War pal fought for 60 years to get Medal of Honor

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War pal fought for 60 years to get Medal of Honor

War pal fought for 60 years to get Medal of Honor for Leonard Kravitz and other overlooked veterans

After decades of writing letters to the Pentagon, and with the help of a Florida congressman, Mitchel Libman finally got his wish. President Obama awarded the Medal of Honor on Tuesday to Leonard Kravitz and 23 other veterans from three wars who had been overlooked because of institutional bias.

* Mitchel Libman, 83, holds a photo of his childhood Brooklyn friend, Leonard Kravitz, who was killed in the Korean War in 1951. Kravitz was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, but Libman believed his pal deserved the Medal of Honor, the Army's highest award.*

WASHINGTON — For kids in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the 1930s and ’40s, Rae’s candy store at Franklin Ave. and President St. was the center of the universe.

It was where Mitchel Libman and his pal Leonard Kravitz hung out while growing up — and where they would keep up with neighborhood news by reading notes posted in the front window.

After high school, the two friends entered the Army as the Korean War raged. Libman survived his military service, but Kravitz was less fortunate. He died on the battlefield at the age of 20.

Back home in Crown Heights, Libman learned from a note posted at Rae’s that Kravitz had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

It was the Army’s second-highest honor, but the news would bother Libman — setting him off on a lifelong mission.

“When somebody gets the Distinguished Service Cross, they’re very proud of it. It’s the second-highest award. You don’t usually argue about it,” Libman, 83, said last week. “But I knew better. I knew what he deserved.”

Kravitz was an assistant machine gunner attached to Company L in Yangpyong, Korea, on March 6, 1951, when Chinese troops “launched a fanatical banzai charge,” according to the Army's citation for his medal.

I knew better. I knew what he deserved.

Kravitz voluntarily remained to provide protective fire so his entire unit could safely retreat. “Get the hell out of here,” he told his comrades, his niece Laurie Wenger would later relate.

His platoon retook the position the next day and found it strewn with Chinese dead. Kravitz’s lifeless body lay beside his weapon.

“It was just something that had a tremendous effect on me. Here’s a guy who saved so many people, and he’s not getting the honor he deserves,” Libman recalled.

Although he says he had “never been a go-getter,” Libman began a campaign that would span seven decades. He came to realize that Kravitz was not alone — the Army had slighted other Jews in issuing awards for valor.

His mission culminated Tuesday at the White House, where President Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Kravitz and 23 other soldiers — most of them minorities who probably were denied the medal previously because of institutional bias. Among those in the audience: Grammy-winning singer Lenny Kravitz, one of Leonard Kravitz’s nephews.

“Needless to say, Mitch has been very patient,” said his wife of 57 years, Marilyn Libman. “But it’s finally happening.”

* Laurie Wenger, Kravitz's niece, stands next to President Obama as she receives the Medal of Honor on behalf of Kravitz during a ceremony at the White House on Tuesday.*

For decades, Mitchel Libman had conducted a fruitless letter-writing campaign targeting the bureaucracy of the Army and the Defense Department.

“Mitch kept writing to the Army and kept getting letters back that the Distinguished Service award was the right award,” Marilyn Libman, who moved to Florida with her husband in the 1970s, said.

The couple was undeterred — and emboldened by the discovery that through World War II, Korea and Vietnam, the Army awarded Jews 138 Distinguished Service Crosses but just two Medals of Honor, a ratio Mitchel Libman called “ridiculous.”

Their break came in the late 1990s, when they took up the issue with their congressman at the time, Florida Democrat Robert Wexler.

“We needed a place to get started other than just writing letters to the Pentagon on your own, because you can’t get to the right people,” Marilyn Libman said.

Wexler drafted the Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act of 2001, aimed at mandating a Pentagon review of valor awards bestowed on American Jews.

* Libman and his wife Marilyn spent decades writing to the Pentagon to get the Medal of Honor awarded to Kravitz. They discovered many other Jews from three wars had been overlooked for the honor.*

The bill became law three years later, amended to require the review of Hispanic troops’ nominations as well.

After 10 years and an exhaustive investigation, the Pentagon concluded that 18 Jewish and Hispanic servicemen, plus six other soldiers who were not members of those minorities but had also been overlooked, deserved long-overdue Medals of Honor.

Obama called both Mitchel Libman and Wenger, of Chester, Orange County, to deliver the news. And as he did at the White House on Tuesday, Obama credited the Libmans with delivering the honors.

The day after the White House ceremony, Kravitz and the others awarded Medals of Honor were inducted into the Defense Department’s Hall of Heroes in a gathering at the Pentagon.

Like his commander in chief, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, an Army vet, singled out Mitchel Libman in the audience.

“He never gave up. And though it took a long time, too long, he was able to see the record set straight, not only for his friend but for 23 other soldiers,” Hagel said.

“Mitch, on behalf of everyone in this auditorium and in this country, thank you.”