A soldier whose story was worthy of the movies passed away on Saturday, leaving behind a legacy of bravery and service. Tibor Rubin, a Hungarian who survived the Holocaust to join the U.S. Army and fight in the Korean War, was 86 when he died of natural causes in his Garden Grove, California home, according to the Associated Press.
In 2005, President George W. Bush presented Rubin with a long-delayed Medal of Honor for his unbelievable actions in the fall of 1950.
"When Corporal Rubin's battalion found itself ambushed by thousands of Chinese troops," said President Bush at the White House ceremony, according to the New York Times, "the Americans' firepower soon dwindled to a single machine gun. The weapon was in an exposed position and three soldiers had already died manning it. That was when Corporal Rubin stepped forward. He fought until his ammunition was gone. He was badly wounded, captured and sent to a P.O.W. camp."
Rubin joined the Army to express his gratitude to the American troops who rescued him and so many others from imprisonment in a concentration camp. He was prevented from enlisting until his English met Army standards, so he worked hard until the service accepted him. Because Rubin was not a citizen, he was not required to fight, but that didn't stop him.
"My commander told me that I didn't have to go to war," he reportedly said. "So I told him: 'Well, what about the others? I cannot leave my fellow brothers.'"
More than once, an anti-Semitic sergeant ignored paperwork recommending Corporal Rubin for the Medal of Honor, even after he held off waves of North Korean soldiers – by himself – for an incredible 24 hour period.
The Leonard Kravtiz Jewish War Veterans Act and President Bush corrected that mistake, and now Rubin's bravery lives on forever.