This article appeared in the April 27, 2005 Bastrop Daily Enterprise, Bastrop, Louisiana, about a Morehouse Parish man who finally received his military medals he earned during WWII.
WWII VETERAN AWARDED MEDALS 60 YEARS LATER
B.L. Fortune Finally Receives WWII Military Medals
by Barbara Sharik
Sixty years after he earned them in World War II, Bradford "B.L." Fortune finally received his military service medals.
For many years, the only tangible item Fortune had as a reminder of the time he spent in combat in World War II was a book titled, 'The Devils In Baggy Pants." The book is the historical combat record of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment from April 1943 through July 1945. Fortune was a member of this regiment.
He'd enlisted at the young age of "almost 17" and found himself jumping out of airplanes behind enemy lines not long afterward. He was dropped into one country after the other, as the 82nd Airborne, 504th Regiment, passed through England, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and Holland.
These dog soldiers dropped from the sky, then traveled dusty roads with blistered feet, common among infantrymen - the foot soldiers of the Army.
"They'd take us in by airplane but once behind the enemy lines, we had no trucks. We were the infantry," Fortune said. "We marched wherever we had to go."
As an added note, Fortune said his father, Edgar Fortune, who was a radio operator in the Navy, and his brother Charles with the "Big Red One" Infantry, were all overseas fighting at the same time. "I also met and got to know Ernie Pyle," he said. (Pyle was a famous war
correspondent.)
The war ended for Fortune when he took what was to be his last parachute jump. "The silk came out of my chute and I had to use my emergency chute," he said. He hit the ground hard, breaking his ankle and hurting his upper back and shoulder.
At the military hospital Fortune said he was administered morphine for the pain. "They told me they wouldn't put a cast on my ankle until the next day. They said they were going to pack it in ice for the night to keep the swelling down," he said. "After the shot of morphine, I was pretty well out of it for awhile. Then when I woke up, I discovered they'd packed the wrong ankle."
Before this debilitating injury occurred, Fortune saved several fellow soldiers' lives. One, he physically carried on his back over five miles to safety after a particularly bad skirmish at an outpost. He was told he would receive a Bronze Star for this act. "I was also told I was being put in for a Silver Star, but before that could be done, both my commander and Sergeant were killed," Fortune said.
For years Fortune didn't worry about the medals that should have already been awarded to him. "Things just happened so fast. I didn't much think about it," he said.
Originally from Texas, Fortune came to Bastrop, Louisiana in 1953, and made it his home. After 36 years he retired from the International Paper Mill. Gladys, his wife of 59 years passed away two years ago, and around that time, Fortune decided to see if he could find out whatever had happened to those medals he should have received so many years ago.
He spent a frustrating several years writing letters and making phone calls. Everything seemed hopeless when Fortune found out his military records had been destroyed in a fire in 1973. Someone suggested he might contact his Congressman Rep. Rodney Alexander for help.
And help he did.
"Once I contacted Alexander, it didn't take long at all to finally get my medals," Fortune said. And so it is, 60 years later, Fortune finally received the military medals he'd earned so many years earlier: The Bronze Star medal, Good Conduct medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign medal and triple Bronze Star attachment, World War II Victory medal, Army of Occupation medal and German clasp, Belgian Fourragere and an Honorable Service lapel pin.