SANTA ANA, Calif. -- A World War II hero whose Medal of Honor and accompanying citation signed by President Truman were found dumped in a trash can has been located in Arkansas, ending a decade-long search.
Jim Wronski, owner of a janitorial service, found the medal along with a Bronze Star for heroism 10 years ago in a trashbin outside an Army recruiting office and along with his wife, Linda, began a seach for the man listed in fading ink at the bottom of the citation -- Pfc. Clarence B. Craft.
The search, however, was a futile one until the couple contacted a local newspaper this week and asked for help.
A half-dozen telephone calls later, an Orange County Register reporter found Clarence Craft, now 63, weeding his tomato garden in Fayetteville, Ark.
Craft said he had no idea how his medals and presidential citation ended up in the trash at a now-defunct Army recruiting office in Fullerton. But the hero was touched that the Wronskis had cared for them all these years.
The Wronksis said they never considered giving up the search or discarding the yellowing papers they kept in plastic envelopes for safekeeping.
'Every once in a while, I'd pull them out and just read them. They are incredible,' Linda Wronski said.
'I could never throw them away. If they were mine, or my father's, I'd want to have them. And we'd try some more (to find Craft).'
The Wronskis ran up substantial telephone bills calling 'Craft' entries in telephone books and checking with Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Orange County and Washington, D.C.
The lucky break came when a friend recently told the Wronskis that Anaheim's mayor mentioned during Memorial Day services that Craft was one of three Orange County men who had been awarded Medals of Honor over the years.
Out came the documents again. But this time, the Wronskis called the newspaper for help.
When located, Craft told reporters that he left the medals with a local VFW post for safekeeping when he left California for Arkansas in the mid-1950s. When he returned to retrieve them, they were gone.
'I couldn't get them back. I had no idea what happened to them,' Craft said. 'I'd really like to get them back.'
The citation from Truman, which a military historian said was not a run-of-the-mill presidential citation, told of Craft's solo attack on the enemy that freed several U.S. battalions thathad been held at bay for several days in Okinawa.
The 1945 citation read in part: 'Against odds that appeared suicidal, Private Craft launched a remarkable one-man attack. He stood up in full view of the enemy and began shooting with deadly marksmanship whenever he saw a hositle movement ... unhesitatingly facing alone the strength that had previously beaten back attacks in battalion strength.'
