Belatedly, a Salt Lake Valley man has received the Bronze Star for valor in combat during the final months of World War II.
Lloyd E. McCleary was a sergeant with the 42nd "Rainbow" Division during the Allies' drive through northern France and into Germany in the winter of 1944-45. McCleary's 222nd Infantry Regiment suffered heavy losses.
"I lost my squad. Every man was killed," McCleary said Thursday before Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, presented him with the Bronze Star and a Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the 222nd Regiment.
In a January 1945 action, McCleary led his squad in setting up an ambush that thwarted a German night attack.
A month later, after his squad was wiped out, his platoon leader was killed near Dijon and McCleary found himself facing a battlefield promotion to lieutenant.
"I resisted that," he said. "If you're a platoon leader, you're just about dead. In combat, a platoon leader has to lead the men up there. I wanted to be a platoon sergeant and bring up the rear."
Nevertheless, he accepted the promotion. In a desperate action near Haguenau in France's Alsace region, his regiment was ordered to hold a frozen river at all costs.
"The Germans attacked all night and all the next day," and by the next sundown there were 800 German bodies on the ice, he said. His own regiment lost 450 officers and men.
The Rainbow Division crossed the Rhine and advanced into Germany, liberating Dachau concentration camp on April 29, 1945, shortly before the war ended.