medal of Honor, 154 of them posthumously.
Sabo Brown said she would welcome the honor not only for her late husband but for the other unit members.