Postal facility ceremony to pay tribute to Cape soldier

When congressmen, U.S. Postal officials and surviving family members gather at the Cape Girardeau Postal Processing and Distribution Plant on Oct. 27, foremost in their words and on their minds will be the life and acts of Army Pfc. Richard Wilson, as they rededicate the building in his honor.

Ironically, it was Wilson's ability to put the lives and needs of others before his own that brought this to be.

Wilson was killed on Oct. 21, 1950, in Korea, while administering aid to his wounded comrades under enemy fire. He was 19. For his valor, Wilson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the first Army medical serviceman during the Korean War, and the first and only Cape Girardeau resident to receive the award. Now the Richard G. Wilson Processing and Distribution Facility at 475 Kell Farm Drive will stand to commemorate his sacrifice.

Wilson was last seen alive by Sgt. James Hardin, who reported that Wilson ignored the pleas of other soldiers and abandoned cover to attend to a wounded man amid a shower of enemy bullets. Hardin returned to the area two days later and found Wilson's dead body beside that of the soldier he'd tried to help. A morphine syrette was still clutched in Wilson's hand.

The campaign to get Wilson's name on the facility was championed by former Cape Girardeau postal worker and retired Navy man Tony Carroll. About a year ago, he began circulating a petition to rename the building after Wilson, a man whose deeds he felt were in danger of being forgotten.

"I saw that there was this local military hero and nothing in his home town named after him," Carroll said. "I felt it was important to let everybody in the community and future generations to be aware of the sacrifice he made for his country."

Carroll collected more than 800 signatures on the petition, including 121 Missouri legislators. Those names led U.S. Sens. Jim Talent and Kit Bond and Rep. Jo Ann Emerson to sponsor acts in their respective houses to designate the facility. Those acts became law on June 25.

Bond and Emerson are slated to speak at the dedication, along with district manager Ormer Rogers Jr. of the U.S. Postal Service Mid-America District. Karen Dunaway, inquiry clerk for the U.S. Postal Service said that Talent's office will be represented as well.

Also expected to be in attendance are two of Wilson's sisters, Shirley Link and Jo Anne Duncan, and two brothers, Norris and Ron Wilson. Ron Wilson is the only remaining sibling living in Cape Girardeau. He said that a number of military buildings around the country have already been named for his brother. Ron Wilson said despite these overwhelming tributes to his brother, the postal facility is special because it's in Cape Girardeau.

"He played football at Cape Central," Ron Wilson said of his brother. "Cape was very much home to him."

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137

Want to go? ~ n What: Dedication of the Richard G. Wilson Processing and Distribution Plant

• When: Oct. 27, 2004, 9:30 a.m.
• Where: 475 Kell Farm Drive, Cape Girardeau

Info: Ceremony is open to the public.