96 Years Later, WWI Vet Gets Purple Heart for Mustard Gassing
Times Union | Aug 14, 2015 | by Dennis Yusko
An Army veteran who was gassed while fighting in France during World War I, returned to Albany and died from his wounds, will receive a Purple Heart and other war medals at a ceremony on Friday.
Owen J. Soraghan Sr. immigrated to Albany from Ireland and enlisted New York Army National Guard as a 16-year-old on June 9, 1917. The private first class fought in battles Belgium and France, including the Hindenburg Line in France starting on Sept. 29, 1918. He was wounded in battle by mustard gas on Oct. 5, 1918, a month and six days before the end of the four-year war, according to military records.
"It ate away at his lungs and completely destroyed him," Owen Soraghan Jr., the late soldier's son, said in an interview Thursday from his Albany home.
At 12:30 p.m. Friday, the younger Soraghan will accept a Purple Heart and other awards on behalf of his father, who died at age 49 on Dec. 5, 1950.
John Mullen, a Disabled American Veterans service officer from Troy, researched military records and provided paperwork for Friday's ceremony to honor the World War I vet. U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, will also present Soraghan a World War I Victory Medal with Ypres-Lys and Somme Offensive Battle Clasps, and Belgium and France Service Clasps, and World War I Victory Button-Silver in the congressman's office at 61 Columbia St.
Owen Soraghan Sr. grew up on Southern Boulevard with four brothers and a sister and stayed in Albany most of his life. Europe descended into war on July 28, 1914, and the U.S. eventually entered the conflict against Germany and on the side of the United Kingdom and France. About 17 million combatants and civilians were killed in the wear, which was marked by brutal trench warfare and battlefield stalemates.
Soraghan served with Company B of the Army's 105th Infantry Regiment. A victim of chemical warfare, he was hospitalized in France andEngland. He returned to the U.S. on March 6, 1919, and was honorably discharged on April 1. Soraghan helped found the Louis W. Oppenheim VFW Post 1019, and worked as superintendent for Albany's Public Works Department before his lungs deteriorated.
"He didn't speak a whole lot about the military, but he was very active in veterans affairs," said Owen Soraghan Jr., who lost his father a week before his tenth birthday. "Bud," as he is known, served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War. Now 74, he and his wife, Rosemary, Mullen andCharles Burkes, former director of the Albany County Veterans Service Bureau, are expected to attend Friday's medal ceremony with Tonko.
"Actually, I'm looking forward to it, I really am," Bud Soraghan said. "I didn't know as much about my dad as I would have liked when he passed away."
http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/08/14/96-years-later-wwi-vet-gets-purple-heart-for-mustard-gassing.html
