David Rubitsky David Rubitsky , ( January 29 , 1917 – June 28 , 2013 ) was an American veteran of World War II who claims he was denied the Medal of Honor because he is Jewish . In 1987 , the United States Army began a 23 - month investigation and concluded that there was " incontestable evidence " that he had not done what he had claimed . World War II . Rubitsky fought in the New Guinea campaign as a communications sergeant in Company E , Second Battalion , 128th Regiment , 32nd Infantry Division . According to Rubitsky , on December 1 – 2 , 1942 during the Battle of Buna , he singlehandedly defended a bunker with a " . 30 - cal . machine gun , a . 45 - cal . pistol , a rifle and grenades . " Allegedly , he beat off the Japanese after a 21 hour battle in which he killed 500 to 600 of the enemy , including wounded men he later shot or bayonet ed . Afterward , his company commander , Captain Joseph M . Stehling , surveyed the site and recommended Rubitsky for the Medal of Honor . Stehling ' s superior , battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Herbert A . Smith , passed the recommendation along to Colonel John W . Mott , the division ' s chief of staff who was temporarily in command of three regiments , including Rubitsky ' s unit . According to Smith , Mott stated , " You mean a Jew for the Congressional Medal of Honor ? " , laughed , and walked away . By the reckoning of the Jewish War Veterans of America , only two were awarded to Jews during World War II . Rubitsky did not receive a lesser award either . After the war , Rubitsky joined the merchant marine . More than 30 years later , he settled down in Milton , Wisconsin . Investigation . During a 1986 reunion of the 128th Regiment , Rubitsky ' s former commanders discovered he had not been awarded the Medal of Honor . The Anti - Defamation League , Stehling ( by then a retired brigadier general ) , Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl , Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin , Senator Paul Simon of Illinois , and others eventually took up his cause . At the request of Representative Les Aspin , chairman of the House Armed Services Committee , the Army launched an investigation . Retired Major General Herbert Smith provided a statement of his recollections , supporting Rubitsky . Rubitsky also obtained an old photograph taken from the body of a Japanese officer during the war ; the inscription in Japanese on the back purports to have been written by a Colonel Yamamoto , who supposedly planned to commit suicide for his part in an attack in which " 600 fine Japanese soldiers died because of a solitary American soldier . " While United States Secret Service counterfeiting experts could find no reason to believe it was a fake , military investigators concluded from the " handwriting and choice of words " that the message had not been written by a Japanese . The investigators also found it difficult to believe that a single soldier , with the arms at hand , could have inflicted casualties on such a scale ; the largest officially accepted number of soldiers killed by a single American is 75 by Marine Douglas T . Jacobson on Iwo Jima on February 26 , 1945 . In December 1989 , the Army announced it would not recommend that the award be made because there was " insufficient evidence to substantiate either that the event reported by Mr . Rubitsky occurred or that the Medal of Honor was recommended on his behalf within the stipulated period . " Lieutenant Colonel Terence Adkins , head of the military awards branch , reported that American and Japanese records " all agree that the Japanese were in defense and that no major attack took place . Japanese records showed , he said , that fewer than 500 soldiers were effective at the time because their ranks had been depleted by malaria and dysentery . " Most of Rubitsky ' s supporters accepted the decision . However , Joseph Stehling responded by stating , " The Army can say what it wants , but let me say this : The stench of those decaying bodies that day in the jungle stayed with me for years . " The government of Papua New Guinea commissioned a " noted historian " , who concluded that Rubitsky was telling the truth . As a result , he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II . Death . Rubitsky died on June 28 , 2013 , at the age of 96 in East Moline , Illinois .