He remembers sitting on grandpa’s knee as a little boy, learning of the man’s exploits in Australia and New Guinea at the height of World War II. And then later hearing about the retired Army veteran’s early days when he stood guard at the funeral of World War I’s Unknown Soldier in 1921.
“Of course,” Jon Tribell, 40, said of his grandfather Friday, “back then, I had no idea what a hero he really was.”
Family members from Arkansas, Texas and as far as Estonia gathered at the state Capitol on Friday for a medal ceremony honoring the late George W. Tribell, a first sergeant and engineer in the United States Army whodied in 1982.
Gov. Mike Beebe gave remarks at the 10 a.m. presentation, which saw Tribell’s surviving children honored with five medals he earned for nearly 23 years of service in the military.
United States Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Gray on Friday presented the Bronze Star, Good Conduct Medal, American Defense Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal and World War II Victory Medal to George’s daughter June Tribell-Parkington, 82, and son Ronald Mac-Tribell, 71. The veteran’s memory was preserved with a replica campaign hat that was hanging above photos of him and his unit.
The Bronze Star is the U.S. military’s fifth-highest combat decoration and honors acts of heroism in combat areas. It consists of a one-and-a-half inch-diameter star-shaped medal, with a smaller star superimposed in the center.
Todd Tribell, 45, made the journey from Tallinn, Estonia, to attend the ceremony honoring his grandfather, whose battalion laid airstrips in 130-degree heat and hauled supplies through washed-out mud roads in malaria-infested jungles. It was a long journey from Eastern Europe, Tribell said, but Friday was a once-ina-life-time opportunity.
“We’re very proud of what he did,” he said. “It’s not every day that something like this happens.”
Tribell, an international businessman who is originally from Little Rock, said he appreciated the governor spending time with his family Friday. Beebe’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he found out how far the man and his family had traveled.
“Do they have a direct flight from Little Rock toEstonia?” Beebe asked in his speech, prompting laughs.
“That’s the reason I asked ‘Estonia, Europe?’ - to make sure there wasn’t an Estonia, Texas, or something,” the governor said in an interview later. “He came a long, long way.”
In his speech, Jon Tribell presented a biography of his late grandfather, from his days farming and mining coal in the South to when he enlisted as a 16-year-old in the aftermath of World War I. He gave a detailed account ofGeorge Tribell’s experiences at war before concluding with a message of his own.
“We will never know what 1st Sgt. George Tribell endured in the Southwest Pacific area,” he said. “His each plodding, treacherous step throughout the war protected that which we have and hold dear at home.”
Jon Tribell recalled the turmoil his grandfather experienced in New Guinea, where the Japanese had attempted to establish a stronghold during the early 1940s. There, the 43rd Engineer General Service Regiment encountered constant bombing. Then, on March 11, 1943, several members of the regiment were killed and many more wounded in an assault. Still, the unit managed during the campaign to create the largest concentration of airstrips in the area: 14 in total.
The governor applauded the Tribell family for organizing the ceremony and doing their research.
“They did their homework and they did the pushing, and as a result of that they were able to at least posthumously recognize their patriarch, whose service as a first sergeant in the Pacific Theater during World War II caused him to be able to deserve those kinds of awards and medals,” Beebe said in an interview after the event.
“It’s too bad he didn’t get them during his lifetime.”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 07/06/2013