Vern Medaugh at his mailbox.

Vern Medaugh is 87 years old, but you wouldn’t believe it. He looks 20 years younger, but Medaugh, is a World War II veteran who saw action overseas and won a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. Since his wife, Arby died, he has lived alone in his Lehigh home with paintings on the wall by his brother and photographs of when he was in the military.

He has a framed shadow box on the wall with several medals. He’s proud of the Purple Heart, but remembers the injuries he received overseas when he was shot. He’s also proud of the Bronze Star that he earned at the end of the war for helping to save his comrades who had been injured.

But just the other day, he went to the mailbox and inside was a small, neatly wrapped package in brown paper. Knowing he hadn’t ordered anything by mail, he said he was curious as to what might be inside.

When he returned to the house, he opened it up and there was a blue box and inside, there was brightly colored brand new Bronze Star.

“It’s been 65 years and I have no idea why I am getting another Bronze Star,” Medaugh, a kindly gentleman who said he lost several good friends during the war.

“There was no letter, no note, nothing, just another Bronze Star with my name and my address on the envelope,” Medaugh laughed.

It is bright in color next the one he was presented at the end of the war in the 1940s. That one, showcased in the shadow box frame has faded somewhat.

“But I have no idea why I am getting another Bronze Star,” Medaugh said. He says it could be from action in Italy and if so, it took 60 years to catch up with him.

“Remember those days during the war is more difficult now. A lot of what happened is fading in my memory, but I remember helping to save two men who had been downed by enemy German gunfire,” he said.

“From what I was told, that was the reason for the first Bronze Star,” he said.

But there could be something else going on, too, he added.

“Back in World War II, the records of my serving in combat were destroyed in a fire and for a while, nobody knew where I belonged,” he laughed.

When he left the military, they weren’t even sure how to find the papers to give him his official discharge, so he was given a card, the size of a credit card, with his name on it and a message saying it was an honorable discharge for Medaugh.

Knowing the problems that could come about over the years, Medaugh said he has kept it in his wallets all during the ensuing years. With the card, he has been able to get medical help from the Veterans Administration. Without it, he is not sure the VA would give him a second look, he said.

But for the first Bronze Star, he said he had observed an entire German Division preparing to retreat and had reported it to his Headquarters with information enough that the artillery could destroy it.

He said at the time, his commander told him he was to get a Medal of Honor, a Silver Star, but it never came through.

“Maybe this is what was supposed to be the Silver Star,” he said.

Medaugh and his wife always visited Southwest Florida from their home in Ohio. So in 1985, they came to Lehigh Acres to retire and build a comfortable home, the one that he still occupies.

Because of the mix-up in papers, he ended up in the Air Corp, but had enlisted in the Regular Army.

He said he really ended up with the term assigned to him as “Task Unassigned.”

“I think that meant they didn’t know what to do with me,” he said.

He believes he got out of the military in August of 1945 and got the Bronze Star upon his discharge. “I’ve called the VA Hospital in Fort Wayne, Ind., to see if they know why I got another Bronze Star,” Medaugh said, “but I haven’t heard back from them yet.” Military records are stored at that military installation, he said.

“Maybe it was supposed to be the Silver Star and it got all mixed up what with no records to go by anymore,” he said.

But he is proud of the Bronze Star he received after leaving the military. A large framed certificate accompanies the award and reads that it was being presented to Pfc. Vernon Medaugh for meritorious achievement in ground operations against the enemy and is dated Jan. 4, 1949.

The return address of the brown package that came through regular mail was from TACOM, IL SC, CHJSID in Philadelphia, Pa.

“And I don’t have any idea who they are either,” he said.

While his memory is fading, he did say he had been injured both in France and Germany and maybe Italy.

“We were just trying to help save lives of other soldiers who had been shot. Apparently during one of those rescues, Medaugh himself was shot and received shrapnel wounds.

“Lots of times when new men joined my unit, we didn’t want to know their names because we would be afraid we would lose another friend. It was a terrible war,” he remembered.

What’s he going to do with the new Bronze Star?

“I’m going to keep it,” he laughed.