MT. PLEASANT, Sanpete County — James Frank Ruesch Jr., who always went by "Frank," finally got what he deserved Tuesday.
At a ceremony in the Mt. Pleasant City Council chambers, Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, presented seven medals, including the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, posthumously to Ruesch. The Army paratrooper, who was killed in World War II, would have been 87.
His brother, Bert, 85, who wears Frank Jr.'s silver jump wings on his VFW cap, accepted the medals. They also included a Good Conduct Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Combat Infantryman Badge and Honorable Service Lapel Pin.
"From my point of view, this is a
great honor," Cannon told about 20 of Ruesch's relatives, leaders of Mt. Pleasant VFW Post 9276, and community and business leaders.
"I just don't have any idea why they (the Army) were so slow in doing anything," Bert Ruesch said.
Another brother, David Ruesch, 70, of Riverton, said, "It's great that he's finally honored with what he deserved."
Frank Ruesch Jr. grew up in a close-knit family of 10 in a two-story brick and adobe house in Mt. Pleasant. His father, Frank Eugene Ruesch, was the Mt. Pleasant city electrical superintendent. Both Frank Jr. and Bert Ruesch enlisted in the Utah National Guard in their teens. Both were called to active duty in 1941, and for a time, both were in the same unit. Then Frank Jr. was transferred to the 11th Airborne Division and sent to the South Pacific while Bert was assigned to the infantry and sent to Germany.
David Ruesch, who was 4 when his brothers went to war, said there is a family story about Frank Jr.'s death in the Philippines.
One morning, David Ruesch said, his father came downstairs and told his mother, Mary Alberta Ruesch, "You better put another plate on the table. Frank came in last night, and I told him to go upstairs to bed." The date was Sept. 30, 1944, the day Frank Jr. died. He was 25.
The next day, David, a sister, and his mother were in the J.C. Penney, once the biggest store on Mt. Pleasant's Main Street, when a Western Union employee walked in, handed Mary Alberta a telegram and said starkly, "Your boy's dead."
"Mother just went to pieces," David Ruesch said.
Four years later, on Sept. 26, Frank Jr.'s remains were returned to the family. But no medals.
Arlene Johansen of Midvale, a niece who attended the ceremony Tuesday, remembers the casket sitting in the
Ruesch family living room.
"I remember the way the room was, the picture on the casket, and the flowers," she said.
Later, Frank Jr. was buried in the Mt. Pleasant City Cemetery.
Recently, Paul Larsen, an officer in VFW Post 9276, heard the Ruesch family's story and contacted Cannon. After that, the request for the medals "went right through" in less than a year, Bert Ruesch said.
E-mail: suzanne@sanpetemessenger.com