Another Campaign for Matt Urban

The Polish American Congress, a federation of more than 3,000 Polish-American organizations and clubs, is collecting signatures on a petition to the U.S. Postal Service to recommend that Urban’s likeness be used on a commemorative postage stamp.

Urban—whose Polish surname was shortened from Urbanowicz—was a "one-of-a-kind World War II combat hero, disabled veteran, and patriot" who should be honored by the Postal Service for his remarkable valor, says Anthony Bajdek, the federation’s national vice president for American affairs.

A native of the Buffalo, N.Y., and longtime Michigan resident, Urban already has a community center in Buffalo, an American Legion Post in Monroe, Mich. (pop. 22,076), and a sports complex and street in Holland, Mich. (pop. 22,076), named after him.

Urban received the Medal of Honor in 1980, 35 years after Army Staff Sgt. Earl W. Evans, a member of his World War II battalion, recommended him for the award for his bravery in battle. The recommendation was lost in the mail and never reached the commanding general of the 9th Infantry Division. But when a Disabled American Veteran (DAV) official learned that Urban had been recommended for the medal and queried the Army about it in 1979, Urban was informed that a copy of the recommendation had turned up in his personnel file. A year and a half later, he received a phone call from the White House informing him of the award and relaying President Jimmy Carter’s congratulations.

A veteran of campaigns in North Africa, Sicily, France and Belgium, Urban flew with his wife, Jennie, and daughter, Jennifer, to Washington, D.C., within a week of receiving that call. On July 19, 1980, wearing his Army uniform emblazoned with a Purple Heart with six Oak Leaf Clusters—recognizing the seven times he was wounded in battle—the 61-year-old stood at attention as President Carter draped the ribbons of the nation’s highest military award around his neck.

At the time, few people knew much about Matt Urban, who settled in Michigan shortly after the war and became the director of the Monroe Community Center and later director of Holland’s civic center and recreation department.

"When you deal with veterans and guys who go through heavy combat, there’s parts of their lives you don’t know anything about, and they keep it that way," says Roger Jansen, a DAV officer in Holland, who recalls that his friend was a gentleman who loved coaching kids and organizing sports leagues.

The citation from Urban’s Medal of Honor tells part of the story, listing his numerous acts of bravery between June 14 and Sept. 3, 1944. After fighting an entrenched German army in northern France and being wounded four times, Urban was leading a charge toward enemy positions near Phillipeville, Belgium, on Sept. 3 when machine gun fire struck him in the neck, mutilating his larynx. Few of his men believed he would live.

But the man who had been nicknamed "The Ghost," because he kept returning to the frontlines after being shot, survived. During his yearlong treatment at hospitals in the United States, he trained his vocal cords to work again by reading the newspaper aloud. By the time the 26-year-old Urban received his medical discharge in February 1946, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and had recovered from most of his wounds, although he spoke with a raspy voice for the rest of his life.

Urban’s Medal of Honor sparked a debate: Which American soldier has the most medals? For years, Audie Murphy, a World War II hero from Texas, was believed to be the most highly decorated soldier. The Army, however, does not concur. "This command established a policy years ago that we don’t do ‘firsts,’ ‘lasts,’ ‘mosts,’ etc.," says Shari Lawrence, deputy public affairs officer at the U.S. Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va. "And, to be honest, it really doesn’t matter who was ‘first,’ ‘last’ or ‘most.’ Each soldier’s life, service and recognition are important to the soldier, the Army, the nation, and their family."

Jansen recalls that when Urban returned to his work as recreation director after the Medal of Honor ceremony, "he had all those medals" but "he didn’t talk about it. It was more about ‘What are you up to?’" He also notes that Urban was still "a grandpa" to the kids who played in Holland’s baseball leagues, and he seemed to want to share the honor rather that be singled out among all the men of his battalion to receive the award.

"He often thought that they all should have gotten one," Jansen says. "That’s the type of guy he was."

Visit www.pgf.cc/heritage/urban.htm to learn more about the Matt Urban commemorative postage stamp campaign.

Candace Floyd is an Assistant Editor at American Profile.

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