WHEREAS, he served as a B-17 Flying Fortress Tail Gunner with the 8th Army Air Corps stationed in England and flew five bombing missions; and on November 29, 1943, while on a bombing mission at 28,000 feet above Sandbostel, Germany, near Bremen, the tail section he was in was shot off the plane; and

WHEREAS, with severe gunshot wounds and a bullet riddled parachute, he rode the tail section down at the rate of 100 feet per second; and he survived the descent, but sustained a crushed skull when the tail section hit a tree trunk before crashing to the ground; and

WHEREAS, his life was saved by a Serbian doctor, also a POW, who surgically repaired his severe head wounds after which he was a Prisoner of War for almost eighteen months, being inhumanely incarcerated in POW camps in Germany, Prussia, and Poland, and surviving solitary confinement, relocation on a “Hell Ship” on the Baltic Sea, and a 600 mile forced march from early February to late April 1945 during one of the harshest winters on record; and

WHEREAS, he was liberated on April 26, 1945, at Bitterfelt, Germany; was discharged on December 1, 1945, holding the rank of Staff Sergeant and was awarded two Purple Hearts, the Air Medal with Gold Leaf Cluster, the European Theater Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal; and

WHEREAS, he is a Life Member of American Legion Post 220, Soldiers Grove, WI, serving as Post Commander ten times and also serving as Post Adjutant, Service Officer, Vice Commander, and Chaplain and as Chair of a host of Post service projects; he has served as Wisconsin American Legion 3rd District Vice Commander and Sergeant-at-Arms, attended all but four State American Legion Conventions since 1946, and attended two National American Legion Conventions; and he is a Life Member of the Disabled American Veterans and American Ex-POWs, and a 20-year member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars; and

WHEREAS, he has served for twelve years as a member of the Crawford County Board of Supervisors, 20 years as Chief of the Soldiers Grove Volunteer Fire Department, 22 years as a charter member of the Soldiers Grove Rescue Squad, 30 years as a Fire Warden, many years as a member of the Saint Philips Parish Council, and has promoted countywide Americanism, Veterans Day Programs and supported Girl Scout and Boy Scout endeavors; and

WHEREAS, with his late wife, Margaret, he raised nine children to become responsible, productive, and patriotic citizens

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Peter J. Moran, Chair of the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs, proclaim EUGENGE P. MORAN as the first recipient of the Wisconsin Board of Veterans Affairs Veteran Lifetime Achievement Award on this 18th day of October 2007.

Peter J. Moran, Board Chair