Iowa veterans honored more than 60 years after war

CEDAR RAPIDS - Bill Salow left the military in the 1940s without receiving the six medals he earned in World War II.

On Saturday, more than 60 years after he left the battlefield, Salow finally received those medals from U.S. Sen Tom Harkin, D-Iowa.

Harkin also presented belated medals to Lillian Mahoney, whose husband fought in World War II.

'When it comes to medals, the army has a slogan - better late than never,' Harkin said Saturday at the VFW Post 778 in Cedar Rapids.

Salow was just a few months out of high school when he was drafted in 1943.

'I had butterflies in my stomach. I didn't know where I was going,' Salow remembered of a training mission in New Guinea.

He served in three major battles in the Pacific Theater of the war and rose to the rank of staff sergeant, which earned him six medals. He had contacted Harkin's office about his accolades being lost in the shuffle.

Salow's story isn't unique.

Harkin said a fire at a government building in the 1970s destroyed thousands of pages of military records, making it difficult to look up which honors soldiers had received.

Harkin's office got involved in the early 1990s when a constituent inquired about missing medals.

It took a Harkin staffer three years to track down the records. Harkin, a member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, pushed the Pentagon to implement a smoother process for tracking down medals.

Since then, Harkin said his office has helped 'countless' veterans get their medals.

'They're people that just, a lot of times, were swept up, went off to war, endured a lot of hardships and they deserve to be recognized,' Harkin said Saturday. 'They're so humble - that's the thing - they're just so humble.'