LABADIE, Mo. - William Shemin defied German machine-gun fire to sprint across a World War I battlefield and pull wounded comrades to safety. And he did so at least three times.
Then, with the platoon's senior soldiers wounded or killed, the 19-year-old American led his unit to safety, even after a bullet pierced his helmet and lodged behind an ear.
Yet Shemin never earned the nation's highest military citation, the Medal of Honor - a result, possibly, of the fact that he was Jewish at a time when discrimination ran rampant in the military.
Now, nearly four decades after his death, Shemin may finally get that medal, thanks to the tireless efforts of his daughter, whose long quest to see her father decorated also opens the door for other overlooked Jewish veterans of the Great War.
"A wrong has been made right here," said Shemin's daughter, 82-year-old Elsie Shemin-Roth of Labadie, Mo.
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Last month, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act, including the William Shemin Jewish World War I Veterans Act. It provides for a Pentagon review of Jewish soldiers and sailors who may have been overlooked for the Medal of Honor.
Shemin's daughter was the driving force behind the measure, an effort that began a decade ago when she read news accounts of a similar law reviewing Jews possibly denied recognition in World War II. She was horrified there was no provision for World War I veterans.
So she began gathering records of her father's heroism. She enlisted the help of her congressman and both U.S. senators from Missouri.
Retired Army Col. Erwin Burtnick of Baltimore, who is active in the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A., helped get the bill passed.
"I believe, based upon the criteria of World War I, the level of heroism exhibited by Sgt. Shemin will rise to the Medal of Honor," Burtnick said. Shemin died in 1973.
