Sitka Tlingit leader once denied medal for WWII service dead at 84

Longtime Sitka resident Roy Daniel Bailey, who served on the school board and historical society board and was involved in many community cultural events, died last week at age 84. KCAW's obituary tells of how Bailey, a Tlingit, was denied a Purple Heart for his World War II Army service in the Battle of the Bulge. The reason: An Army psychiatrist didn't believe that a teenage "Eskimo" could be the sole survivor of an attack in which all of his white comrades were killed.

The Army concluded his injuries were accidental or self-inflicted, and when he was discharged, there was no acknowledgment that he had ever seen combat, and he was denied the Purple Heart he'd earned.

"I would never say he was bitter because he was not that kind of person, but he was hurt," said his widow, Doris Bailey. "And so many years had passed that he had become resigned to the whole thing and he just simply didn't talk about it, ever."

That changed in 1999, when people within the Sitka Tribe of Alaska petitioned the Defense Department to right its wrong. At a ceremony at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Bailey was presented five awards from then-Secretary of Defense William Cohen, including the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star.

"And the healing just was amazing," Doris Bailey said. "He got active in the American Legion and he went to Veterans Day activities and Flag Day activities."