By Brian Albrecht
Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer World War II veteran Michael Demich, 89, receives medals to honor his military service today at the St. Joseph Community Center in Lorain. Back in September, a robber broke into his home and took his Purple Heart medal.
LORAIN, Ohio -- It isn't often that a burglary becomes a cause for celebration.
Yet that transition was evident today when U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown and Congresswoman Betty Sutton presented Michael Demich, 89, of Lorain, with medals Demich earned during World War II, including an engraved Purple Heart to join one stolen from his house in September but later returned.
The story started long before the presentation ceremony at the St. Joseph Community Center/Lorain VA Clinic.
It began 66 years ago when a young Army infantry private -- who had landed with his unit in France, not long after the D-Day invasion -- approached a hedgerow, and it suddenly blew up in his face.
Shrapnel ripped into his leg and arm and bored a hole in his helmet. "I got thrown 10 feet but I was lucky. The soldier next to me never made it," Demich recalled Tuesday, prior to the presentation.
"I got dazed for a while," he said, describing the immediate impact of what he believes was an artillery barrage. "It's like getting hit in the head with a hammer."
Demich spent three months recovering from his wounds at a hospital in England, where he was presented with a Purple Heart.
The same medal, his wedding band and late wife's jewelry, were stolen Sept. 24 by a thief who broke through a bedroom screen window while Demich, who is hard of hearing, was watching TV in another part of his house.
The Purple Heart was later returned by a man who said he'd bought it but wanted to return it after reading about Demich's loss in the newspaper.
The story went nationwide, and offers of sympathy or replacement medals from fellow vets poured in.
"We had to change his phone number, he got so many calls," said his daughter, Linda Harrell of Lorain, who attended the presentation with her sister, Cheryl Litz, and brother, Ray Demich, also of Lorain. Another son, Greg Demich, of Amherst, was unable to attend.
"He's really a shy person, but all of a sudden he's a celebrity, and he loves it," Harrell added.
But at the presentation, the man of the moment and retired steelworker sat in a wheelchair, hands clasped in his lap, slowly shaking his head at all the fuss. "Oh boy, it's overwhelming," he said.
Demich got another Purple Heart -- this one inscribed on the back: "For military merit, Michael Demich" -- and a round of applause from assembled VA patients and staff.
But wait, there's more, gathered by Brown's office after determining that Demich was eligible for a number of other service awards but had not received them. Demich also received the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign, Good Conduct, American Campaign and World War II Victory medals, an Honorable Service lapel button and two badges (expert and sharpshooter) for marksmanship.
"That's about what I got for being there," Demich said, nodding.
The medals came with official praise.
From Sutton, who told Demich, "Thank you. You earned them. Thanks for all you've done to help make this country free and great."
And Brown, who noted that his father also served during World War II, and remarked, "It's an honor to get to do this." He also told Demich, "Thank you for your service. It is again a tribute to all our heroes from World War II who kept this country free."
And from Susan Fuehrer, director of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, who wished Demich the very best and added, "I'm very happy you were reunited with your medals. If there is anything we can do, let us know."
As cameras fired in a fusillade, evoking images of the long-ago barrage that originally brought the old veteran to this point, his children hung his medals on Demich as if decorating a holiday tree. "And you thought Christmas was over," his son quipped.
Demich silently cradled the Purple Heart in two hands, staring down at it, perhaps remembering all the GIs who didn't come back from those battlefields in France.
Finally, he looked up and simply said, "What can I say? Thank you, everyone."
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