World War II Veteran Presented Bronze Star 75 Years After It Was Awarded

On July 27, a World War II veteran was presented with a Bronze Star medal for "meritorious achievement in active ground combat," 75 years after he had unknowingly earned it.

During the war, Ubaldo Joseph Ciniero, 95, was first stationed in France and took part in combat operations, reports Grizzly, the California National Guard's magazine. His division later traveled to the Netherlands, crossed the Rhine River and advanced to the Harz Mountains.

The U.S. Army's Center of Military History and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum later recognized his division as a liberating unit for the liberation of Halberstadt-Zwieberge, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp, says the magazine.

According to his son, Joel, Ciniero was unaware that he'd been awarded the medal. It was only after Joel decided to research his father that they discovered the recognition.

"My dad never spoke much about the war," Joel says in the footage, "so I was interested in his division and what he did, and I found his name on an 8th Armored Infantry Division website, and I noticed that he had been awarded the Bronze Star."

Joel couldn't believe that he was the one to tell Cinierio about his achievement.

"You know what's odd, in my whole life, he's just my dad. And today I realized my dad's a hero," Joel said before the ceremony according to Grizzly. "It was like wow! I got to tell you, I get a little bit emotional about it."

Ciniero was presented the medal at his home in California by Brig. Gen. Michael Leeney, deputy commander of the 40th Infantry Division.

"I am here today to right a wrong," said Leeney via Grizzly. "This is a presentation of the Bronze Star Medal, which is one of the highest awards the Army has for valor in combat."

U.S. Veteran Medals states that the Bronze Star Medal is awarded to anyone who, while serving in any capacity in or with the U.S. military after December 6, 1941: "distinguished himself or herself by heroic or meritorious achievement or service, not involving participation in aerial flight, while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States; while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force; or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict against an opposing armed force in which the United States is not a belligerent party."