Minnesota man awarded Purple Heart for WWII service

GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. (USTCNS) --- Fifty-five years after enduring shrapnel wounds to his leg during a World War II bombing run, a U.S. Army Air Corps staff sergeant was awarded the Purple Heart here Nov. 21.

Gen. Charles T. "Tony" Robertson, Jr., Air Mobility Command commander, pinned the Purple Heart and five other Air Force medals on Alfred J. Agostino, Duluth, Minn., during a ceremony at the officers club.

"I've never been so honored in all my life," Agostino said. "Just knowing I was getting the Purple Heart was enough, but five more medals on top of that made it even more special."

Agostino was clearly flattered with Robertson performing the pinning on of the medals.

"It's not every day someone can have a four-star general present him with the Purple Heart," Agostino said. "It was unbelievable."

"You need to know and understand that I have a soft spot in my heart for America's heroes," Robertson said. "Especially those from World War II, Korea and Vietnam, many of whom the world or their country doesn't even know because they have long since got on with their lives and probably don't even consider themselves heroes.

"If you look around at what our country has today compared to what any other country in the world has, it's a tribute to what those people have done. I think we should all be very grateful and eager to shake their hands and thank them for what they did. I think the wing did a magnificent job doing that ceremony for him."

Until recently, Agostino did not even realize he was eligible for the medal.

"I went to Minneapolis for an exam, and my veterans administration service officer told me I should apply for the Purple Heart," Agostino said. "I asked him how I could get the Purple Heart when I have been out of the military for 55 years.

"I didn't think I could get it after all these years."

Agostino was very grateful to accept his medals, regardless.

"I'm very honored to get (the Purple Heart)," Agostino said. "It's a real prestigious decoration. I think anyone who is eligible for it should go out and get it.

"This whole thing is completely overwhelming."

In 1944, Agostino was assigned as a flight engineer on a B-17 bomber, and in January 1945 he was sent to the 97th Bombardment Group, 341st Bomb Squadron, Foggia, Italy, during World War II.

Agostino's third mission was to bomb an oil refinery in Ruhland, Germany, just 60 miles outside of Berlin, on March 22, 1945. Agostino's nine-man crew made two unsuccessful runs and was shot down by enemy fire during the third. Four members of the crew died from the blast, and the five survivors parachuted into hostile territory among shouting German civilians.

Agostino and his crewmembers were quickly surrounded by an angry mob wielding clubs, pitchforks and axes. Agostino was certain he and his crew would not survive. Luckily, a German man shielded Agostino from the crowd, surely saving Agostino and the crew's lives.

Agostino was turned over to German soldiers and spent the next few days being shuttled between solitary holding rooms to aircrew interrogation cells. Following a week in Nuremburg, Germany, Agostino was loaded into a train boxcar headed for a prisoner of war camp in Mossburg, Germany.

Agostino remained at the camp until Gen. George Patton's Third Army liberated him on April 29, 1945.

He continued to serve his country until Nov. 9, 1945.

Agostino harbors no regrets.

"I would do it all over again," Agostino said. "I served my country proudly, and so did my boys." (FROM THE LEADER - GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE).