101-Year-Old World War II Veteran Receives Medals on Memorial Day

Fred Baselice served in World War II as an Army medic in Europe. He sustained injuries aiding those on the battlefield and even spent 10 days in a battlefield hospital.

He didn’t receive the medals he earned in combat until Memorial Day 2018, more than 70 years after the war ended.

“I appreciate it but there are a lot of soldiers out there that should get their medals, too, and I’m grateful for what they did for me,” Baselice said, following the ceremony at Hamden High School’s Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

US Senator Chris Murphy’s office helped to arrange the medals for Baselice, a common duty of most US Senators’ offices. He said there are thousands more stories similar to Baselice’s all over Connecticut and around the country, and often it takes one conversation to start the process to procure the earned medals.

“These medals don’t matter to a lot of these veterans so it’s not until a grandchild brings up a question of, ‘where are your medals, grampa?’ that they start to ask questions themselves,” Murphy said.

Baselice was awarded three medals in all, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three Bronze Service Stars, a World War II Victory Medal, and an Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp.

Baselice said the medals are nice symbols of his service, but some of his most difficult memories of fallen comrades, will never fade, and in some cases, mean the most to him.

“I remember the ones that got killed before me, when we the bombings come in and you see them going up in the air and going into the ground like they dug their own grave.”

On Memorial Day as others honored him, Baselice never forgets about those who gave everything, and who could never receive their own medals in person.

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