Local Medal of Honor Recipient
Honored at Reunion
Russell Dunham
WWII Hero and MOH recipient

World War II Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Russell Dunham of Jerseyville
and recently returned home from Boston where he was honored at the annual CMH
reunion. Dunham, 86, is the only surviving World War II Congressional Medal of Honor
recipient in Illinois or Missouri and one of only 111 in the entire country.
Kim Martin of Seattle, Dunham’s granddaughter, accompanied him on the trip and said it
was a special journey.

“This was the best trip that I have ever been on,” the 37-year-old Martin said. “It was
great to be able to go with my grandfather.”  

Out of the 111 CMH recipients still living, only 68 of them were able to attend the event.
“We lost 10 men since last year,” Dunham said. “And the year before that we lost 11.

Every year the turnout at the reunion gets less and less, but that’s just the way it is.”
While in Boston, the pair, along with the other honorees and their families, attended a
ceremony at the Massachusetts State House, took a cruise on the USS Constitution
where Dunham was presented with a CMH flag, and spent a day at Fenway Park. The trip
was capped off with a formal ceremonial dinner.

“It was an honor and we had a great time, but the best part for me was that I got to get
dressed up with my Papa for my birthday,” Martin said. “And I have to say that it was the
best birthday ever.”

Dunham, then a farm boy, joined the Army in 1940. In 1944, his unit, the Third Infantry
Division, ended up in the south of France. Five months later, Dunham’s unit was facing a
significant German force and they were directed to take a hill before their own artillery
was slated to strike.

“The snow was knee deep when we started up that big hill,” Dunham said. “It was on that
hill that I got hit by enemy fire across the back as I raised up to motion for my men to
keep coming forward after I had thrown a grenade into a foxhole and killed two of the
enemies and grabbed the third one as a prisoner.”

Dunham said that after he was hit, that’s when he got mad and jumped up and resumed
fighting. He advanced further ahead of his platoon through a storm of automatic and rifle
fire and single handedly destroyed two more enemy placements and drove the Germans
from their foxholes thereby leading a spectacular diversionary attack.

Dunham was credited with saving 123 men and was awarded the Congressional Medal of
Honor on Jan. 8, 1945.
Jersey County Journal
By Jill Thurston
Russell Dunham, the only surviving World War II Congressional Medal of
Honor recipient in Illinois and Missouri, and his granddaughter, Kim Martin
of Seattle, recently returned from Boston where they attended the annual
Congressional Medal of Honor reunion.

Bob French ~ Webmaster

email:  bobjchs@gmail.com