Baseball and the Bronze Star

BCauley · #1 09-20-2011, 09:06 PM

I guess this would belong in this side of the forum since the Bronze Star medal was established in 1944.

I'm strongly considering putting together a little set in my PC that present baseball players who earned the Bronze Star in their military service. I had found a small list a few months back of players who did earn the medal but cannot find it now. Does anybody here have ANY idea where I could go for this information?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

Volod · #2 09-23-2011, 10:12 PM

Pretty sure that Warren Spahn got one for his service in the Battle of the Bulge. There weren't that many MLB players that got that close to really heavy action. Might be a tough list to research.

BCauley · #3 09-24-2011, 08:43 AM

Yeah, I think it might take a little bit but shouldn't be too tough. I was able to find lists of players that at least served during the wars so I could just search on each one. It will take awhile but should be fun as well as introduce me to players I knew nothing about!

Volod · #4 09-24-2011, 07:42 PM

Great! I'm sure others would like to see the list, as well, so maybe you could post it here when you get it done. How about Purple Hearts or DFC's?

BCauley · #5 09-24-2011, 08:37 PM

I will most definitely post when I am done.

As of right now, just going to focus on the Bronze Star as there is a personal element to this little quest of mine in the first place. And no, I'm not related to any baseball players who got the Bronze Star.

BCauley · #6 09-24-2011, 09:31 PM

Well, the Vietnam War was easy enough at the outset anyway. Only six players served and two received the Bronze Star. Those two were Al Bumbry and Roy Gleason. The list for WW2 vets is quite extensive and the Korean War vets is not a short list either. I've already read up on a few guys that I've never heard of before and this is going to be pretty interesting! I'll be curious to see if any of them served in the unit I was recently a part of.

Writehooks · #7 09-24-2011, 11:12 PM

Good project, Bill.
Hank Bauer and Gil Hodges will no doubt be at the top or your list. Bauer was a Marine platoon sergeant who was wounded on Guam and Okinawa prior to being awarded the Bronze Star for heroism. Hodges served in the South Pacific for 18 months and got his Bronze Star just before returning home to play for the Dodgers.

Volod · #8 09-26-2011, 09:20 PM

Sounds like it could be a book in the planning stages.

BCauley · #9 09-29-2011, 08:18 PM

Thanks for the heads up Murr.

Unfortunately, I haven't started yet. HOWEVER, I did shoot an email to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Giamatti Research Library a little over a week ago and they came through tremendously! I have the list of all ball players who served in the military and it's all broken down in an excel spreadsheet. I really can't believe all of the information in this spreadsheet.

If any of you are interested in this, PM me your email address and I can email it to you.

jerseygary · #10 09-30-2011, 03:49 PM

Ralph Houk was a major and Army Ranger during WWII and earned the Bronze Starand the Silver Star for fighting in Bastogne.