HONORING
OUR VETERANS
Historic Medals of Honor restored to Place of Honor
05/28/04
It
was May 2003 when a Congressional Medal of Honor was put on ebay.com to be auctioned
by a man who styled himself "Redlancer."
"Hey,
isn't it illegal to sell a Medal of Honor?" our undercover agent asked.
"Oh,
no problem," said Redlancer, "I'm outside the United States," indicating
that to his mind U.S. laws in this area were a foolish product of people "emotionally
tangled up" with sentiment.
Tell
that to U.S. Army First Sergeant George Washington Roosevelt, who received
an extremely rare dual citation Congressional Medal of Honor in 1862 for heroic
acts performed during the 2nd Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Gettysburg.
Tell
that to U.S. Navy Seaman Robert Blume who was awarded his Congressional
Medal of Honor in 1898 while serving aboard the USS Nashville near Cuba
during the Spanish-American war.
Needless
to say, the "emotionally tangled up" investigators of our Buffalo Cyber
Task Force pulled out all the stops. And they were enthusiastically assisted by
"emotionally tangled up" investigators in Redlancer's native Canada.
In the end, some 15 agencies proudly offered their services. With the outstanding
cooperation of ebay.com, these Medals of Honor were recovered unharmed and Edward
"Redlancer" Fedora of Mississauga, Ontario, was arrested in July. He
pled guilty and this year was sentenced to prison.
A
proud ceremony to restore the Medals. We only wish 1st Sgt. Roosevelt
and Navy Seaman Blume could have been there.
Yesterday,
on May 27, the FBI was deeply honored to host 27 Medal of Honor winners who served
in World War II, all in town for this weekend's unveiling of the World War II
Memorial. Imagine that amount of heroism and courage in one room. These 27 heroes
and their families graciously took part in our American Legion Post 56 Memorial
Day wreathlaying ceremony, and they presided as Director Mueller/Deputy Director
Gebhardt presented a total of three precious Medals to Gary Littrell, President
of the Medal of Honor Society: 1st Sgt. Roosevelt's Medal from the Civil War,
Navy Seaman Blume's Medal from the Spanish-American War, and an unidentified Medal
presented to a Navy Seaman for his heroic actions in World War II that had been
recovered this past March by our Newark agents from an unwitting seller on ebay.com.
Still
"emotionally tangled up," we'd like to close by saluting the men and
women of our Armed Forces this Memorial Day weekend, and thanking the veterans
of all U.S. military actions for their service to the country.
Links:
Event press release
| Case press release |
Cybersweep
