Copperopolis Resident WWII USMC Melvin Ogg receives Purple Heart

On December 18, 2011 at a special ceremony in Copperopolis, 89 year old USMC Melvin Ogg received his Purple Heart for wounds received on the island of Bouganville in 1943. Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz, multiple veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, family and friends were in attendance.

Retired WWII USMC Colonel West, who served in the same theater as Ogg, was given the honor of pinning the Purple Heart on Ogg.

Ogg, with wounds barely healed, returned to the field and continued to serve in the USMC on Guam and the Soloman Islands until September 1945.

Medals for Mel by, John Howsden

Sixty eight years ago Mel Og was a Twentyone year old Marine standing in the middle of the jungle on Bougainville with an axe in his hand getting ready to chop down a tree. Unbeknownst to Mel, a few miles away in another part of the jungle, a Japanese’s artillery crew was firing an artillery shell with Mel’s name on it.  The shell landed on the other side of the tree. Mel is living proof to the saying, “you never hear the one that gets you.” Although the tree he was about to chop down landed on top of him, it also saved him from being shredded by shrapnel. Instead he was knocked unconscious and suffered an injury to his collar bone.

He woke up in the First Aid station wrapped in a blanket with a fellow Marine sitting across from him shaking his head and saying, “I thought you were dead man, you weren’t even breathing when they brought you in.” Mel took a swallow of the rum the medic had given him to ease the pain and said, “Well I’m obviously not dead.” Mel healed and rejoined his outfit, but for some unknown reason he never received his Purple Heart. 

Hugs, Donuts and Gunfire ~ By, John Howsden

According to Mel Ogg, his trip back to the World War II Memorial in Washington D.C. last month was, “well worth the time and wait. I am grateful to Honor Flight and all the volunteers that put it on.”  When asked what his trip was like, his eyes lit up and he blurted out, “I got a lot of hugs from the USO ladies serving us coffee and donuts at the airport.”

A warm welcome from the USO ladies was just the beginning. The Virgin Atlantic airline pilot got on the public address system, and for all the passengers to hear, welcomed the thirty-one veterans aboard. Five hours later, when they touched down at Dulles airport and taxied to the terminal, fire fighters mounted on fire trucks showered the airplane in water from their hoses.

From the airport the veterans were loaded onto a shuttle headed for the hotel, wheels chairs first followed by the “walking wounded,” as Mel refers to the ones getting around under their own power. Once at the hotel they paired up with another vet and were assigned rooms. Shortly after getting their rooms, they met downstairs for a buffet dinner. It was during the dinner that a microphone was passed around so everyone could introduce themselves. Mel dreads public speaking, so it was only fitting that he was handed the mike first. He summed up his introduction by describing himself as, “one of the old marines lucky enough to make it back.” They hit the sack early after dinner as they had a full day planned for tomorrow.

Mel Ogg at the Veteran Community Picnic 9-25-11