Labadie, Mo. -- It was bravery of the highest order: William
Shemin defied German machine gun fire to sprint across a World
War I battlefield and pull wounded comrades to safety. And he
did so no fewer than three times. Then, with the platoon's
senior soldiers wounded or killed, the 19-year-old -- who later
attended and played football at Syracuse University -- took over
command of his unit and led it to safety, even after a bullet
pierced his helmet and lodged behind his ear. Yet Shemin never
earned the nation's highest military citation, the Medal of
Honor -- a result, many suspected, of the fact that he was
Jewish at a time when discrimination ran rampant throughout the
U.S. military. Now, nearly four decades after his death, Shemin
might finally get that medal, thanks to the tireless efforts of
his daughter, whose long quest to see her father decorated also
opens the door for other overlooked Jewish veterans of the Great
War. "A wrong has been made right here," said Shemin's daughter,
Elsie Shemin-Roth, 8