Why was George E. Wahlen awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor?
From standard.net: “Saturday, June 6, 2009 Utah loses ‘quiet hero,’ Medal of Honor recipient George Wahlen By Charles Trentelman Standard-Examiner staff ctrentelman@standard.net George E. Wahlen, who survived multiple wounds at the battle of Iwo Jima and received the Medal of Honor for his heroism, died Friday morning. He was 84. Blake Wahlen said his father died at 9:20 a.m. of lung cancer. Wahlen died at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salt Lake City, a facility named for him because of his work on behalf of veterans. A special act of Congress allowed the facility to be named for him because fed- eral buildings normally cannot be named for living people. Terry Schow, director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, said Wahlen had been ill for some time. He was getting treatment at the medical center until recently, when he chose to g
SALT LAKE CITY — George E. Wahlen, Utah’s only living recipient of the Medal of Honor, died Friday morning at the George E. Wahlen Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, a facility named for him because of his life dedicated to working for veterans and veterans issues. Wahlen was 84. Terry Schow, director of the Utah Department of Veterans Affairs, said Wahlen had been ill for some time and was moved to the hospice in the Veterans Hospital Wednesday. “I visited with him several times in the past weeks,” Schow said. “Apparently there wasn’t any suffering.” Wahlen, who lived in Roy, enlisted in the U.S. Navy during World War II and became a medical corpsman. He won the Medal of Honor, America’s highest military honor, in 1945 for his service during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The Medal of Honor citation says in part that Wahlen, “Wounded on Feb. 26, he stayed with his comrades, advancing well forward of the front lines to aid a wounded Marine and carrying him back to safety despite
