Big Chuck Visits “The Heroes of Otsego County” (VIDEOS)

I posted this article last Memorial Day weekend, 2013.  I think it is worth another look.

I thought it would be good to go and visit some real heroes from a long time ago.  We will always salute all of our men and women in the military, for all they have done and continue to do.

But this year I thought it would be interesting to visit four men who really performed above and beyond the call of duty.  They are the four Otsego County soldiers who were awarded our nation's highest military :  The Medal of Honor.

And although this veteran never won a medal I just have to share his story with you.

Finally...let me introduce you to GEORGE MUKAI.  Of Japanese-American descent, George and his family were caught up in the hysteria that followed Pearl Harbor and like so many other Japanese-American families the Mukais were sent to the desert just outside of Salt Lake City, Utah to spend the duration of the war in an internment camp.

Eventually young George and his male friends volunteered to serve in the U.S. military mostly "to show Americans that we loved our country too and we wanted to fight for our freedoms."

George joined one of the Nisei Units, made up exclusively of Japanese-American young men.  They provided intelligence reports, administration duties and served valiantly in combat.  In fact the 442nd Regimental Combat Team became the most awarded infantry regiment in U.S. Military history.  It was dubbed the "Purple Heart battalion" for the record number of Purple Hearts awarded...nearly 9,000!

See their story here, and then meet one of these brave men who is now LIVING IN ONEONTA!

GEORGE MUKAI joined the military unit right out of his internment camp.  I met George recently.  He is a resident of the Hampshire House nursing home on Oneonta's Southside.

I asked George how old he was.  "I don't really know," he answered with a slight smile.  "Maybe 92.  Or 93," he whispered.  I asked him what he remembered of the internment camp where he and his family were placed.  "It was hot and dry.  And a hard place.  I remember one night I was walking home in the dark and I fell into a deep culvert or hole," he said.  "I kept screaming help me, help me.  I had hurt my arms and couldn't pull myself out.  I was frightened to death."  Eventually somebody came along and saved him and George made his mind up to get out of the camp.

"I joined the Army because I wanted to show my country that I was just as American as anybody else," he said proudly.  George's mind is fading with age now but I was honored to spend a short time with this hero.  Because of his wartime efforts, George and a small group of his Army buddies traveled to Washington, D.C. on November 2, 2011 to personally receive the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian honor an American can be given.

GEORGE MUKAI...we salute you for your service!